Hiroshi Maeue (前上 博, Maeue Hiroshi), born August 8, 1968, is a Japanese serial killer. He had an atypical sexual fetishism which is that he cannot achieve sexual excitement unless he strangles people.

Maeue 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.

On March 28, 2007, a district court in Osaka sentenced Maeue to die by hanging. The defenses of him made an appeal. He, however, retracted an accusation under the influence of Mamoru Takuma on July 5, 2007.

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.

Wikipedia.org

Alleged killer linked to suicide site

Aug. 7, 2005

OSAKA (Kyodo) A 36-year-old man arrested late Friday on suspicion of killing a woman he met through a suicide Web site has confessed to killing two other victims who also believed he shared their desire to commit suicide, according to police sources.

Hiroshi Maeue, 36, an employee at a temporary staff agency, was arrested on suspicion of suffocating Michiko Nagamoto, 25, in February.

He has also reportedly admitted to killing a male junior high school student from Hyogo Prefecture in May and a male college student from Higashi Osaka in June, and dumping their bodies in mountains in southern parts of Osaka Prefecture.

Late Saturday, police found what appeared to be the partial remains of the junior high school student on a mountain slope where Maeue said he buried the body.

The Osaka Prefectural Police suspect Maeue had proposed to Nagamoto that they commit suicide together, even though he apparently had no intention of killing himself, the sources said.

Maeue is suspected of killing her Feb. 19 inside a rented car after sending her an e-mail asking to meet. He allegedly abandoned her body in a mountain forest.

The police sources said he admitted to killing her, and told investigators he feels "sexually excited" to see a person being suffocated and suffering in agony.

Maeue is from Sakai and Nagamoto was from Toyonaka, both in Osaka Prefecture. They apparently met for the first time at the time of Nagamoto's death, though they had exchanged e-mail about 20 times since late last year.

Nagamoto's body was found Feb. 23 and was later identified through fingerprints. The body was buried along a river in a mountainous area in Kawachinagano, Osaka Prefecture.

Police traced Maeue as a suspect by tracking down records of e-mails as well as the car rental contract, according to the sources.

Maeue reportedly told police he also suffocated a male junior high school student in May and a male college student in June, and abandoned their bodies in separate mountainous areas in southern Osaka Prefecture.

After checking missing persons reports, police suspect the victim in the May case was a 14-year-old boy from Kobe and the other a 21-year-old college student.

Suicide Web sites have made headlines in recent years as a number of people have committed suicides in groups after meeting through the Internet. These people typically commit suicide through carbon monoxide poisoning by confining themselves in sealed vehicles and burning charcoal stoves.

Maeue is believed to have posted messages on several suicide Web sites.

Since his mid-20s, he was arrested on several occasions for attempting to suffocate female passersby on streets. In 2002, he was sentenced to 10 months for one of those incidents.

3 die in fake net suicide pacts

Smh.com.au

August 8, 2005

A man has confessed to killing three people, including a 14-year-old boy, by forming fake suicide pacts through Japan's widely publicised suicide websites, a newspaper says.

Hiroshi Maeue, 36, told police he suffocated a young woman, a college student and the boy and filmed the killings for his enjoyment, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

The suspect was arrested on Friday over the death of the female victim, 25-year-old Michiko Nagamoto of the western city of Osaka. He found her name on a suicide website and sent 20 emails urging they die together, the daily said.

He suggested burning charcoal in a sealed car to kill themselves from carbon monoxide poisoning - a method recommended on websites. Instead, he tied her up in a rented car and killed her by sealing her nose and mouth with his hands, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

"I wanted to watch a face in agony," Maeue was quoted as saying.

After killing the woman, Maeue went on to look for more victims on suicide websites and killed the boy and the university student, the report said.

He allegedly dumped their bodies in nearby mountains and a dam. Osaka police declined comment on the case.

Japan has seen a widely reported spate of internet suicides with lonely people forming pacts online with strangers to support one another as they die.

At least 65 people have died in such pacts since October, usually by sealing the windows of cars and lighting antique charcoal burners for the carbon dioxide poisoning.

Japan has the highest suicide rate in the industrialised world, with 24.1 suicides per 100,000 people each year, according to the World Health Organization.