The Murder of Natsumi Kogawa

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