Episode 255: On September 28, 2016, a police dog discovered the nude and decomposing body of a young woman on the grounds of Gabriola House, a famous and, at that time, abandoned mansion on Davie Street in Vancouver’s West End. The body was that of Natsumi Kogawa, 30, a Japanese woman who’d been in Canada on a Visa to study English since May that year. Natsumi’s friends and family had not heard from her since September 8, and she’d been officially listed as a missing person four days after that.
On the same day as discovering Ms. Kogawa’s body, police arrested William Victor Schneider, a man from Vernon, B.C. Schneider’s brother Warren turned him into the police after William had told him where he’d put Natsumi’s body and that he ‘done something bad.’ Warren also recalled to police about overhearing a phone conversation during which he said he’d thought William had admitted to having killed Natsumi.
The legal proceedings that followed dragged on into the fall of 2022.
Sources:
Hirosaki – Travel guide at Wikivoyage
Tonari Gumi – Japanese Community Volunteers Association – Vancouver, Canada
FIND Natsumi Kogawa／古川夏好さん捜索情報 — Facebook
Search for Natsumi Kogawa – TokyoReporter
Japanese woman missing in Canada – Japan Today
Vancouver Shinpo – 古川夏好さん三回忌しめやかに
Vancouver Shinpo – その三十五 古川夏好（こがわなつみ）さんの一周忌
古川さん殺害、終身刑の男が控訴 | 日加トゥデイ/JC Today
Police Looking for Missing Woman | Vancouver Police Department
Update: Body of Missing Woman Found | Vancouver Police Department
EXCLUSIVE: Friends of murdered Japanese student, Natsumi Kogawa, speak out – BC | Globalnews.ca
‘It’s my fault,’ court hears accused tell police in murder trial of Japanese student | The Star
Man gets life in prison for killing Japanese woman in Canada | The Japan Times
‘People listened’: Mother of murdered Japanese student grateful for guilty verdict | CBC News
New trial ordered for man found guilty of murdering Japanese student Natsumi Kogawa | Globalnews.ca
‘People listened’: Mother of murdered Japanese student grateful for guilty verdict | CBC News
1523 Davie St, Vancouver, BC • Vancouver Heritage Foundation | Vancouver Heritage Site Finder
YOU SHOULD KNOW: About The History Of “The Gabriola Mansion” In The West End – Scout Magazine
2021 BCCA 41 (CanLII) | R. v. Schneider | CanLII
2022 SCC 34 (CanLII) | R. v. Schneider | CanLII
Supreme Court of Canada – SCC Case Information – Docket – 39559
Supreme Court of Canada – 39559
Supreme Court of Canada – SCC Case Information – Webcast of the Hearing on 2021-12-10 – 39559
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