0:00

Gameside

0:03

Media. This

0:06

episode deals with subject matter surrounding

0:08

an ongoing missing person's case.

0:11

It references sensitive topics such as

0:13

death, violence, and sexual assault.

0:15

Listener discussion is advised.

0:30

Japanese police and volunteers stepped

0:32

up their search for a thirty six year old

0:34

French woman who went missing two weeks

0:36

ago. Tiffany Varon has

0:38

not been seen. In the summer of two thousand

0:41

eighteen, a thirty six year old French

0:43

tourist was on vacation in Japan. She

0:46

had visited five years before and fell in

0:48

love with the country. She was

0:50

so excited for this vacation. She'd

0:52

been planning the trip for months. The

0:54

first item on her itinerary was Nico.

0:57

It's a popular tourist spot nestled

0:59

in the mountains a couple hours north of Tokyo

1:02

in Tokyo prefecture. She

1:04

got off the train, walked through the bustling

1:06

town square, and made her way along the river

1:08

to where she was staying. The turtle

1:11

in. On

1:14

the morning of July twenty ninth, she had

1:16

breakfast and coffee with some of the other lodgers

1:18

in the dining room of the hotel. She

1:21

packed a light bag, grabbed her phone,

1:23

put on her white city sneakers, and

1:25

it was raining so she threw on a raincoat.

1:28

Sometime after ten AM, she left

1:30

the in to take a walk, and

1:33

she was never seen again. Her

1:36

name is Tiffany Varon. Her

1:38

case was a sensation in Japan and around

1:40

the world. Her family rushed

1:43

to Japan from France in their search for Tiffany.

1:45

And what they found astounded them.

1:58

Pro formative searches, hordes of reporters,

2:01

wacky police theories, She

2:03

was supposed to be a normal woman,

2:05

happy, interested by Japan,

2:08

you know.

2:09

What happened? People want to know the and

2:11

what they don't understand is the the

2:13

way it's treated, not seriously. The

2:17

media began to shine a spotlight on Nico.

2:19

A supposedly safe tourist destination.

2:22

It's home to friendly locals, ancient

2:24

world heritage sites, hot springs,

2:27

but some people think there's more going on.

2:30

To be honest with you, I don't really

2:32

like Nico. I have in this city

2:34

very crappy.

2:35

Aging, very easy

2:37

to be, is isolated from everyone.

2:41

You can't talk about mysterious disappearances

2:44

in Japan. Without talking about the

2:46

Defain Varon case. And

2:48

after meeting Inageon in Hokkaido last

2:50

episode, our next move seemed

2:52

obvious. He's

2:54

the ex cop who works for one of Japan's

2:56

largest missing persons organizations, and

2:59

he's a niko native. He offered

3:01

to show us around. So we

3:03

accepted his invitation and headed

3:05

up to Nico. We

3:08

went to see the place for ourselves, on

3:10

the fourth anniversary of disappearance.

3:18

It's raining,

3:22

so it's very swollen. It's

3:24

very swollen. It's

3:26

very beautiful. There's signs and watch out for

3:28

the bears. From

3:32

campsite media and Sony Music Entertainment,

3:35

this is gone with the gods, season

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one of the event Brandon. I'm Jay

3:39

Candlesteen. And I'm Shoko Kanbeck.

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4:51

The baffling case of Defane Varon has

4:53

been covered extensively. But

4:56

there's one journalist in Japan who's

4:58

been on it the longest. Caroline

5:00

Gardein. We figured there

5:02

was no one better to familiarize us with

5:04

the

5:04

case. Before we left from Nico. I

5:07

would like to say that the opinion express

5:09

here will only concern my

5:11

generalistic work done in assignment

5:13

for French major Desjardins and

5:15

does not imply in any way

5:17

the voice of the Caroline

5:21

is a friend and a great journalist.

5:23

She used to work in France, her home country, but

5:25

she's based in Japan now. When

5:28

Tafane's story broke, she immediately

5:30

felt drawn to this incident. Caroline

5:32

saw so much of herself in Tafane,

5:34

a young French woman like herself

5:36

who was passionate about Japanese culture.

5:39

I I think that like, Tiffany,

5:42

I was in total admiration

5:45

of Japan. Like, I thought it

5:47

was kind of a wonderland and

5:49

where I could have trust anyone,

5:51

you know. And in fact, I I

5:53

really thought that, Tiffany, could have

5:55

been me.

5:58

Tafane was reserved in public, but

6:00

the people close to her, she was playful.

6:03

Intelligent, compassionate. In

6:05

France, she worked at a school for special

6:07

needs students. So when

6:09

school was out, Over the summer break,

6:11

she planned a second visit to Japan,

6:14

an almost three week trip. Her

6:16

first stop after flying into Tokyo

6:19

was Nico. And her itinerary

6:21

was packed.

6:23

She is someone who is really organized, and

6:25

it was really the trip of her

6:27

dream she really loved Japan.

6:29

She already learned a hiragana,

6:32

katakana, and even

6:35

some kanji. Tovaine

6:38

had a slip of paper where she wrote down

6:40

everywhere she wanted to go, in a

6:42

mixture of French, Japanese, and English.

6:44

The day she disappeared, she had at least

6:46

eleven places she wanted to visit on her

6:48

list. She had scrawled

6:50

her budget in the margins, and everything

6:52

was color coded in yellow, blue, and

6:54

purple highlighter. Just by

6:56

the sheer attention to detail, you

6:58

could see how excited she was every

7:00

part of this adventure she was going on.

7:03

You can see all this for yourself actually

7:05

on the website that was created by her family

7:07

to raise awareness about her disappearance.

7:13

According to the five witnesses at the turtleneck,

7:15

there was nothing strange about to faint

7:17

the day she disappeared. She was friendly,

7:19

talkative, and just getting ready for the day

7:21

ahead. She wasn't

7:24

strange or anything she thought to

7:26

people. She asked them yesterday,

7:29

I couldn't went to the temples

7:31

because it was too late. So

7:33

now today what I'm gonna do and,

7:36

yeah, really normal

7:38

conversation. The morning

7:40

of the twenty ninth was the last time

7:42

the hotel owner saw her during

7:44

breakfast. And no one sticks around

7:46

at their hotel at a tourist destination

7:48

like Nico. So it wasn't unusual

7:51

for her to be out most of the day.

7:53

But she was supposed to check out on the thirtieth

7:56

and never showed up. And

7:58

that's when the owner got concerned. He

8:00

called the police. The

8:03

police looked around and they found nothing.

8:07

To find it left with only the clothes on her

8:09

back and her

8:10

phone. All of her belongings,

8:12

including her passport, were left back in

8:14

the hotel room, But there was

8:16

no sign that she had returned to the hotel room

8:18

since walking out the door that last

8:20

morning. Three

8:22

days after her disappearance, French

8:24

embassy notified the Varon family.

8:27

Tefane was officially on missing

8:29

person. It's

8:33

basically a parent's worst nightmare.

8:35

Your child goes on a trip of their dreams to

8:37

a country on the other side of the world

8:39

and they vanish into thin air.

8:41

And in this case, it's not just a

8:43

parents' worst nightmare. Daphane had

8:45

three siblings and they were

8:46

close. The entire family

8:49

was distraught. Tafane's

8:51

siblings and their mother came to Japan to

8:53

look for her soon after hearing the news from

8:55

the embassy. But imagine

8:57

being thrown into a situation where you're trying

8:59

to make sense of an investigation in a

9:01

language and culture that is completely

9:03

foreign to

9:03

you, and the pieces you're trying to

9:06

piece together make no sense.

9:08

When the Verone family got to Nico, they

9:10

were immediately introduced to the Tochigi

9:13

Police. They are the equivalent of the

9:15

state police for Tochigi Prefecture where

9:17

Nico is located. What

9:19

the family never expected to hear was that

9:21

the Tochugi police were only investigating to

9:23

Spain's disappearance as an accident.

9:26

Nothing more. And all the

9:28

investigation work they were doing was to support

9:30

this hypothesis. And the

9:32

evidence to suggest that this was an

9:34

accident was well. Paper

9:36

thin.

9:38

Everything was made on this handkerchief, you

9:41

know. And apparently, the

9:43

handkerchief was was

9:45

there. But everybody was leaving the

9:47

anchor shifts in nature. And

9:49

the family was like, okay. Let's

9:52

take this anchor shift and investigate.

9:54

Did you say, oh, no. No. Don't

9:55

touch. So for days, the handkerchief

9:56

were there. Her handkerchief.

9:59

No.

9:59

It was not her handkerchief, but that was

10:01

the main it was presented

10:04

as it it may be her anchor

10:05

handkerchief. So my two handkerchiefs is a

10:08

handkerchief by the river, so much

10:09

Yes. That was the main theory.

10:12

It's accident and we have this hanger shift.

10:14

The hanger shift is approved that she

10:16

had an

10:16

accident. By the way, this

10:19

is constantissimo. He's a

10:21

correspondent for France twenty four, a

10:23

French international news organization.

10:25

He's been following this case pretty

10:27

much from the start. He'll be our other

10:29

expert voice in here along with

10:31

Caroline. A lot

10:33

of investigative work is about building a

10:36

narrative. Storytelling through

10:38

clues. And what you have to look out

10:40

for is confirmation bias,

10:42

which is taking any lead you find and

10:44

interpreting it in a way that supports a

10:46

story that you've already decided is

10:47

true. And honestly,

10:50

that's what the police were doing. They

10:53

heard that Tafane had epilepsy, So

10:55

immediately, they thought she must have had a seizure

10:57

and gotten into an accident. The

11:00

infamous handkerchief Constantine is

11:02

talking about was found by the river,

11:04

So police decided she must have

11:06

dropped it there when she had a seizure, so

11:08

she probably fell into the river

11:10

by accident.

11:12

The police conveniently ignored that she

11:14

had medicine for her condition and hadn't

11:16

had a seizure in years. At

11:19

this point, they were blatantly disregarding

11:21

facts. And one of the most frustrating

11:23

examples was this extreme

11:25

weather

11:25

theory. There is maybe

11:28

something I I can add was the

11:30

Typhoon. Have you you noticed a

11:32

typhoon?

11:32

No. No.

11:32

No. One the main theory

11:35

of this accidental possibility

11:38

is that there was typhoon. But there was

11:40

no

11:40

time. There

11:41

was no time for you to what? So

11:45

that's again something where the

11:47

family doesn't understand why they keep

11:49

repeating Typhoon when there is no

11:51

Typhoon that day. It gets

11:53

even more frustrating for the family. Caroline

11:56

told us how they had to even hire

11:58

professionals to debate the

11:59

weather. Simple facts that the

12:01

police should have been able to check themselves.

12:05

They had proof they had

12:07

from a material, logical, agency,

12:10

data, they actually

12:12

try to show them that

12:14

it is actually impossible that

12:16

if she fought in that river

12:19

as they fought to, we

12:21

will not found a body or

12:23

anything, you know. The

12:25

river just wasn't deep enough or strong enough to

12:27

sweep her away like that. Overall,

12:30

the investigation just wasn't

12:32

evidence driven. At all.

12:34

No other explanation was

12:36

seriously considered. Including the

12:38

one that seems obvious to

12:40

me, when a single woman

12:42

traveling alone just

12:44

vanishes. Take the

12:46

hotel owner for example. He was

12:48

the last known person to see her alive.

12:50

He said he saw her leaving around

12:53

ten

12:53

AM. But the fact is her

12:56

phone record and

12:58

GPS location show

13:00

that she is in the total

13:02

since eleven forty five.

13:04

And we are absolutely sure

13:06

about that because there

13:08

is fun activity team that

13:10

time. So

13:13

she didn't really leave at ten

13:15

AM. That

13:16

discrepancy alone should have set off some alarm

13:19

bells. That

13:20

guy changed his mind, you know, so

13:23

many times during formal or

13:25

informal discussion with the police and with the

13:27

family each and his mind so many

13:29

times, but there has never been a

13:31

proper interrogation and that.

13:33

Here's another bizarre detail that came

13:35

to light when they got a hold of Tafane's

13:38

phone records. Her phone had stopped

13:40

working sometime between her morning at the

13:42

hotel and six eleven PM

13:44

that

13:44

day. The phone company

13:46

called it, a change of status

13:48

without the possibility of disconnecting from

13:50

the

13:50

network. That means that her phone

13:53

wasn't on airplane mode. It wasn't out

13:55

of charge. It wasn't out of

13:57

range and it wasn't switched off.

14:00

Something happened that physically damaged

14:02

the phone. It's

14:05

pretty suspicious. Also,

14:07

the police insist that the phones stop functioning

14:10

in the vicinity of the hotel. Tafane's

14:13

family grew increasingly frustrated

14:15

by what they felt was a halfhearted search

14:17

for Tafane by the authorities. If

14:19

the police were so adamant that it was an

14:21

accident then they were ignoring everything

14:23

else that could have caused her to vanish, and

14:25

time was ticking. Back

14:27

in France, they went to work themselves.

14:30

Tafane's sister,

14:32

Sibal Varon, happens to be a

14:34

journalist. She knows how to harness the power of the

14:36

media, and she has access to

14:38

it. So when she found out

14:40

that French president Emmanuel Macron

14:42

was having a routine meeting with the then

14:44

Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo

14:46

Abe used her press badge to get

14:48

into the event. And

15:02

civil actually was able to land a

15:04

meeting with Macron and Abe to

15:06

discuss her sister's

15:07

disappearance. This

15:09

finally brought some much needed attention

15:11

to the case. What was

15:14

the

15:14

in France, how big of a story was it? Was

15:17

it a big story for a short time?

15:19

I mean, because Michael was

15:22

ask on that issue,

15:24

it became quite known.

15:27

And your

15:29

family is fighting a lot. I think felt there

15:31

was a real family, which is

15:33

like writing a book, doing a lot of

15:35

media, very active. So they

15:37

are really you know, fighting for

15:39

her. That's why

15:41

also this case is also in the media.

15:44

Damian and Sibal were the most visible members of

15:46

their own family. Civil worked with the

15:48

French media, and Damian was more

15:50

on the ground in Japan. They

15:52

even wrote a book about the case together, which

15:54

came out in June of twenty twenty

15:56

two.

15:56

With

15:57

their effort, more people in France

15:59

wanted to know what happened to the

16:00

Spain. It put a lot of pressure on the French

16:03

government to do something about it. Which put

16:05

pressure on the Japanese authorities to do a

16:07

proper investigation or at

16:09

least look like they were. This

16:13

is a very difficult

16:15

to understand, like so the

16:17

family explained in the book that the

16:20

police officer were really offended.

16:22

Because they took this call

16:24

to Emmanuel Macron as a as a act

16:26

of rebellion like in Japan questioning

16:29

the competences of local authorities

16:31

as very badly pursued

16:32

saved. Members

16:33

of the family were constantly traveling back

16:36

and forth between France and Japan,

16:38

Damian in particular, But

16:40

I have to say that quite quickly, we also

16:42

felt that this was like a kind of

16:44

show, you know. And I

16:46

will say my first reaction is

16:48

that the police was

16:51

making a beautiful demonstration, perfect

16:54

for television for my camera.

16:57

But I was not feeling it was

16:59

really active research, and that was also

17:01

what the brother

17:03

of Tiffany Omesto was

17:06

very thinning or

17:06

so. Damian Varon

17:09

went to Japan to look for his missing

17:12

sister. He wasn't interested in fame. This

17:14

was a living nightmare. But

17:16

he was grateful for the media

17:18

attention because it meant that maybe there

17:20

was enough awareness, enough attention.

17:22

He could find to faint. So

17:25

he cooperated with the police, spoke

17:27

to reporters, played the game, hoping

17:29

for the best. But back

17:31

on the first trip to Nico, there was this incident

17:34

just around two weeks after Tafane disappeared.

17:36

This incident really eroded the

17:38

trust between the police and the Ron family.

17:41

Especially with Damien. Damien

17:45

had the most contact with the police and they

17:47

invited him on these searches around

17:49

Nico.

17:50

The press were also present on these searches.

17:52

Constantine's cameraman was among them.

17:56

In

17:56

television, in a story

17:58

you want emotion and you have your own

18:00

main character was Daniel.

18:02

So the main story was

18:04

to follow

18:05

him. He was there. He

18:07

was, like,

18:07

very,

18:09

like, eager to to have this

18:12

moment, to have this patrol, to

18:14

have this investigate. So he was very

18:16

motivated and he wanted to collaborate

18:18

with the police. So imagine the beginning

18:20

of the

18:20

day. Is there a hippies? Finally, finally,

18:22

there will be something son,

18:24

he's there,

18:25

and the

18:26

day was passing.

18:27

And the more the day passed, the more

18:29

he was feeling disillusioned, you

18:32

know, And the more he was like,

18:34

obviously, understanding that this was put

18:36

heat, you know? And he was just sad.

18:39

So our job was also sad.

18:41

Also, it was just record

18:43

the sadness, the frustration of

18:45

a French guy discovering the

18:48

hours by hours that this was on a

18:49

booksheet, this was not a proper investigation.

18:52

You were telling us. You were telling I've already

18:54

been there. It has already been the same

18:56

place has been already surveyed by

18:58

the by the police, and why they

19:00

don't go far? Always asking why they

19:03

don't go more far if it's

19:05

real. They they were in the middle of

19:07

the the city,

19:08

you know? And he's like, the the river? Why

19:11

don't you

19:11

go in the

19:11

forest? Why don't you go in the end of the river?

19:14

What did you you know? Strangely,

19:17

Japanese people everybody will

19:20

clearly see that this is

19:22

bullshit. Why do they do

19:23

that? It's it's just

19:25

for television, just for showing,

19:27

but During this time,

19:30

when the police genuinely had critical

19:32

work to do, they were basically putting

19:34

on a show, a potemkin

19:37

investigation to placate the French media and the

19:39

Varon family. For

19:41

their main act, they invited the press and

19:43

Damian to meet them at Tufin's last

19:46

known location. room, the

19:48

march room at the turtleneck,

19:50

to watch them perform a lumenol

19:53

test. Lumenol is

19:55

a substance it goes a bright blue when it

19:57

comes into contact with certain substances.

19:59

There's a number of things that can set

20:01

off the reaction, bleach. Some

20:03

metals, urine, even some vegetables. It

20:06

also reacts with the iron and hemoglobin

20:08

in red blood

20:10

cells. That's the way you probably

20:12

heard of it being used to

20:14

detect traces of blood at a crime

20:17

scene. Present for the Luminal Test

20:19

were the forensics team, Saint

20:21

policeman, Damien Varon, and

20:23

Constantine's cameraman. They had to cram

20:25

into this little hotel room, A

20:27

double bed takes up most of the space, so there was

20:29

hardly any room to stand.

20:31

The crime scene investigators started spraying

20:33

the walls with the luminol.

20:35

Everyone held their breath.

20:41

And I think everybody was

20:44

really surprised that a

20:46

very large projection reacts

20:49

to the alumina with

20:51

splashes that seems to start

20:53

from the bottom of the wall.

20:56

Everybody has no word

20:58

like Damian explains

21:00

that he saw the the the police

21:02

officer eyes like just going

21:04

crazy. Like, what the fuck? Like, what's going

21:06

on? Like, we just wanted to show

21:08

you guys that everything in is nice

21:10

in this city and everything is

21:11

safe. But What's

21:14

that? Let me remind

21:16

you, all of this was on camera.

21:18

The police sprayed Luminal and

21:20

found a huge stain on the

21:22

wall. Not necessarily blood,

21:24

but there was a strong possibility.

21:26

But as far as anyone knows, that was

21:29

where it stopped. The

21:31

stains weren't investigated any further than

21:32

that. I also remember,

21:35

like, asking the question, like,

21:37

directly to an officer in charge

21:39

of of the

21:40

case, and it simply told me, like,

21:42

we cannot insert this. Like, you

21:45

will not have more information on

21:47

that. To give the police the

21:49

benefit of the doubt, it's possible that

21:51

the police are keeping this information secret.

21:54

The principal is called Himitsun Bakuro

21:56

in Japanese

21:57

law. A secret that only the perpetrator

21:59

would know. It

22:00

makes sense why the police might not want to make

22:02

the information public, but that doesn't

22:05

explain the main problem. Why

22:07

didn't the police investigate this as a possible criminal

22:09

case from the start? This

22:12

was a clue literally lit up

22:14

right in front of their

22:16

eyes. But it didn't support the accident theory.

22:18

And as

22:18

we've noted before on the show, in

22:21

general, police in Japan don't want to make

22:23

anything a criminal case if they don't

22:25

have to. Especially if it seems

22:27

like a case that would be hard to

22:29

solve. In the cop's calculation, the

22:31

opportunity for justice or even just

22:33

closure doesn't outweigh the reputation of

22:35

their department. It's all about good

22:37

numbers and saving face. The details

22:39

don't matter as much. And

22:42

so all these open questions, they

22:44

were just tossed to the side. Tafane

22:46

was just another unlucky woman

22:48

who went missing by accident.

22:51

But how

22:51

many people really believe that a

22:53

woman vanishing like this It's just

22:55

bad luck. There isn't

22:58

a country on Earth where violence against

23:00

women isn't a problem.

23:02

Japan is no exception. It's

23:05

an unfortunate reality that many

23:07

women who go missing here are the victims

23:09

of targeted violent crimes.

23:11

And there are things happening in Nico that would

23:13

make anyone suspicious. That's

23:18

after the break.

23:21

On a winter

23:24

night in a small community near Denver,

23:26

Colorado, Jim Matthews arrived

23:28

home late He expected to find

23:30

his twelve year old daughter had been dropped off

23:32

after a Christmas concert. But when he

23:34

called out, hi Janelle, no one

23:36

answered. She was gone.

23:39

Thirty five years later, in two thousand

23:42

nineteen, her body was discovered. The

23:44

police turned their attention to a man who had told

23:47

law enforcement years ago that he

23:49

knew something, but they dismissed

23:51

him. The man did seem obsessed

23:53

with the case, but is that all

23:55

he was? A true crime fanatic or

23:57

a killer. Wandry and

24:00

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25:25

We're going to

25:29

take a little bit of attention to talk about

25:32

another

25:32

case. Devein's case and her family's presence in the

25:35

media was strikingly reminiscent of

25:37

other cases where young white women

25:39

visiting Japan went

25:40

missing. In particular,

25:42

the Lucy Blackman case in two thousand.

25:44

If that sounds

25:48

familiar, it's because we mentioned her case in the

25:50

episode about the manuals of Vanishing. Lucy

25:52

was a twenty one year old British

25:54

flight attendant taking a working holiday

25:56

in Tokyo as a hostess at

25:58

a Cabaret Club. A cabaret club is

26:00

a place where mostly male customers spend a lot

26:03

of money to talk to beautiful

26:05

women, the hostesses. Lucy

26:08

disappeared after work one day and was

26:10

reported missing. The Japanese

26:12

police looked into the case, but the

26:15

initial response was that Lucy was just another woman

26:17

working in nightlife who disappeared. She

26:20

supposedly left a letter behind

26:22

explaining that she ran away, but it clearly wasn't written

26:24

by a native English

26:25

speaker. As suspicious as it

26:28

was, the letter slowed the

26:30

police down.

26:30

It was only when the British

26:33

embassy and the Blackman family back in England

26:35

got involved that the case started

26:37

being investigated seriously, if

26:39

a little begrudgingly, Lucy's father,

26:42

Tim Blackman, was extremely frustrated

26:44

with the Tokyo Police for essentially the

26:46

same reasons that the Varon family were

26:49

frustrated with the Tokyo Police. Things got

26:51

so bad that the Tokyo metro police

26:53

stopped communicating with Tim Blackman

26:56

entirely. And when Lucy was

26:58

finally found, Eight

27:00

months after her disappearance, it

27:02

was too

27:02

late. She was found buried in the

27:05

cave in the neighboring prefecture.

27:07

The man who was convicted of

27:10

dismembering her corpse, Jo Jo

27:12

Bara, had preyed on both Japanese

27:14

and foreign women for

27:14

years, drugging and

27:16

raping them. He had at least fifty

27:19

tapes of himself sexually assaulting his

27:21

victims. He was even

27:23

questioned once in nineteen ninety two at

27:25

the hospital he brought one of his victims after fatally

27:28

overdosing her with chloroform. And

27:30

the number of

27:30

his alleged to victims

27:33

anywhere from

27:33

a hundred and fifty to four hundred. Not

27:35

one of these women's disappearances

27:38

were treated with the gravity that they

27:40

deserved. When it comes to possible

27:42

crimes against women, Japan's beliefs

27:44

can be outright dismissive

27:47

and misogynistic. You might

27:49

remember hearing about situations like

27:51

this from detective school, like the story

27:53

of a woman who fell into a

27:55

snowbank, or all the way back to Cituson and

27:57

her interactions with the police, Many

28:01

of Japan's missing women, including

28:03

Olvada's victims, like Lucy,

28:05

worked in nightlife, or in

28:07

the sex industry. Once investigators catch wind

28:10

of that, it's often met with classic

28:12

victim blaming. She made the

28:14

choice to get into that line of work,

28:16

she should have seen it coming.

28:17

So here's something we'd like you to

28:19

think about. What do you think would have

28:21

happened if Lucy Blackman was a

28:23

young Japanese woman? Ariff

28:26

defei Varon was a Japanese woman. What do

28:28

you think would have happened if she left the

28:30

hotel and never checked out? The

28:33

odds

28:33

are, Absolutely nothing.

28:38

The police might come down to

28:39

Tourmaline. If she had signed her real name

28:42

and put down her real number in the

28:44

hotel ledger, they might have tried to locate her

28:46

family members. And even if her

28:48

family was desperate to find her, they

28:50

would just be a normal if distraught

28:52

family. No authorities on their side to put pressure on the police.

28:55

So for a

28:55

run of

28:55

the mill missing Japanese woman,

28:58

no need to even put on a

29:00

show. Much less a real investigation.

29:02

It's as if some

29:04

investigators don't care about the how

29:06

or why. They just settle for the

29:08

easiest conclusion to work

29:10

with. That could mean assuming the worst has already happened.

29:12

I

29:12

mean, the main thing is

29:15

about the attitude of the

29:17

Japanese body is

29:19

toward this disappearing. There is

29:21

not a proper investigation, and

29:23

we know why because in

29:25

Japan, it's quite normal that

29:27

somebody disappear. And this is

29:29

not something that we understand as

29:31

French people, you know. There is

29:33

clearly a problem. There

29:36

is a woman was not supposed to disappear and she

29:38

has disappeared and

29:40

anybody wants to properly and especially the

29:42

family wants to properly investigation on

29:44

that and was not treated

29:46

proficiency. Thousands of

29:48

women

29:48

go missing every year, but the

29:50

difference between their cases being investigated and

29:54

their cases slipping through the cracks

29:56

can come down to two things.

29:58

How much their home country cares that

30:00

they're found, and whether or not families have

30:02

the perseverance and resources to

30:04

look for them. Unresolved

30:07

criminal cases are bad publicity and

30:09

they're bad for statistics. So

30:11

on top of that, consider how Nico is

30:13

a tourist town, one that really

30:16

relies on the image of tranquility and

30:18

safety. wouldn't want to jeopardize

30:20

the livelihood of a community that relies

30:22

on visitors, both domestic and foreign.

30:24

And when the Tafane

30:26

Varon story broke, People started

30:28

gossiping about the town of Nico.

30:30

The media attention, even

30:33

locally, shown a new and probably

30:35

unwelcome light on the town. On

30:37

August ninth two thousand eighteen, TV

30:40

Asahi did a short piece on the

30:42

case. A portion of the program

30:44

talked about some very suspicious

30:46

activity in the

30:47

role. An incident that Caroline also brought

30:49

up during our conversations with her.

30:52

For

30:52

example, they there is an

30:55

aspect that been a

30:58

lot talked about. It's

31:00

the presence of fake

31:03

guide next to a

31:05

temple in Nicot. And

31:07

this temple is really known for

31:09

a woman, for fertility.

31:12

The place she's talking about is called takinoa

31:15

ginga or takinoa shrine. It's

31:17

a little off the beaten path, but the grounds

31:19

are gorgeous, so it's a popular tourist

31:22

spot. The gods living in shrines and

31:24

temples often have a specialty. For

31:26

example, there's lots of shrines for

31:28

a god that helps with academics. So

31:30

if you go there, you might see some

31:32

students praying for good results on their

31:35

exams. The tuck in your

31:37

shrine is a temple for

31:37

fertility, so it draws a lot

31:40

of women.

31:40

There's a lot

31:43

of women who come to have a

31:45

baby or or encourage, pray

31:47

for, you know, good else in

31:49

the also sexuality and

31:51

stuff. So the

31:53

fake guide with an

31:55

old Japanese man was waiting

31:58

for the woman there

32:01

and asked

32:02

them, do you want to

32:04

a special

32:05

tour of the temple. Special tour of the

32:07

temple and other not just

32:09

the temple in Nico. And

32:11

he had a a

32:14

card and And so they put

32:16

that sign advertising,

32:18

don't follow this man because this

32:20

guy was actually really kind of

32:22

a pervert. So he was touching

32:25

the ladies and

32:28

sometimes ask like a

32:30

sexual flavors. This

32:33

guy had been driving around offering to give

32:35

women a lift in his car or a

32:37

tour of the area. The locals

32:39

knew about him and they knew to steer clear.

32:41

He was just thetoken town

32:44

creep. If you were a tourist

32:46

though, there's no way you would know that.

32:48

So police put up flyers to warn

32:50

people about him. The only problem

32:52

is that if you haven't seen the

32:54

flyer or you're a foreigner

32:56

and can't read it, you might

32:58

take the guy up on his offer. As

33:00

I mentioned before, she was

33:03

really in love with the the

33:05

country and she was saying

33:07

because I talked to best

33:09

friend and she always told

33:12

that Japan was the most

33:14

safe place in the

33:16

world. So there is a high

33:18

probability that she can follow

33:20

someone that she doesn't know, a

33:22

Japanese person that, for

33:24

example, Oscar, do you want to go somewhere

33:26

or do you want to visit that place

33:28

by car? Or walking

33:31

is a high probability. This

33:37

man was already on the Tsuchiki police

33:40

radar. On top of being a known

33:42

predator, he was also found with an

33:44

illegal gun in his car.

33:46

So to their credit, when the police

33:48

saw that the shrine he was always hanging

33:50

around was on Tafane's itinerary,

33:52

they looked into him as a potential

33:55

suspect. guy ended up having a

33:57

solid

33:57

alibi, so they let him go.

33:59

From the looks of it, he's not

34:01

the only creep operating in the area.

34:04

For example, on August

34:06

thirty one two thousand

34:07

eighteen. So just one

34:10

month after the disappearance

34:12

of Tidjane Vroom. The Sanke

34:14

newspaper relayed, I remember

34:16

a very dark discovery like

34:19

on the Topu Kinogoa

34:21

train line. A worker

34:24

discovered a human skull in

34:26

an advanced state of

34:28

the competition. And more

34:30

recently, a dismembered body

34:32

was found in a suitcase, in

34:34

a golf course in Nico.

34:37

And this is only like eighteen kilometers from the

34:40

city center. There are

34:42

many testimonies of tourists

34:44

who fund themselves in a

34:46

very very carry situation in Nico. So to be honest

34:48

with you, I don't really like

34:50

Nico. I am in this city very

34:52

crappy, very easy to be

34:54

isolated

34:55

from everyone.

34:57

Nico is no

35:00

stranger to missing persons cases,

35:02

but they don't usually involve

35:04

criminal activity.

35:06

They often end in a different type of tragedy.

35:08

Hundreds of people

35:09

have jumped to their death into the

35:11

long river running through Nico, The

35:13

same one that runs behind turteline, the same

35:16

one that cops insist to fame

35:18

probably fell into.

35:19

Yeah. Of course, you know, in

35:21

the small, this go down of

35:24

Nico, like bodies float

35:26

of drift in the river

35:28

between the trees of the mountain

35:30

ranges and fall. Steeply from the top very society's

35:32

hot spot, like Keagong

35:34

Falls and localize our

35:38

bridge. Which is very

35:40

far from the postcard image

35:42

we have of

35:43

it. Right? But, yeah, usually

35:46

every month, they pick

35:48

up

35:48

bodies. It's been suggested that like many others before

35:50

her, Tufane came to Nico to commit

35:52

suicide, but that goes against

35:54

everything we know about

35:56

her. She was acting normally

35:58

the morning she

35:59

disappeared. People on the

36:00

trip of their dreams with a meticulous

36:03

itinerary don't usually leave

36:05

it all behind. This brings up another point of

36:08

frustration in the way the police are handling

36:10

this case. The police's

36:12

main theory was that Tafane fell into

36:14

the river, But the thing

36:16

is, when people fall into the river by

36:18

accident or not, their bodies are

36:20

almost always recovered.

36:23

Like Caroline said, Sometimes they find bodies as often as

36:25

every month. But in the case of

36:28

Tafane, no remains have been

36:30

found in four years, and they

36:32

were really

36:34

looking So why are the police treating to Fein's case

36:36

like it's the exception? Every

36:42

year, they trudged through the river on the

36:44

anniversary of Jaffane's disappearance.

36:46

The police, the rotary club,

36:49

and volunteers hand out flyers in front

36:51

of the train station. They post the

36:53

same missing person's poster all

36:55

over town, and the media

36:57

comes to cover

36:58

it. And then the potties want

37:00

to show actually that they

37:02

do something. So every year,

37:05

they go to the a

37:07

river with a team and

37:10

they are searching in front of

37:12

the eyes of the Japanese

37:14

media. It's

37:16

performed. Try an annual performance. It's performance. And and

37:17

if it didn't tone up the first time, it's not gonna turn up

37:19

to three times, but it's a way to show

37:22

that they're doing something. Right?

37:24

Yes. Exactly. So

37:27

July twenty ninth of this year, the fourth anniversary of

37:29

Taffane's disappearance. We headed up

37:31

to Nico ourselves.

37:36

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37:37

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38:33

I left

38:37

Frenica early

38:41

in the evening. During a totally unexpected

38:44

downpour. The train I got on was eerily

38:46

empty and I was alone and kind of damp

38:48

from the

38:50

rain. Our plan was to go separately at hotel.

38:52

There were four of us. Me,

38:54

Jake, our producer, Chishauska, and our

38:58

intern hemodi. We wanted all hands

39:00

on deck to get as many interviews as

39:02

possible.

39:02

The ride up from Tokyo took

39:04

a couple of hours, and I tried to get

39:06

some work done. I had a car to

39:08

myself, which was great. But instead, I

39:10

mostly just watched the scenery, turned from

39:13

the Greyer than usual cityscape. To

39:15

the misty hills of Tochigi Prefecture. There was thunder

39:17

and

39:17

lightning for almost the entire journey. The lightning

39:19

made neon spider webs

39:21

in the sky.

39:23

Sort of spooky. By the time I

39:26

got to Nico, the rain had stopped.

39:28

But the roads were still wet and shiny, and there

39:30

was a little chill in

39:32

the air. I hailed the taxi to the hotel we were staying

39:34

up, the turteline, the

39:36

same one that Tufane had stayed up.

39:40

Turtle in is tucked into a residential street that meanders

39:42

along the river. The water

39:44

was brownish green and

39:46

opaque. There are one and two

39:48

story houses all down the road, and the

39:50

hotel itself is a kind of pink with

39:52

moss growing

39:53

on the shingles. The place isn't run down or creepy, but it's

39:55

a little shabby. The kitchen and living room feel

39:58

like a shared space and

40:00

a dormitory. The lights are

40:01

dim, but it is still sort of

40:04

cozy. I was the first one at the

40:06

inn. When Jake pulled up, I was outside

40:08

petting a dog that had been barking at me

40:10

for attention. He was a really cute

40:12

calling mix, and he was

40:14

delighted that Jake had some cheese for

40:16

him. So while Jake made a new friend, I

40:18

told him about my drive over to

40:20

the inn. When we were when

40:22

I was driving over, there's this the big road that leads

40:24

to the back of Nico has all these

40:26

lamps. Right?

40:28

That was a huge beautiful lance that line

40:30

up on the side of the

40:31

road. And my taxi driver told me

40:33

that it was called the street of

40:36

the gods. And that's where

40:38

the gods go on their way to the big temple at

40:40

the very end. Oh,

40:42

wow. Honestly, I think Nico has an

40:44

enchanted kick to it. And I like how there's

40:46

no light pollution, the air is really

40:48

fresh, and it's really

40:50

quiet. Something that's impossible to get

40:52

in Tokyo. Jake,

40:53

on the other hand, had a different first

40:56

impression. It is so dead. I mean, there is

40:58

not a sign

40:58

of life. There was like one taxi driver.

41:01

way in, we

41:02

saw a missing person poster of Tafane in

41:05

the inns window. It

41:06

had her

41:06

weight, height, hair color, a number to

41:09

call if you had any leads. was

41:12

sharing a

41:12

room with DeSanka, so we opted for a

41:14

traditional Japanese sleeping arrangement, which has

41:17

two food tons laid out

41:19

on the floor. Jake just wanted a room with a bathroom

41:21

in it. By some stroke of coincidence or

41:24

luck, the room with the bathroom ended

41:26

up being the

41:28

March room.

41:29

Before we came to

41:31

Nico, Caroline talked to us about the march

41:33

room and how things about

41:35

it were unsettling. Even before the suspicious

41:37

luminault results. How the layout itself was

41:40

just weird.

41:43

Tiffen's room was next to

41:45

two emergency doors. And when I went

41:47

there because I slept at the hotel

41:50

twice, and then I tried

41:52

to open the doors

41:54

to see if actually they

41:56

were closed from the outside and

41:58

from the

41:58

outside, and you can access both.

42:01

It was a

42:02

little difficult for us to really picture this when

42:04

she said it, but it made more sense

42:06

in

42:07

person. There's

42:08

two doors in the back. One

42:10

is locked, one is open, and anyone can walk in at

42:12

any time. But This

42:14

isn't this

42:15

isn't closest to the outside door, so someone won't

42:17

have to walk down

42:20

the hall. But it doesn't look

42:21

like it. Like Caroline said, the entrances made it

42:23

very easy to enter the hotel

42:25

from the outside. Anyone could

42:27

just walk in. The March room was

42:30

so close to those entrances that you

42:32

could access the room quickly without

42:34

anyone else seeing you.

42:35

A bad friend, Moe's

42:37

face. I don't have a bad feeling about it. It

42:40

seems very hospitable, but

42:42

the there there is definitely when you

42:44

look out side and you see that the the opening -- Yeah. -- you could

42:46

take the the idea that someone walked

42:48

into this room and then dragged her out

42:50

or that something had certainly

42:52

seems possible.

42:54

We

42:54

are speculating here, but we don't know. No one recorded

42:56

any evidence of a struggle in the hotel

42:58

room, and it's a small old

43:02

hotel. There's no security camera footage to inspect. And

43:04

no one that was interviewed at the hotel

43:06

mentioned anyone suspicious entering

43:08

from one of these doors.

43:11

But when an investigation has this

43:13

many holes, it's easy to fall into

43:15

that speculative trap. Without

43:18

satisfying

43:18

answers, people come up with

43:20

their own. I

43:24

didn't sleep particularly well that night.

43:26

I cracked the window open or

43:28

fresh air and tried to fall asleep to the sound of the rain in the river.

43:31

Before I knew it, my alarm

43:33

went off at six AM. We

43:35

had some coffee in the common area, put our

43:38

media arm bands on, and headed to the

43:40

Toobun Nicos

43:42

station.

43:42

The train station is in downtown Nico, surrounded by a

43:44

town square lined with souvenir shops and

43:47

restaurants. Inside the station were

43:49

more shops, a cafe. Places

43:52

to buy snacks and drinks.

43:53

Some police officers and

43:55

members from the rotary club were outside

43:57

holding to Fain's missing

44:00

person poster. The usual information written in Japanese with an English

44:02

translation. And there's also

44:04

an ID photo of her, her neck

44:06

long, her chin slightly raised.

44:10

We'd seen the poster before. It's been distributed

44:12

online as well, but a

44:14

physical copy feels different, especially when

44:16

it has today's date on it.

44:20

Last seen July twenty ninth two thousand eighteen,

44:22

four years ago to

44:26

the date. A

44:28

gangol of journalist hovered nearby. Right

44:38

before coming up to Nico, we actually

44:40

found out that the Tocicini police weren't

44:42

going to be searching the

44:45

river this year. So our plan was

44:47

to split interview people the station.

44:49

Tishanka and I went

44:51

to talk to the police. We

44:53

had a list of

44:53

questions that we send in advance so they

44:56

could prepare statements. It's

44:58

usual protocol for these

45:00

press events. The police

45:04

were handing out different flyers. These

45:06

had a QR code on them.

45:09

Scan the QR code and you're sent to a multi language

45:12

site with information about the

45:14

case. They told us and a

45:16

few other reporters. Very

45:18

proudly that the QR codes were a new addition

45:20

to this

45:22

year's flyers. We

45:26

asked them the usual questions. Was there any suspicious activity

45:29

in the area? They told

45:31

us,

45:31

no, nothing compelling. I

45:34

asked about

45:38

her cell phone. Nothing new

45:40

about that. They still hadn't found it. They found

45:42

any clothes or

45:44

any belongings. And

45:49

when asked them about the Luminal

45:52

results, they told us, we can't tell

45:54

you what kind of test we

45:55

ran. What we ran

45:58

forensic tests and it's not a blood

45:59

stain. I asked

46:02

more, but he wouldn't

46:03

tell me anything else, just not

46:05

a blood stain.

46:07

I'll admit I'm skeptical by nature,

46:10

especially with cops who have already been sent my

46:12

list to questions in advance, but

46:14

it

46:15

especially wasn't persuasive. How did

46:18

it go four years without telling the

46:20

family? Are the journalist on the French side

46:22

about

46:23

the forensic results? But

46:24

there is one

46:27

major shift. The police seemed to

46:29

have moved away from at least one accident

46:31

theory that she fell into

46:34

the

46:34

If you know

46:35

where someone fell, then you have a better

46:37

chance of recovering them. You know

46:38

where they

46:39

might end up. But to

46:40

go with that

46:41

point, he said something None

46:44

of us saw her

46:46

fall in, so

46:48

we don't know if she

46:50

even fell in the first

46:52

place. And so now, it seems

46:54

like they're really starting to begin to consider the

46:56

possibility of looking at it as

46:58

a crime. It was just strange to

47:00

me that experts in the Varon

47:03

family have been essentially arguing with a brick wall

47:05

about how she couldn't have fallen into the

47:07

river. And now, the most compelling

47:09

common sense argument that the police have for the

47:11

theory is just No one saw

47:13

it. So maybe it didn't

47:15

happen. I'm not going to lie. That was a

47:18

bit frustrating. The

47:23

last thing I asked was, what would you like listeners to know?

47:25

This is what they had to

47:27

say. We're investigating

47:30

diligently We're working very hard

47:32

doing searches and looking for her. We

47:34

are still handing out flyers like this, and we're

47:36

doing what we are supposed to do, and

47:39

we're working hard. I want people to know that. Everybody is

47:41

doing their best. Meanwhile,

47:44

Himani and I went and talked to the people

47:46

from the rotary club and some locals who

47:49

are gonna lie. This woman who

47:53

had lived in Nico for

47:55

fifty years, she said that

47:57

at first, she thought that Tafane had been swept away by one of

47:59

the

47:59

rivers, but it doesn't seem very

48:02

plausible at this point.

48:06

And

48:06

she also said that Nico is

48:08

a calm, safe town. So

48:11

the case and the

48:13

commotion around it was a

48:16

surprise to everyone. Everyone

48:18

living their nose is just a quiet

48:20

town with a long history and a

48:22

lot of tourists. This

48:26

girl was in high school when Tufin first went

48:28

missing. She says that at the

48:30

time, it was a common topic of conversation, but

48:33

one really talks about it anymore.

48:42

And she also says here that she'd like it to

48:44

be resolved and that she'd like to know

48:46

what happened to her just a

48:48

little faster. She

48:52

repeated it. I really hope they find her

48:54

soon. And she meant it.

48:56

She said it

48:58

sincerely. But you also get the feeling that she wanted

49:00

it over with. It's

49:03

gotta

49:03

be exhausting. It

49:04

was shocking and it is terribly sad.

49:08

Tafane's family

49:08

deserves an explanation. No one denies that.

49:11

But who

49:11

wouldn't want closure

49:12

on the town mystery hanging over

49:15

their heads? It's hard to move on when every

49:18

year, reporters show up

49:20

and trumped through the streets and through the

49:22

temples in your hometown with cameras

49:24

and microphones. Or

49:26

when a ragtag group of journalist doing

49:28

for example, search for a

49:29

podcast, walk around

49:32

asking questions.

49:33

Ten minutes into doing interviews

49:35

with locals, a woman asked Timari to

49:37

turn off a recorder and to leave

49:39

them

49:39

alone. They had

49:42

had enough. We had

49:44

one last local to interview,

49:46

our old friend Yanagi san,

49:48

who we met back in Sapporo after

49:51

graduating from Sakura such Go detective school. He

49:53

was born and raised in Nico and worked as

49:55

a police officer, so he has an idea

49:57

of what this disappearance has been like for

49:59

the police and the

50:02

locals. He picked us up at the station in his car and greeted us in his

50:04

warm, cheerful way. Yanagi

50:06

san was a great tour guide.

50:09

He took us to one of Nico's many temples, everyone

50:12

who worked there from the parking lot

50:14

attendant to receptionist lit up when they

50:16

saw him. He took us to a

50:18

soba shop to eat lunch, and the owner

50:20

treated us to free shaved ice and

50:22

tea. Our last stop

50:24

was a place that was on to Fain's itinerary

50:26

the day she vanished. It's

50:28

called the kangangofuchi abbess,

50:30

a nature area with a temple inside.

50:32

It was a misty rainy day.

50:35

And we had to hop and take the long way around the

50:37

puddles that were flooding the path. This place

50:39

is known for its long row of Gizo,

50:41

which is a type of Buddha statue shoe that

50:43

lined the path next to the

50:45

river. These gzo

50:46

wore bright red hats to the locals

50:48

in place on their heads.

50:50

And these particular gzo have a superstition behind them. One

50:53

day, the river

50:56

flooded and some of the gzo got swept away

50:58

in the

51:00

current After this happened, legend has it that it's

51:02

impossible to get a proper head count on

51:04

the gzo. If you go back

51:06

and try to count again, there's

51:08

always one that has disappeared. There weren't many

51:10

people out on the path, so we got to

51:12

take our time counting them ourselves.

51:16

I'm counting forty seven.

51:18

Buddhist. I don't wonder how

51:20

many they're supposed to be here. We

51:22

all ended

51:23

up getting different numbers. Forty

51:26

three. Forty

51:28

four. And then at the

51:29

end, there's two more little ones, so

51:31

forty six. The

51:34

first did you count dogs all my dad too? Because I messed up the legal

51:36

plan. We

51:37

never did reach a consensus on how many

51:40

there were, but

51:42

then again, we never agreed on what exactly counted as a g

51:44

zone. Like we said, they

51:46

had

51:46

once been washed away or heavily damaged.

51:49

Along this forest

51:51

path, I saw a few signs that

51:54

read, Watch out for bears.

51:56

That caught

51:58

our attention. I never even about

52:00

until then. it

52:06

outrageous to wonder if Tafane was attacked by a

52:08

bear? Yeah.

52:13

Is probably too far

52:15

fetched. I recommend someone to

52:17

call somewhere remote and

52:20

cover

52:21

up. There's definitely a

52:23

criminal

52:23

element. It's hard to think

52:26

she was involved in an accident

52:28

of some kind. I

52:30

was surprised by how cut

52:32

and dry that statement was when

52:34

he said it. Just him saying

52:37

matter of factly, yeah, It's

52:39

definitely a criminal incident. No

52:41

one biting their tongue. No trace

52:43

of a performance. We

52:46

didn't talk much on the way back to the car.

52:54

The family has put in an overwhelming amount of time, resources,

52:56

and energy into finding answers

52:58

about Tafane, both in Japan and

53:01

at home in France. But

53:03

this year, the investigating judge in France

53:05

has come to a difficult decision

53:08

that her office has reached the limit

53:10

of what they can

53:11

do. Recently, they were very

53:13

sad because it seems to

53:15

have

53:15

been closed. You know the case better

53:17

than me? I

53:18

don't know if it's officially been

53:21

closed. Officially

53:21

been closed, I think,

53:24

checked the news, but, like, two or

53:26

three weeks

53:27

ago. Oh, that snooze to me.

53:29

I didn't catch

53:30

that. This was absolutely

53:32

devastating for the family. They were

53:34

used to the Japanese authorities dragging

53:38

their feet but they were really hoping that the authorities in

53:40

France at least would remain involved in the

53:42

case. But issues with the

53:44

investigation on the

53:46

French side were apparent even before this latest

53:47

decision. A French investigating

53:50

judge isn't like a judge in a common

53:52

law judicial system like the

53:54

United States whose main role

53:56

is to preside over a case is a

53:58

neutral party and apply the law

54:00

as they see fit. An

54:02

investigative judge is a cornerstone

54:04

of the French judicial system, and they do exactly what

54:06

the title implies. They

54:08

investigate. The police can

54:10

help them out, but these judges themselves

54:14

of the authority to interview witnesses, perform searches,

54:16

and request specialist help for things

54:18

like DNA analysis or wiretapping.

54:22

And they can go to the scene of the crime

54:24

to look for clues, conduct interviews,

54:26

and reconstruct the chain of events.

54:29

That's usually a key part

54:31

of their investigation. But the

54:34

investigating judge for the Tafane

54:36

Varon case based in their hometown of Patea, never

54:38

stepped foot in Japan. French

54:40

police were sent there in twenty

54:42

nineteen, but the judge didn't go

54:44

at all. Even when the

54:46

prosecution and the family both

54:48

urged her to. So

54:50

when the judge announced that she was moving to

54:52

close the case, I mean,

54:54

It was a slap in the face.

54:56

We asked to interview the Varon family in August of this

54:58

year. A month after the news came out about

55:00

the investigating judge closing the case.

55:04

I had hoped to meet the Varon family while

55:06

I was in France in September. They wrote me an email back.

55:11

Dear Jake, Thank you also for your offer of interview. is

55:14

very nice, but we don't speak English.

55:18

Besides using

55:20

translation devices, forgive me if

55:22

my thought can seem

55:23

abrupt.

55:24

At the moment, we are working on

55:26

our move with our lawyers because

55:28

thanks to the French procedure,

55:30

and the investigating judge, we have the proof that the eco

55:33

police invented the accidental track and

55:35

that the criminal track

55:37

is obvious. In Japan,

55:40

it works but not in France.

55:42

There is a chance that

55:44

something got lost in the machine translated

55:46

email they sent. suggesting is that

55:49

they have proof, evidence that the

55:51

police were biased in their investigation,

55:53

and they were intentionally avoiding

55:55

a criminal investigation. It's

55:57

a serious

55:58

allegation, and we have no idea

56:00

what that proof could be. It also sounds

56:02

like we will have to wait a little longer

56:05

to

56:05

find out. The

56:07

letter continues a few lines down. We prefer not to

56:09

expose ourselves

56:09

to Zimidia at

56:12

this time. Our lawyer has

56:13

strongly advised us against

56:16

speaking out at this time so as to

56:18

not strain diplomatic relations

56:20

between

56:21

France and Japan. And to devote our time more

56:23

to the investigation. They went on

56:25

to say that they also don't want

56:27

to portray the loyalty and

56:30

the trust of the journalists that have been with them since the very

56:31

beginning. They deserve to break

56:33

the story themselves when it's

56:35

ready. And as a journalist, I

56:37

have to say,

56:39

I really respect that. We hope

56:41

that this delay will not discourage

56:43

you from working on

56:46

defense

56:46

disappearance. We would of course be delighted to meet you when we come to

56:48

Japan probably in November and

56:50

discuss with your future

56:52

actions. See

56:54

you soon. Chefins family. That

56:57

was the last I've

56:59

heard from them. We're recording

57:01

this in late November twenty twenty two,

57:04

but there's been no update on a potential

57:06

meeting or any breaks in the

57:07

case, at least on

57:09

the Japanese side. But while we

57:10

haven't talked to the family in person, there have

57:12

been other updates about them in the

57:15

news. In

57:15

October of this year, twenty

57:18

twenty two, The family

57:20

requested the help of investigative judges

57:22

in the city of non terror, which is a

57:24

city outside Paris. The

57:26

courts there opened up a specialized cold

57:28

case unit in March. That the Varon

57:30

family hopes will be able to help. And

57:32

the family continues to petition

57:34

officials from both countries to open a

57:36

criminal case in

57:37

Japan. Even though there's no body

57:39

or

57:39

suspect, they're pushing forward as

57:42

they've always

57:44

done, alone. While no

57:50

one can deny that the French investigation was far

57:53

from ideal, people were at least shocked. But

57:55

in Japan, the French noticed

57:57

this sense of resignation,

58:00

even apathy, towards missing

58:02

persons cases. And that

58:04

was very difficult for the French

58:06

to wrap their minds around.

58:08

Somebody disappeared.

58:09

She was supposed to be a normal

58:12

woman, happy, interested by

58:14

Japan. You know? What

58:16

happened? People want to know the truth.

58:19

And what they don't understand is the the way it's

58:21

treated. But seriously, you know, it seems

58:23

that it's not in the

58:26

Japanese culture, something really that

58:28

matters are really

58:31

important. But for

58:33

us, this appearance is like

58:35

you want want to

58:36

investigate. You want to know what's the truth? Like

58:38

it's just a normal part

58:40

of life in this country. Hostesses

58:43

never come home from work. A parent packs a suitcase and

58:45

abandons their

58:45

family. A teenager leaves a vague

58:48

note and is

58:50

gone overnight. As we've

58:52

shown you in previous episodes,

58:54

if you're escaping money troubles

58:56

or a dangerous home situation,

58:59

Disappearing is a perfectly valid

59:02

option. So for the public and

59:04

especially the police, it's so

59:06

normal to see

59:08

disappearance cases that they often see

59:10

big publicized investigations as an

59:11

overreaction. It's

59:14

probably nothing. There's

59:16

no way to know how many cases have gone unsolved because

59:19

of this attitude or how many

59:21

cases could have been solved sooner before

59:23

it was too late. There's

59:26

one case in particular that comes to

59:28

mind when I think about this.

59:30

It's such a peculiar

59:33

example of this. And it's actually not just one missing

59:35

person's case. It's anywhere from

59:38

thirteen to almost nine

59:40

hundred missing

59:40

people, depending on who you

59:43

ask. And for the families of

59:45

these evaporated people, it took more

59:48

than twenty years of fighting very

59:50

stiff winds

59:51

to get answers. That's next

59:54

week on the evaporator. If

59:58

you have any information or wish to support the

1:00:00

Varon family in their search, please

1:00:03

Google Association United

1:00:05

for to fame. Or click the

1:00:08

link in the show notes.

1:00:10

The correct pronunciation for Tefan

1:00:12

Varon is close to

1:00:14

Tefan

1:00:14

Varon. We anglicize the pronunciation of her name and others for

1:00:17

clarity. Get all episodes of

1:00:19

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1:00:33

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and infamous The evaporated, Gone

1:00:40

with The Gods, is the production of campsite

1:00:42

media with Sony Music Entertainment.

1:00:45

It was reported by Jake Adelstein

1:00:47

and myself, Choco Pontbeck. This episode was written

1:00:50

by Amy Pontbeck

1:00:52

and

1:00:52

myself. Our

1:00:54

producer is Tishanka Saripala. The

1:00:56

executive producer is Josh Dean. Story

1:00:58

editing by Josh Dean and

1:01:02

Amy Plumbek. Back checking by Anika Robbins and

1:01:04

Hemati. Sound

1:01:06

design may