L.A. police plans to close a 1979 cold case today

On May 4, 1979, a boy walking his dog in a field near the 210 Freeway discovered a corpse hidden amid trash and debris.

For years, she was Jane Doe No. 88. Officials didn’t know whether she had been murdered, had committed suicide or somehow had died of natural causes.

About the same time in Japan, family and friends awaited word of Chizuko Shiraishi. The 34-year-old dental receptionist had vanished while visiting Los Angeles at about the same time.

In 1984, Los Angeles police detectives determined that Jane Doe No. 88 was Shiraishi.

And after much investigation by cold-case detectives, they will announce today that her death was a homicide and that the prime suspect is Japanese businessman Kazuyoshi Miura.

Her death is the second that homicide detectives have tied to Miura, who died in October; authorities said he hanged himself in a downtown LAPD jail cell. Miura had been extradited to Los Angeles for trial on a conspiracy charge related to the killing of his wife.

Detectives allege that Miura was having an affair with Shiraishi and killed her two years before he ordered his wife’s slaying.

Police said they still don’t know exactly how Shiraishi died. But they accused Miura of enlisting another man to kill his wife, Kazumi Miura, near a downtown Los Angeles freeway in 1981. They said his motive was to collect his wife’s $650,000 life insurance policy.

The LAPD’s cold case squad has been investigating Shiraishi’s death for several years. Because Miura is dead, detectives cannot bring a case against him. But they have produced a report highlighting their evidence and declaring their strong suspicion that Miura was responsible for her death.

Miura had repeatedly denied killing anyone. His attorney, Mark Geragos, lashed out at the LAPD for trying to convict a man who can’t defend himself.

“I’ve heard of kicking a man when he’s down, but rarely when he’s dead,” Geragos said. “They unfairly hounded him when he was alive, and they have not let up with his death.”

Shiraishi arrived in Los Angeles from Tokyo in March 1979 on a 30-day tourist visa. In Japan, she had worked as an accountant for Miura’s company before taking a job as a receptionist in a dental office, according to LAPD records. Detectives later learned that she and Miura lived together in a Tokyo apartment.

Miura had arrived in L.A. from Tokyo two days before Shiraishi. She listed the Hollywood Holiday Inn as her destination. The hotel manager there later said he had no record of a guest by her name but that a Mr. and Mrs. Miura had checked in the day Shiraishi was supposed to have arrived. Her body was found five weeks later.

For years, police had no idea she was linked to Miura. But that changed after Miura’s wife was murdered, a case that became huge news in Japan.

In 1994, a Japanese court convicted Miura of killing his wife and sentenced him to life in prison. But that decision was reversed by the Tokyo High Court in 1998, when a judge determined that the wife’s assailant was unknown.

That case overshadowed the Shiraishi case.

“The case has always been there. We just had to put it together,” said LAPD Det. Richard Bengston.

Their first break came in 1984, when a Japanese reporter gave Shiraishi’s dental charts to a Los Angeles detective, confirming that Jane Doe No. 88 was Shiraishi.

Over the years, more details emerged. Police learned that during the two-month period after her disappearance, Miura gradually withdrew approximately $20,000 from Shiraishi’s bank, including proceeds from a divorce settlement. He used her bank card and secret PIN, police said.

A manager at the Tokyo apartment complex confronted the businessman while he was removing trash bags full of women’s clothes and cosmetics from their apartment, police said.

Miura also gave differing accounts about Shiraishi’s whereabouts, police said.

“He kept changing his story,” said Bengston, who was building what he described as “a strong circumstantial case” when Miura was found dead.

“Not only did he have the opportunity and motive to kill, but he had the mind-set and capability,” said LAPD cold case homicide Det. Rick Jackson. “He did the same thing to his wife for a similar motive, financial gain.”

Geragos said it’s unfair to allege a new murder when there is no way for Miura to have his day in court.

“Why didn’t they bring [this] up when they brought Miura back?” Geragos asked. “They know why. Because they didn’t have anything.”

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andrew.blankstein@latimes.com