Forensic Analysis of the Wakayama Arsenic Murder Case

Abstract

This is a review paper of forensic analysis of a murder case of Wakayama arsenic poisoning incident. The influence of this case on scientific research was not small in such a way that papers related to PTSD, disaster medical, copycats, chemical analysis, unwanted chemicals in food, terrorism, and so on were published. The forensic analyses on Wakayama arsenic poisoning incidence have characteristic that SPring-8, a largest synchrotron radiation facility, was used, as well as many other analytical techniques, but now most of the forensic analyses submitted from the prosecutor have been revealed to be fabrication, hiding the truth by logarithmic calculations, and therefore not scientific. Most of the testimonies at the court by the analysts were also lies. Examples of such false analyses are explained. Keywords: X-ray fluorescence (XRF), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), synchrotron radiation (SR), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), Wakayama arsenic poisoning case 1. Outline of the Wakayama arsenic murder case Four people were killed by arsenic poisoned curry at a summer festival on July 25, 1998, and other 63 participants were heavily injured but survived though they ate the poisoned curry. It is still not well known whether some embryos or fetuses were included within 63 or not, because the personal data is not open. The arsenic intake was authorized by the arsenic analysis of urine. One of the two curry pots was poisoned during the cooking for the preparation of the festival in a small town in Wakayama city. Wakayama is a city near the Osaka Kansai International Airport. Although the outline was reported by Kimura [1], a brief chronologically ordered outline should be described here.