The Suicide Website Murderer
Hiroshi Maeue (前上 博 Maeue Hiroshi), born August 8, 1968, is a Japanese serial killer, who lured his victims via the internet. He had an atypical sexual fetishism which is that he cannot achieve sexual excitement unless he strangles people. He was called "Suicide Website Murderer". Crimes Maeue entered the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, where he asphyxiated his male friend. He dropped out in 1988. He was arrested for asphyxiating a male associate in 1995. He settled out of court and was released, but he was fired. He was arrested for asphyxiating two women in 2001. He was sentenced to one year in prison with 3 years suspended sentence. In April 2002, he asphyxiated a junior high school boy. He was arrested and was sentenced to 1 year and 10 months in prison. Suicide website murders Maeue murdered three people in 2005 after his release. He has been convicted of killing a 14-year-old boy, a 25-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man, all members of an online suicide club. He lured each person by offering to commit suicide with them. Maeue suggested that they both end their lives using a charcoal burner in a sealed car, only to suffocate them with his bare hands. He would later claim that he developed his desire to kill in this manner as a result of having read a mystery novel as a child. All three victims were killed within a span of four months. Trial and death In his trial, prosecutors called him a "lust murderer". On March 28, 2007, a district court in Osaka sentenced Maeue to die by hanging. His defenses made an appeal, but he insisted that he would pay for his crime with death, so he retracted his accusation on July 5, 2007. On July 28, 2009, Hiroshi Maeue was hanged in Osaka, along with 25-year-old condemned criminal Yukio Yamaji.