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Japanese Parents Receive Letter From Daughter Slain in 1993

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Associated Press

The shock came in the mail--a letter from a daughter killed eight years before.

In a batch of New Year’s greetings, Kunihiko and Naomi Uchida received a card written 16 years ago by their daughter Yuki, who was kidnapped and slain in 1993, the Yomiuri newspaper reported Monday.

The letter, penned in a child’s unsteady hand, had been placed by the 11-year-old in a post office’s time capsule, to be mailed in 2001.

“Happy New Year,” it read. “I wonder what we’re doing now. I can’t wait! From Yuki.”

Eight years later, Yuki, 19, was working as a bank teller in the central Japanese town ofKofu when she was lured into meeting with a man posing as a journalist.

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Her nearly nude body was found on a riverbank a week later. The man, a 38-year-old car salesman, turned himself in and admitted to kidnapping and strangling Yuki in the back of his car.

The Uchidas could not be reached for comment Monday. The Yomiuri quoted the couple as saying they cried when they saw the handwriting on the card that was unmistakably their daughter’s.

“We want to keep this letter as a treasure of Yuki,” her father was quoted as saying.

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