The US Marine Who Outraged Japan | The Case of Rina Shimabukuro

the actions of the us marine while stationed on the island of okinawa would infuriate japanese locals and foreigners alike and as this crime unfolded beneath their feet the island would once again question its current affairs with the military of the united states welcome back to coffee house crime my name is adrian and in today's video we're looking at the seldom known case arena shimmer buckarole in april of 2016 rina walked out the front door of her apartment never to be seen again but were the events which followed accidental or was something more sinister at play today's video investigates these questions but before diving into our case i wanted to thank skillshare for sponsoring today's video when i started this channel over 17 months ago i had no idea how to edit videos that's when i turned to skillshare to brush up on these skills and as you can probably imagine i've had no regrets you've very likely heard of skillshare before it's a community with thousands of creative classes 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case of rina shimabukuro [Music] you all know my affinity with japan by now and today we're once again traveling to nihon however this time we're heading over to the very southwest of the country to an area we have yet to visit welcome to the southern islands of okinawa now i've always said that japan as a country is extremely diverse when it comes to climate and perhaps not many of you know this but northern japan actually has the highest snowfall per year when compared to any other country today's video looks at the stark opposite of this as okinawa is japan's version of tropical paradise it's a popular destination for japanese natives looking to catch some sun waves and warmth and sandy beaches and laid-back atmosphere to the island is what makes okinawa special okinawa is classed as its own prefecture but has a relatively small population it's also a destination that has a heavy western influence from its beach culture to its local delicacies and strangely spam is a very common food to be found in okinawan cuisine even in sushi there's great reason for western influence in okinawa as 25 of the island is actually covered by military bases from the united states it's no secret that the local people of okinawa are uneasy with this arrangement as 60 of their small 460 square meter island is consumed by its military presence this has been a point of contention between the us and japan since world war ii but otherwise okinawa is a laid-back island with a vibrant culture and wonderful people and it's here on this island in urma city that we find twenty-year-old renashima bukro rina lived in a small two-bedroom apartment she was a hard-working employee in a corporate office which at her age was rather admirable for the most part she was independent and she was a very self-driven young woman she was admired in the workplace and by those around her for a positive yet sensible attitude towards life rina grew up as an only child mostly keeping to herself but liked by those around her for a polite personality she was also known to break out some impressive dancing and singing skills when around those she was most comfortable with while growing up rina always decided to have siblings to share her passions with and so as she became older one of rina's main ambitions was to have children telling her friends that she was aiming to have around six of them and this opportunity may have come sooner than expected as in 2015 reena began a relationship with a local okinawan man due to the nature of japanese media and identity protection we don't know the name of this man so for the sake of this story we will call him hinata what we do know about tanata is he was an attentive and respectful partner and he treated rina well we know this as rina's new boyfriend quickly gained her parents approval something which often makes or breaks a relationship in japan things were going so well between the two that eventually they moved in together getting an apartment in urimah city and settling into their everyday lives they slipped into a routine roone and nato would work on the weekdays to cherish their moments together on the weekends in the following months the couple described their relationship as happy and content and this routine would carry them for several months more until all of a sudden tragedy would blindside their peace in april of 2016. on a mild spring evening reina decided to head out for a walk it had been a long day sitting in the office and so she figured she would go out to stretch her legs at around 8pm that evening just before dusk she slipped into a red sneakers and a black parker before shutting the door behind her rina kept in regular contact with her boyfriend through the messaging app line which is the most popular way to talk by text in japan much akin to whatsapp in the west she messaged a boyfriend to say that she was going out for a walk and would be back later on in the evening which was nothing out of the ordinary taking her usual route along the edge of a canal she took in the evening's calming sights reflections in the water displaying illuminations of apartment buildings commercial stores restaurants and even a mega donkey oat on the other side of this canal was an industrial sector full of factories warehouses and shipping companies all of which were busily working their way into the night rina had walked here many times after work she felt safe here and rightfully so and this very night hinata was waiting back at home for her to return but as the hours passed by and the clock hit midnight the incessant feeling of worry began to haunt the young man's mind rina did like her own space so at 2am he sent her a single text message to say he was signing off for the night which after a few minutes was marked as red surely this meant she was okay maybe she'd bumped into a friend and wanted some time to catch up after all in japan it's very common for couples to keep their feelings to themselves and so hinata went to bed expecting to see or hear from reno in the morning maybe then they could catch up and talk about where she had been over the evening but as the morning arrived there was still no sign of rina anywhere she hadn't returned home or replied to his message despite this message being marked as read this didn't sit right with hinata and so on the morning of april the 29th he contacted local police to report his girlfriend rina shimabukuro as missing police were rather quick to arrive at the residence and while there they began their investigations asking rena's boyfriend as much information as they could in parallel to this rina's group of friends immediately took to social media asking around for their missing friend and soon enough speculation started to spread like wildfire around the tight-knit community as time clambered by multiple theories arose some believed it was a random abduction some believed the boyfriend had something to do with it while others speculated cult activity and as all this heresy plagued rena's disappearance the police released multiple images to the public in hopes that someone would come forward with the lead however as these first few days passed by without any notion or clue concern and dread began to fill the hearts and minds of rina's family friends and boyfriend during public campaigning police were still working hard behind the scenes eventually they discovered wharina's cell phone had last pinged in the moment she read her boyfriend's final text message for the night which just so happened to be in the early morning hours of 2am it turns out that a cellphone had pinged one final time while inside the industrial estate located next to the canal this was a critical piece of information for officers as now they could question those working around the site and start to scour the area for any clues or evidence it was through these efforts that they spotted something peculiar on a surveillance camera which happened to be owned by one of the industrial companies on the very same night rena disappeared a red suv seemed to be acting rather strangely and upon further investigation they discovered that the suv belonged to a u.s military serviceman stationed in okinawa and more specifically at the kadena air base the car was owned by a man named kenneth shinzato and he was a 32 year old us marine stationed on the island back at home kenneth was born and raised in new york by a single mother shirley gadson and although shirley did her best to raise him she was ultimately ill-equipped to care for the young boy kenneth was a problem child while growing up he was disruptive at school had regular temper tantrums and often fought against his mother in fact this behavior got so bad that churley ended up taking kenneth to therapy paperwork from the upper manhattan mental health center described surely as cognitively limited and declared that the two had a tangled and enmeshed relationship which made his treatment extremely difficult ultimately kenneth was put into foster care in 1997 at the young age of 11. and from here he went through a total of five foster families due to his behavior at the age of 18 kenneth moved into his own place near his mother's home until eventually he joined the marines he served in the marines for seven begrudging years before taking a back seat in 2014 by accepting support work for the marines in japan instead of moving back to the us and the reason for this was very understandable meeting and falling in love with a japanese woman the two eventually married and kenneth had even taken her last name to distance himself from his own mother the two would also have a newborn son in march of 2016 and although his wife had urged him to tell his mother this never actually occurred which brings us to may of 2016 only two months since the birth of his own son this was when kenneth's car was spotted on cameras around the same area and time where rina disappeared so why was he here did he have anything to do with it and what was the reasoning for his suspicious behavior kenneth immediately piqued their curiosity but when he came in for questioning on may the 16th he denied any involvement and he answered all questions to an acceptable standard however they did seize kenneth's car in an effort to conduct their own forensic analysis but the results for this would take several days to come back and so with that said kenneth was released from police custody as there was no evidence to suggest he was involved in reina's disappearance you'd expect that under normal circumstances he would return home to his family but that is not what kenneth had in mind instead he made his way to a local drugstore purchased an extortionist amount of sleeping pills and purchased a 2 litre bottle of whiskey and you can probably guess what his plans were the next morning kenneth attempted to take his own life but after ultimately failing he was admitted to his local hospital unfortunately it gets worse as the very next day after being released he was once again rushed to hospital after downing two more bottles of whiskey in one evening this behavior is reactionary to a situation whether it was from guilt or fear kenneth wanted out of whatever scenario he was slowly falling into and this was by any means necessary just one day after kenneth's second overdose on alcohol results from the tests conducted on his vehicle had finally come back dna found inside his car had been compared to dna found in rena's home and unfortunate for him the tests were conclusive a match was found this at least confirmed to investigators that runishimo bukuro had at some point been inside kenneth's vehicle and most likely on the very night she had disappeared this undeniable proof seemed to overburden him because as soon as interrogations began kenneth finally buckled he admitted his part in rena's disappearance and even worse he told officers where they could find her leading investigators to a small and sad wooded area in honor village officers came to a black suitcase like a meaningless object it had been thrown off the side of a road discarded into the woodland underbrush and inside lay the decaying body of a young woman being here for more than 20 days in the searing okinawan heat she was unrecognizable and partially skeletonized dna testing later confirmed her identity and tragically it was the body of renaissance the community at large were devastated as we can all imagine they had hoped to find rina alive and well but sadly these hopes were now crushed with the discovery of rina's body kenneth felt no reason to withhold information from authorities for any longer and instead he gave his version of the events which unfolded on the 28th of april 2016. it was on this evening when kenneth was driving around urma that he spotted a small five-foot frame walking alone in the dusky hours you see kenneth claims that he'd always fantasized about dark things even as early as childhood rather disgustingly he fantasized about forcing himself onto women murdering them and even taking his own life and to take things one step further he also fantasized about killing his mother and even causing mass tragedy in fact his reasoning for joining the military was out of the expectation that he could kill other people abducting and restraining women before carrying out his desires was a long-running fantasy of his and on the night that he saw rina the situation was perfect she was small alone in a quiet area and had the means of kidnap at his disposal almost as if it was planned or in kenneth's eyes fate kenneth pulled up on the nearby road and pursued the woman on foot before coming up behind her and striking her over the head with a metal rod kenneth grabbed her dragged her to a nearby area and then assaulted her but rina was not fully unconscious she began to resist kenneth fight back and even call for help this was when kenneth pulled his arm back and began to physically fight the defenseless woman and after pulling out his knife he stabbed him multiple times until eventually rina was no more kenneth retreated to his car pulled out a black suitcase loaded his victim inside the suitcase placed it into the back of his suv and drove off into the night and after driving twenty kilometers or twelve miles from a remote armor village he stopped on the side of a quiet road throwing the suitcase as far as he could into the underbrush this is where reena would stay for 22 long days acting as if nothing had happened kenneth then retreated back to his car and drove back home to his wife and newly born son in the following days kenneth was waiting for expectation for police to come knocking at his door but as the days and then weeks passed his confidence grew he resumed his normal life starting to believe that he may have gotten away with his crime however as we all know this was not the case and soon after he was to face the full force of the law rina's murder brought a lot of attention towards u.s military presence on the island and as the years go by there's a notably growing amount of crimes that have been committed by u.s personnel this contention began in 1995 when three us marines kidnapped and sexually assaulted a 12 year old girl and since then okinawa has debated hosting the us military the murder of arena shimabukuro wasn't only a fresh reminder to this notion it was a very strong one at that and kenneth's actions actually brought thousands of residents out to the streets in protest this is not how we want the country to be we are your friends your neighbors but we want base to be gone before court kenneth insisted he did not intend to kill rina and apparently his only aim was assault throughout his trial kenneth was reserved quiet and often staring into space both judge and jury did not buy his story and instead they determined that all of it was premeditated it was noted that kenneth had bought his own murder kit out with him late at night including a baton an empty suitcase and a knife and if his aim was only to assault then why were these items in his car his actions on this night did not reflect those of someone who did not have intention to kill while being charged with murder sexual assault and the legal disposal of a body kenneth would plead guilty to sexual assault resulting in death and abandoning a body but denied his charge of murder and with reena's parents calling for the death penalty kenneth had every reason to worry fortunate for him but this sentence would never come his way and instead judge toshihiro shabata would give him life in prison stating there was no room for leniency in such a violent and unnecessary crime nobody can deny that kenneth's actions at night were selfish and despicable and his evil actions cannot be defended perhaps his resentment towards women can be spurred from an internal hate towards his mother then again his wife never complained of any ill behavior towards her and neighbors always said that the couple were kind and happy so what made rena different from any other woman in his life and what led him to choose her on that lonely fateful night unfortunately we will never quite know rina was a young woman who had just entered a true adulthood she was planning her future her marriage and her family she was kind patient and loving towards those around her and especially towards her boyfriend who misses her daily rina was positive sensible polite and nurturing characteristics which you could argue are the total opposite to a killer and tragically her dreams were stripped away from her by a disturbed stranger she wasn't given a chance all by the actions of one individual thank you so much for tuning in to another video by coffeehouse crime if you found this case interesting or insightful then please remember to like the video and subscribe if you haven't yet we have one more case coming from japan in about a week's time as there are so many interesting cases to cover but what are your thoughts on me covering more japanese true crime please let me know in the comments section down below once again i wanted to thank skillshare for sponsoring today's video skillshare can be monumental in self-development so why not give it a try i'll leave a link in the video description down below i'll be back again next week with two brand new videos so as always i'll be seeing you again real soon but until that moment arrives look after each other goodbye

Channel: Coffeehouse Crime

Views: 1,617,468

Keywords: coffeehouse crime, true crime, Japan, Okinawa, American Marine, Army, US Marine, Military, Serviceman

Id: hrKwfe4W5vU

Length: 18min 38sec (1118 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 21 2022