Persons Unknown
Persons Unknown
Kayo Matsuzawa (Unsolved Murder)
Kayo Matsuzawa had always wanted to travel overseas. In November 1997 she finally got her wish and left her home in Japan for a year-long visit to Christchurch on New Zealand's South Island. Ten months into her stay, on 11th September 1998, the 29 year old flew to Auckland on the North Island for a short break. Kayo booked into a hostel and set out to discover what the country’s largest city had to offer. CCTV footage shows Kayo walking through the city centre just after 3.30pm. This was the last time Kayo was seen alive. Her body was found 11 days later in an obscure location.
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https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/a-moment-in-crime-operation-net-the-murder-of-kayo-matsuzawa/6KV6FHC67QDNNMAW3XCWASZQBE/
https://www.police.govt.nz/stolenwanted/coldcase/2019/kayo-matsuzawa-1998?nondesktop
https://matthewtaylor.co.nz/tag/crime/
https://kreepykittysmurdermysteryblog.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/the-murder-of-kayo-matsuzawa/
https://newzealandmissing.wordpress.com/kayomatsuzawa/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/russian-man-at-centre-of-murder-hunt/KDR5NGN4OD34TCNKFWF5RFZM4A/
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/herald-on-sunday/20070930/281651070734582
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https://murderpedia.org/male.G/g/grimson-allan.htm
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Kayo Matsuzawa
Dennis spent a couple of hours on 22nd September 1998 servicing the fire alarm system at Auckland's City Library. When the compliance tester was satisfied that everything was working as it should he left for his next job at the Centre Court building in downtown Auckland. The 6 storey white stone building stood at 131 Queen Street and was formerly the home of Milne and Choyce, one of New Zealand's first department stores, which had moved to the premises way back in 1874. In 1998 the Centre Court building was now home to a variety of businesses including retail, hospitality and a language school. Next door was the much larger and more modern Bank of New Zealand ( or it abbreviated BNZ). This too housed various businesses. Both buildings were connected by a stairwell.
Dennis needed to make his way to this shared stairwell to locate the small utility cupboard which housed the fire alarm system panel. The cupboard was always kept locked so first Dennis had to locate the building manager to acquire the key. After asking around for a short while Dennis gave up his search for the manager and decided to improvise. Experience taught him that, like other similar cupboards, it could be easily opened with just a screwdriver.
As he made his way up the stairwell he began to notice an ammonia-like smell that was growing stronger as he ascended. By the time he arrived at the cupboard the smell was vile and overpowering. He trepidatiously turned the screwdriver in the lock, opened the small door and peered inside. At first he thought a mannequin had been stuffed inside the tiny space. As he flicked on the cupboard light he quickly realised the foul odour was in fact a decomposing corpse. Despite the horror of what was before him, Dennis was aware enough to notice the details of what he was experiencing as it dawned on him he could be called upon as a witness at some future date. The mobile signal was poor from the stairwell so Dennis hurried downstairs and out into the fresh air of Queen Street to call the police.
Persons Unknown is a true crime podcast dedicated to unsolved murders and disappearances. The podcast is based in Wales, UK and covers cases from Wales, the rest of the UK and the wider world. New episodes are released every other Monday. You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Persons Unknown Podcast. For a list of sources please see the episode notes on your app. If you enjoy the podcast please give us a review and you can help others get to hear about Persons Unknown by sharing and recommending on social media. Thank you so much for listening. Now back to this week’s case.
The body was naked and very badly decomposed but it was clear that it was the remains of a female. There was no air conditioning in the stairwell and the cupboard was said to be like an oven. It was impossible to tell how long it had been there. There was nothing found with the body to identify who the person was, so recent missing persons reports were gone over. No matches were found.
An investigation immediately got underway, led by Inspector Mark Fergus of the Auckland police. It wasn't long before enquiries in the local community revealed the identity of the body. It was 29 year old Japanese national Kayo Matsuzawa. The young woman had checked into a local backpackers hostel 11 days previously, on Friday 11th September. She had not been seen since that date, though at the time her body was discovered she had not been reported missing.
Kayo Matsuzawa grew up in Yamagata Prefecture on the west coast of Japan but it had always been her dream to live overseas and experience all the world had to offer. She worked hard, putting in long hours at a fishmonger, and eventually saved enough money to go travelling . In November 1997 she was ready to embark on her adventure. Kayo was a confident person but her family worried about her travelling alone to another country. She set their worries at ease and said she had chosen to go to New Zealand which was a safe place. She also promised that she would write often to keep them up to date with news of what she was doing.
Kayo travelled to Christchurch on the east coast of New Zealand's southern island and enrolled in the Dominion English school. I believe she already spoke some English and was soon adept at the language. Kayo also obtained a job working in a restaurant to earn money. At the English school she met her friend Naomi with whom she rented a flat. The pair would regularly go shopping together in Christchurch and attended various events around the city like the Christmas parade. On breaks from school, Kayo and Naomi would often travel around the south island to places like Queenstown and the beautiful southern alps. Naomi describes her friend as being popular amongst her work colleagues and fellow students. She wasn't a shy person and enjoyed meeting new people. Kayo had an extremely positive outlook on life and in the 2009 “Investigator” documentary by Bryan Bruce, Naomi says she can't recall her friend having a bad word to say about anyone.
Kayo would regularly send letters and postcards back to her family in Japan. In one note to her older brother Junichi she teased him about the worries he and the rest of the family had expressed before she went overseas, joking that she probably wouldn't get killed in New Zealand.
By September 1998, Kayo had been in New Zealand for 10 months. She had written to her Mum in August to wish her a happy birthday, and said she planned to return home to Japan on November 4th of that year. Before she left, Kayo wanted to explore New Zealand's north island. Kayo particularly wanted to visit the Bay of Islands, a collection of sub tropical islands off the north east coast of the north island. The other destination she was keen to look around was the largest city in the country, Auckland. On this trip she would travel alone as her friend Naomi could not afford to come with her. According to the Investigator documentary, despite Kayo's bubbly personality, solo travelling was not something she liked doing, but her drive to visit new places led her to go ahead with the trip regardless.
Kayo boarded the AN626 flight from Christchurch to Auckland on the 11th September 1998. The plane arrived at its destination at around midday. CCTV footage has her alighting an airport shuttle bus on Queen Street in central Auckland at 2.41pm. She booked into the Queen Street Backpackers hostel, actually situated on neighbouring Ford Street for three nights. She planned to check out on Monday 14th September. She had a single room, number 25, which was situated on the second floor. Kayo chatted with staff for a short while and after organising her room she left the hostel to explore what Auckland had to offer. The streets were busy and had a Friday buzz as people were beginning to finish work for the week and head out to the district’s pubs and bars. A BNZ (Bank of New Zealand) camera picked up Kayo walking past the Countryside building on Queen Street at 3.32pm. That is the last known sighting of Kayo. Her body was discovered 11 days later in the small utility cupboard at the Centre Court building. It was just a two minute walk from the backpackers hostel.
Kayo's family in Japan were informed of her death and were obviously devastated. Their worst fears had come to pass. Her mum, Humiko, had already begun to worry as she hadn't received a postcard from her daughter in a while. The initial identification had been done through fingerprints found in Kayo’s room in the hostel, but medical records were sent from Japan to formally identify Kayo and someone from the family also provided an in person identification.
As news about the death of Kayo began appearing on the news and in papers, an employee of the city waste disposal team came forward with some vital clues. On Wednesday 16th September, 5 days after Kayo disappeared, the city employee was working around a 5 minute walk from the Centre Court building, emptying a bin on the corner of Albert Street and Swanson Street. As he picked up the bin he noticed some unusual items inside. He found a passport, hand bag and insurance papers belonging to someone called Kayo Matsuzawa. At the time the name meant nothing to the man, as Kayo’s body had not been found and she had not been reported missing. He took the items back to the office. When the news broke the employee realised the importance of what he had found and notified the police. It was not until the 2009 Brian Bruce documentary aired that it became known that these bins were emptied 2 or 3 times a day, meaning the items must have been placed inside the bin that day. This raised the probability that the killer had returned to the body 5 days later in order to clean up the scene. The items were tested for fingerprints but none were found.
A post-mortem was carried out, but the cause of death could not be found. I’ve also read that it was impossible to tell if Kayo had been sexually assualted. The police have been very tight-lipped about the crime scene and have said there is information they have not released that only themselves and the killer would know. They have said they are doing this to ensure the integrity of any future prosecution. We do know that no fingerprints were found at the scene. Information about the forensic evidence that does exist was not released until 2018; I will come to that shortly.
As I mentioned, some of Kayo's belongings were discovered in a street bin and subsequently a landfill in East Tamaki was searched for two months. In spite of these efforts, her clothes and jewellery have never been found. At the time Kayo disappeared she was wearing black bootleg pants, a black jacket and black shoes. Her jewellery consisted of a pair of crescent shaped earrings and a small delicate gold ring with a single pink stone.
The place Kayo's body was found is believed to be highly significant in solving the case. The problem is that the stairwell where the utility cupboard was situated could be accessed by two buildings and each had numerous entrances into the stairwell. In his documentary, Brian Bruce described it as maze-like. Some of the doors were alarmed, which Bruce suggests is proof the killer had a good knowledge of the complex.
There was, however, a fire exit from a tavern situated in the Centre Court building that opened into the stairwell. This exit was not alarmed and patrons from the pub would often use it later in the evening to go out and smoke in the stairwell.
There was also an entrance from the Centre Court car park. The car park itself was entered via a roller door at the back of the building opening onto Mills Lane. Bruce believes it is likely the killer did not have access to a vehicle or they would have surely used the proximity of the car park to transport the body to another location. Kayo was a diminutive figure, standing at only 150cm or 4ft 11 and weighing only 50kg. Bruce contends that her body could have easily fitted into a large holdall or suitcase in order to transport it. It seems the murder must have taken place in or near the stairwell.
During the day both the Centre Court building and the adjoined BNZ building were busy with people. After 5.30-6.00pm they were significantly quieter and after normal business hours access to both buildings was controlled by DKS and Cardax security systems. The information from key and card fobs was stored in computers in two separate locations. One was in a utility cupboard, similar to the one where Kayo’s body was found, and the other in the BNZ building management office. In this office the computer would automatically print paper records.
When police looked over the computer records to see who had accessed the buildings, they found that some data was missing over the period of Friday 11th September to Monday 14th September. They could not determine if this information had been deliberately wiped or if there had been an error and the computer system failed. The paper records from the BNZ building management office were also missing.
Investigators dubbed the search for Kayo’s killer Operation Net. The team of detectives developed a working theory that the young woman had been approached by someone on the street, either outside the Centrecourt building or on the way back to the hostel. They then believed Kayo was invited for a drink in a bar or restaurant, possibly in the food court of the Centre Court building. The theory is that her drink was spiked and she was subsequently assaulted and killed.
The stairwell could be accessed from the food court when it was open and serving food. It does seem that there was no CCTV in the food court. If there was, Kayo was not seen on it. Police made a plea for anyone who may have experienced instances of having their drink spiked to come forward.
Some doubt was thrown on this theory as some of Kayo's friends and family, including her flat mate, said that she rarely drank alcohol. Other friends from Japan said she did enjoy drinking occasionally. All are united, however, in emphasising that Kayo would never willingly take drugs and that she was kind and trusting of strangers. It is suspected that someone took advantage of this and deliberately targeted her friendly nature. The killer was very sure of themselves when approaching a woman they did not know, and was obviously highly conniving and manipulative. The lack of fingerprints showed the killer was forensically aware. In all likelihood this was a premeditated murder and the person had probably committed similar violent crimes before. The Police have also intimated that the killer was probably close to Kayo in age.
Early in the investigation over one hundred interviews were conducted with employees working in the Centre Court and BNZ buildings. Staff and students of the KEY language school on the second floor of the Centre Court building were also quizzed. Many of the students of the school were from Asia, and a significant proportion from Japan, some also came from Eastern Europe.
Enquiries amongst staff and pupils resulted in a person of interest. The unnamed person was said to have given an alibi that could not be verified. Eventually this person was ruled out as it conspired the police had made an error while checking their alibi. The KEY language school itself closed down shortly after, in part due to the negative publicity generated by the murder.
Dennis, the compliance tester, was investigated. Not only because he had been the one to find the body but because he also had good knowledge of the building layout. Dennis was soon ruled out, as his movements were digitally tracked at work and it was proved he was nowhere near the Centre Court building on Friday September 11th.
Guests at the Queen Street backpackers hostel were questioned, but the police found themselves faced with a problem. 11 days had passed between the last sighting of Kayo and when her body was discovered and many potential witnesses had long since left the area. There was one witness who came forward to say they had seen a dishevelled older man with a younger Asian woman on the afternoon Kayo disappeared. As we shall see this may have some bearing on the case.
The hostel manager, a man named Ken Ho, said that shortly after the murder police were interested in at least three guests of his establishment. Two of the men were New Zealanders who were questioned, though they were released without charge. One of them had been asked to leave the hostel because he was stealing food. The third was a middle aged man from Russia, although some sources say Ukraine. It's worth remembering here that some of the students of the KEY language school based at the Centre Court Building did come from Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine.
This man had been staying at the hostel for some time but left the country the day after Kayo’s body was discovered. He flew to Australia and initially could not be traced. Fellow hostel residents had nicknamed the man “KGB” because of the way he liked to spy on people. He behaved eccentrically and displayed paranoid traits. He had a history of suffering with mental health issues.
On September 18th 1998 (that's four days before Kayo’s body was discovered) a scruffy Eastern European man visited an Auckland antiques dealer and offered him several items to buy, including jewellery. The proprietor of the shop said the man did not look like a tourist and wondered if he might be a seaman, although he said he was currently employed.
For whatever reason the proprietor of the shop was suspicious of the man and said he wasn't interested in buying the items. The man was persistent and said he had even more items to sell back at the hostel he was staying at and at his home in Brisbane, Australia. He produced a passport as ID but it was three years out of date, having expired in August 1995. He explained he didn't like to take his valid passport out with him
The proprietor's suspicions were enough for him to call the police when the man was still in the shop. The police however were uninterested, so the proprietor decided to buy the items the man had with him. This included a glass vase and a 14 karat gold ring with a citrine stone or topaz set into it.
Two months later in November 1998 the police arrived at the antique dealers shop and showed him a picture of a gold ring that Kayo Matsuzawa was wearing when she disappeared. The proprietor recognised it straight away, it was the ring he had bought from the Eastern European man although he had already sold-on the item. He passed on the details of the new owner and showed the police the receipt from his transaction with the Eastern European man.
The proprietor said the police never returned to speak to him again and they did not take the original receipt with them. There is a copy of the receipt floating around on various sites on the internet, most notably on Investigate Magazine. The name of the Eastern European man is clearly visible. The address given by the man is in Brisbane but apparently does not exist.
The Eastern European man is described by the pawnbroker as being 65-70kg, 170cm tall. The man spoke English well, albeit with an accent. He was a smoker and came across as sophisticated and intelligent. According to an article in the New Zealand Herald in 2000, this is a very different description than the one given by the hostel manger, Ken Ho, of the Russian man who was staying at the hostel. He describes him as being big and strong and as I have already mentioned displayed paranoid and eccentric behaviour.
According to the true crime researcher and blogger Matthew Taylor a “Russian man” was picked up by French police two years later, in 2000. He had been squatting in a French airport. The arrest of the man led to Interpol being alerted and the man was extradited back to New Zealand. He was questioned for two days but detectives came to the conclusion that his mental health issues meant he did not have the capacity to have persuaded Kayo into agreeing to go with him. He was subsequently ruled out as a suspect. I believe that the ring that the pawnbroker had bought from the Eastern European man was later conclusively proved not to have belonged to Kayo.
In 2001, Royal Navy Petty Officer, 42 year old Englishman, Allan Michael Grimson was sentenced for the murders of 18 year old Nicholas Wright and 20 year old Sion Jenkins. The bodies of both men were found just 6.5km apart near Winchester, Hampshire in the south of England in December 1999.
Nicholas Wright was in the navy and had met Grimson on a fire safety course. Grimson was the trainer and befriended him offering to give him a lift home if he ever needed one. Nicholas disappeared on the 11th December 1997 and was murdered in the early hours of the following morning.
Sion Jenkins worked behind the bar in a pub in Southsea near Portsmouth. In December 1998 Grimson persuaded Sion to go back to his flat where he tortured and murdered him. He was killed exactly one year to the day after Nicholas had been murdered. Both murders involved sexual abuse and in the case of Nicholoas, Grimson admitted to performing a sex act on the body after death.
Grimson is a sadistic and brutal murderer and, when sentenced by judge Peter Cresswell in 2001, he was described as a serial killer in nature if not by number. Since his original sentencing it appears Grimson may well have more victims.
In 2002 Grimson admitted to the murder of Simon Parkes, who disappered from Gibralta in 1986. The 18 year old was serving as a radio operator on HMS Illustrious, the same ship as Grimson. Some witnesses put the pair together on the night he disappeared. Grimson refused to give any details of the crime and later denied having anything to do with his disappearance. Simon’s remains have never been found. What is truly eerie is that Simon disappeared on the 12th December. The same date Nicholas Wright and Sion Jenkins were killed. Why this date is significant to Grimson remains a mystery.
In total Grimson has been linked to up to 22 murders, mostly of young men. Despite the different victim profile he has also been connected to the unsolved murder of Kayo Matsuzawa. At the time Kayo was murdered, Grimson was in Auckland, based at the Devonport naval base instructing staff in fire safety procedures. That is just a twenty minute drive from where Kayo was last seen alive.
Through his role as a trainer, Grimson had met the manager of the fire alarm company that serviced the Centre Court building on more than one occasion. This coincidence and the fact Kayo’s body was found in the cupboard housing the fire alarm panel has meant Grimson has remained a person of interest. The manager of the fire alarm company has said that there is no reason why Grimson would have had any specialist knowledge of the Centre Court building and to his knowledge Grimson never visited the premises.
Detective Senior Sergeant Kevin Baker has said that he does not believe that Grimson is responsible for Kayo’s murder as she does not fit his victim type. He also points to the fact that Grimson’s known victims are linked to December the 12th.
For years there was not a lot of movement on the case. In 2007 a $75,000 reward was announced for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for Kayo’s death. No new leads were forthcoming and the reward was withdrawn a few months later.
In 2018, Kayo’s unsolved murder gained renewed interest when The New Zealand Herald released a podcast fronted by journalist Anna Leask about the case. That same year an episode of “Cold Case” was aired on New Zealand television which detailed two new significant pieces of news about the investigation into Kayo’s murder.
The first revelation was that a DNA profile of an unknown male had been created using skin cells collected from under Kayo’s fingernails. The police forensic team had had these samples for twenty years but had not wanted to test them until technology was advanced enough to guarantee results. The sample was so small they feared the risk of destroying evidence that could one day be used to solve the case. A YSTR test was carried out, which looks for the male Y chromosome and a full profile was able to be developed.
Secondly, police announced that they were looking into a new suspect. The person had come to light after another police district, the details of which they do not divulge, had passed them the name of a person who had been convicted of offences that contained a similar m-o. The Cold Case documentary suggested that this m-o included spiking or drugging a drink in order to commit an assault against a woman. Bank records show the suspect was in the area on the day Kayo disappeared. His personal bank card was used in an ATM just round the corner from the Centre Court building. No more information about this suspect has been forthcoming.
As of 2019, Detective inspector Scott Beard became lead investigator on Operation Net, but like his predecessors he continued to give very little information away about the investigation. It is not known if the DNA profile has ruled out the new suspect or any previous suspects in the case.
When the DNA profile was generated it looked like this case was on the brink of finally being solved, but four years later there is still no resolution. Bryan Bruce, who made the Investigator documentary in 2009 is convinced that the killer is linked to the Centre Court building, possibly being involved in working security at the site. Detective Inspector Scott Beard disagrees, saying all staff have cooperated fully and there is no evidence for this theory. If it was someone who worked at the building you would have thought it would have been solved by now. The solution is obviously more complicated.
Kayo’s mother Humiko thinks about her daughter every day. She is continually reminded of her, as her granddaughter looks very similar to Kayo. The family feel that Kayo has been forgotten and her case remains unsolved because she is Japanese. They believe her murder has not generated the same uproar and national grief from inside New Zealand as it should have. A 2007 Herald on Sunday piece laments the same point. Perhaps now, 24 years too late, we can start to put that right. If you have any information about the murder of Kayo Matsuzawa, from New Zealand call 0800 2653 2273 or you can call internationally from
+64 9302 6400.
