Japan police
By Rod Ohira
probe girl’s
death here
Star-BulletinPolice in Japan are investigating the case of a horribly abused 4-year-old girl from Nagoya who died while vacationing in Hawaii three years ago.
Doctors found Asuka Osawa had an untreated broken right leg that was several weeks old, scalding-type burns on her body and face, a fractured collarbone and injuries to her wrist consistent with being tied down.
She was taken to Kapiolani Hospital on Dec. 28, 1996, and died at 12:25 a.m., 17 minutes after arriving at the hospital.
The medical examiner's office attributed the death to child abuse and other injuries consistent with maltreatment; streptococcal septicemia, an infection from bacteria in the blood; and complications of trauma.
Honolulu police classified Asuka's death as a homicide.
A Nagoya man who was the girl's baby sitter was arrested for second-degree murder but released without charges.
The case was turned over to Nagoya authorities since the parties involved are citizens of Japan and the physical abuse started there, homicide Lt. Allen Napoleon said.
The Chunichi Shimbun ran a story last November, noting only that the baby sitter -- who was 23 years old at the time of the incident -- is under investigation for Asuka's "unnatural" death.
Napoleon confirmed police from Nagoya were in Hawaii recently and that the Honolulu Police Department is cooperating with their investigation.
The medical examiner's office released the girl's body to Hosoi Garden Mortuary. According to the mortuary's records, the child was cremated on Jan. 4, 1997, and her remains were placed in an urn, which was sent to Maui attorney Joy Yanagida.
The child, the baby sitter and her father, Yoshinori Sato, arrived in Honolulu on Christmas Day 1996, according to police.
Sato left town two days later, and the girl and baby sitter checked into an Olohana Street hotel in Waikiki, where a clerk questioned the man about the girl's injuries, police said.
The baby sitter reportedly called for an ambulance late that night when he allegedly returned to the room and found the girl unconscious.
