(SINISTER MUSIC) I remember it quite clearly the` when the body was discovered. A serviceman going to do his normal, regular checks found a most unimaginable sight ` a decomposing female body. (SINISTER MUSIC) In a small utility room in the stairwell of an inner-city building in Auckland, a body lay undiscovered for 11 days. Soon as I opened the door, of course, I saw her body laying on the floor in front of me. There was no question from the get-go. This was a homicide enquiry. (SINISTER MUSIC) One of the questions was, 'Who is this young lady?' She was of Asian descent, in an unusual location. We had no missing persons that matched her description. So straight away, we knew this was going to be, um, difficult. Every case is solvable. Some are a lot harder than others. There's that tenacity in a lot of the detectives ` they want a result; they want a result for the family; they want a result for the public; and they want a result for themselves. After a couple of days, we got the first lead. Queen Street Backpackers advised that, 'Look, a young Asian lady theoretically checked out, 'but left all her gear behind.' Her name was Kayo Matsuzawa. Kayo Matsuzawa had been in New Zealand for nearly a year. She was due to return home to her family the very next month. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: I let her go because she kept reassuring me that New Zealand was a much safer and nicer place than other countries. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: She was the kind of person who would make friends with anyone. I think that could be the reason this happened to her. Any detective that's worked on an unsolved homicide, it` it stays with them. You don't forget it. Police believe it's never too late to solve a cold case, but your help is imperative. They've brought together a specialist team to review some of New Zealand's most haunting unsolved murders. They'll use their skills, expertise and up-to-date technology to look at things with fresh eyes. For those involved in the original investigation, it's a constant torment that the case didn't get solved. You know, Kayo came to this country just for an adventure, and she met her end in an awful, terrible way. No one should have to end their` their days like that. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: My question is, 'Why my daughter? Why my daughter?' 20 years later, Kayo's killer is still at large. This is absolutely still solvable. It just needs someone to come to us and say, 'Here's something you didn't know.' Can you help us solve Kayo Matsuzawa's murder? ('COLD CASE' THEME) Captions by Maeve Kelly. Edited by Antony Vlug. Www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018 (SINISTER MUSIC) (CLANGING, CRASHING) In 1998, I was employed as a fire-alarm compliance tester. Uh, the date was the 22nd of September. I'd done the servicing up at the Auckland City Library and made my way down Queen Street to the Centrecourt building. Well, I came down the stairwell, and I went to the door. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) I see a` what I thought was a mannequin laying on the floor. There was no clothing whatsoever. The first smell that I was aware of was the smell of ammonia. Then it became a real vile smell. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) I went back down the stairs on to Queen Street, and I used my phone to call 111. Mark Fergus was a young detective who'd just been promoted. At the time, I was a sergeant on a general enquiries team. Uh, and once the homicide enquiry's kicked off, I was assigned to the role of OC General Enquiries. With no clothes or belongings, no cause of death, and in such an isolated location ` yet in the heart of Auckland CBD, so close to Queen Street ` police started out with no pieces of the puzzle. ARCHIVE: Auckland police are appealing for help in identifying an Asian woman found dead in a central city building. Well, homicides have always been the pinnacle of any police events, and certainly, this was one of those, especially as it started as a whodunit. Um, there was no obvious leads. Police immediately started canvassing tourist accommodation for any missing persons. At the time, we didn't even know the name of the victim. There was no one who went into this thinking this was a one- or two-day gig. The first breakthrough came when police discovered Kayo's luggage in the Queen Street Backpackers. On Friday 11th of September, she checked in and paid for her room, but she hadn't been seen since. A missing Japanese tourist may hold the key to the identity of a mystery Asian woman whose naked body was found in Auckland last Tuesday. The tourist, Kayo Matsuzawa, disappeared after she checked in to an Auckland backpackers' hostel 18 days ago. Once we had a possible name and a possible lead, we had to connect the person that had been in the backpackers' with the victim that we'd found. Uh, so what we were able to do was take fingerprints from the property left behind by Kayo Matsuzawa and connect that to the victim that we had in the cupboard. And finally, we were able to confirm, through dental records obtained from Japan, that 'Kayo Matsuzawa' was indeed the name of the person that we had in the cupboard. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) (MEN SPEAK JAPANESE) Even as a child, Kayo told her family she wanted to travel the world. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: This place, there is a sea and the mountains. It's one of the most beautiful places in Japan. But Kayo wanted to see more of the world. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: We were so worried when Kayo first told us she wanted to go to New Zealand on her own, but she said, 'I'm not a 17- or 18-year-old girl. 'I'm nearly 30 years old. I can take care of myself.' She kept reassuring us nothing would happen to her; she'd be OK. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: Her plan was to learn English in New Zealand. She promised, 'One year, no extensions.' And then she'd come home. In November 1997, the Matsuzawa family waved goodbye to Kayo as she set off for her year in New Zealand. She headed for Christchurch and enrolled at the Dominion English School, where she met Naomi Saishu. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: She was such a happy, cheerful person. Never said a bad word about anyone. Kayo and Naomi started flatting together in Christchurch and soon realised they had a lot in common and became great friends, making the most of their time together. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: This is when we went to Queenstown together to see the autumn leaves. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: We'd go shopping together and to any events that were on in Christchurch. We went to the Santa Parade and got so sunburnt. A friend said she'd never seen such dark Japanese people before. Kayo sent regular postcards back home to update the family on her travels. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: 'Dear, Mum. Happy birthday. I've decided to come home to Japan on November 4th, 'so another three months to go. You should ask Junichi to buy a birthday cake for you. 'Take care. Love, Kayo.' Kayo was on track to return home as promised. She just had one more sightseeing trip planned. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: I was working at a sushi restaurant at the time and couldn't afford to go with her. But she told me about her plans to go around North Island, and she promised me to send me a postcard. After 10 days, no postcard came, so I did start to wonder. The police showed up at my work and drove me to the station. That's where they told me, but I already knew by then it must be Kayo. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: I'm sure it was September 27th, the morning. I got a phone call from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They said, was this Kayo's home? And they told me Kayo had been the victim of a crime and her body had been found. They said they were 99% sure it was Kayo, but they wanted us to come to New Zealand to identify the body to be 100% sure. We had to get passports the next day. But I didn't go to New Zealand ` only my husband and son. I didn't get to see her body. From the moment I received the phone call, I completely broke down. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: The first thing I had to do was to identify her. It was very hard for me. (POIGNANT MUSIC) Yeah, and, look, in any homicide enquiry, being able to personalise it, to make it real, is really important to the enquiry team. We have a young lady, um, that came to New Zealand... that had hopes and dreams and a life ahead of her that was snuffed out. And so` so being able to personalise this, to be able to put photos of Kayo up, meant that we could, every day, understand why it is we were coming to work and doing what we did. The first thing the investigation team had to do was piece together Kayo's movements. So, Kayo arrived in Auckland on Friday the 11th September. We know from our CCTV coverage that she got on an airport bus, and then she got off down the lower end of Queen Street. So she arrived in Fort St at about quarter past 2 in the afternoon, checked into the backpackers' very shortly afterwards. She spoke to a couple of staff; set up her room in a really neat, tidy, orderly fashion; and then went out to see` see the town. And at about 3.30 on that same afternoon, um, she's glimpsed walking past a CCTV camera in the Countrywide Building on Queen Street. That's it. That's what we know. The rest of it's just a mystery. For the homicide team investigating Kayo's death in 1998, the main focus was the Centrecourt building. The location remains one of the key points in this enquiry. Someone had to be in that stairwell at the time, with Kayo, uh, and somehow know about the room. The fact that the body was in there ` someone had to have put it there. She couldn't have got there on her own. I had a darn good look at the body, because I thought` thought that I might be called as a witness later on. So, one of the first people we were interested in is Mr Groves ` Dennis Groves ` who had found Kayo's body. (BEEP!) All my movements were electronically monitored, and you can't fake that. At the end of the day, we were satisfied that that, uh, Dennis' role was simply as he stated ` a serviceman going about his duties who had come across a tragic scene. Dennis Groves was just the first of hundreds and hundreds of people police looked into. Any building, uh, becomes like a small community. You've got people that live there, that come and go every day. It had an Asian language school. Um, and we know Kayo attended Asian language schools in Christchurch. We had servicemen that were there just to service the life of the building ` the lifts, the electrics, the refrigeration, the air conditioning. It goes on and on. There was also public access through the food court and through the tavern downstairs. Every time you open up one lead, it invariably led to something else. People talk about a needle in a haystack. I mean, we didn't even know we were looking in the right haystack to start with, and then you gotta find the needle within it. After months of interviews with hundreds of people who'd been in and out of Centrecourt, police were no closer to finding her killer. We spent a lot of time drawing every clue out of that building. But I still walk away from there going, 'There could still be something. There is still someone who is in that`' Well, we know this. There was still someone who was in that building whose name we don't know, whose face we don't know, that was responsible for the death of Kayo. So that building still has its secrets that it has yet to tell us. How did Kayo end up in that small utility room in an inner-city building? Can a new investigation answer that question? And do you have any information that can help police? (DRAMATIC MUSIC SWELLS) Garnier Fructis Hair Food, to nourish hungry hair. 98% natural, no parabens, with superfruits, instantly absorbed with three ways to enjoy - as a conditioner, mask or leave-in. For healthy hair: Choose yours. Garnier. 1 WHISPERS: I didn't know we had to get dressed up. WHISPERS: We're not going to bed, Ron. We're going out. (ROLLER DOOR RATTLES) (INTRIGUING MUSIC) (IGNITION CLICKS, CAR WHIRRS) (MAN SPEAKS FOREIGN LANGUAGE ON VIDEO) Hit it! (CAR POWERS UP) (EXCLAIMS EXCITEDLY) (WHOOPS) # Lazy days... # (MEN LAUGH) Oh my Gawd! Hey! (SCREAMING) Yes, yes. I don't feel well. BOTH: What?! (TYRES SCREECH) (WOMEN LAUGH) There you go. (BOTH LAUGH) (ENGINE REVS) What have you got under the hood, bro? You wouldn't believe me. (TYRES SCREECH, MEN EXCLAIM, CAR WHIRRS) (BOTH LAUGH) (CLICKING) WHISPERS: See you tomorrow. WHISPERS: It is tomorrow. (TENSE MUSIC) In 1998, the decomposing naked body of Japanese tourist Kayo Matsuzawa was found in a stairwell cupboard of the Centrecourt building. 20 years later, no one knows how she got there or who killed her. We've brought together a group of cold case detectives to spearhead a new enquiry. Leading our review will be Detective Inspector Scott Beard, the new officer in charge. The investigation into Kayo's death... The intrigue is how did she get into that building? What happened that she was left there? How did she stay there for so long? No one noticed. Detective Senior Sergeant Nia Pederson is the 2IC on this case. It can be challenging after 20 years, given that investigation techniques change; forensic techniques change. If it happens nowadays, in 2018, very likely, it's solvable. Mark Fergus is one of the original detectives in the Kayo Matsuzawa case and will provide insight into the first investigation. Don't bother signing up for a homicide enquiry if you think it's gonna be a dead end. Um, look, 20 years later, there are still people, like myself, that remember Kayo and that want to see her killer brought to justice. Three experts, one cold case ` it's time for the Kayo Matsuzawa investigation to begin. We will also be looking to you, the viewer, to help solve this homicide. For me, it's really important that we stick to the evidential facts. I know it's easy to speculate,... Yeah. ...but ultimately, we've gotta go with what the facts are. Essentially, we know that 29-year-old Japanese girl was found deceased on the 22nd of September 1998, in a room in a stairwell, in a part of a building between Centrecourt building and the BNZ building. 11 days earlier, on the 11th September, she had arrived in Auckland. And we just need to build up a picture. What's always got me was, uh, just the really tight time frames that all this happened in, you know? She arrives at quarter past 2; she checks in to the backpackers'. Half an hour later, Kayo's out there walking. And we get her briefly on the Countrywide CCTV, and... yeah. What time was that, again, that she was caught on the bank camera? At, um, 1532. Today, with our investigations, CCTV plays a huge part, because there's so much CCTV. 20 years ago, there was really limited amounts of CCTV. Um, but it will still play an important part in the enquiry. Uh, so we task staff to go to every shop, every location, anywhere, every bank ` commercial premises that may have had CCTV ` to see if we can get some glimpse of Kayo and then, possibly, even future suspects. So she would have come out of Fort St, turned left on to Queen Street, going up Queen Street. Mm. She's obviously come to explore Auckland, to be part of it. Yep. Yep. But somehow, the killer's gotta have interacted with her. With no sightings of Kayo after 3.30 that Friday afternoon, the Cold Case team turn their attention to what Kayo's body can tell them. Cause of death was never really able to be ascertained due to the state of decomposition. We don't know how she died. But it's not natural for a young, female, Japanese tourist to be found naked in a room that is so remote and very close to Queen Street. Now, we know from the toxicology that there is alcohol in the system, but we don't know whether that's through decomposition or through drinking alcohol. When bodies decompose, it creates alcohol in the blood. It was 11 days before Kayo's body was found, so police have never been able to determine whether her alcohol reading was caused by decomposition or by drinking alcohol. We looked at Kayo and who she was and the type of social activities she would take in. Look, in our opinion, she wasn't a drinker. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: She could only drink a small amount. She couldn't even finish a bottle of beer. It's hard to imagine she'd be willing to drink unless someone forced her to. We know that there is a bar downstairs which has a fire exit door which leads up the stairs to the room where Kayo was found. Was she in that bar? Was there drink-spiking? I don't` Mm. Because, you know, that was happening back then. Yeah. Yeah. Could be an alcohol drink or a soft drink. It` Doesn't have to be alcohol. It can be just a drink being spiked, and then her... Yeah. Yeah. ...not being fully in control of herself, um, and being led away somewhere. Yeah, I don't` How much work did we do around that bar at that time? Mm. While the toxicology results are of little use to the team now, the CCTV footage from 1998 still holds some clues. It shows what Kayo was wearing that day ` black bootleg pants, black shoes and a black jacket. And of course, that clothing was never found, which leads on to what else was missing. I know from the property list ` jewellery. Yeah. A pair of silver crescent-shaped earrings; gold ring and band, pink stone with light-coloured. So that jewellery still remains missing. However, some of Kayo's possessions were found. A significant discovery was made very close to the Centrecourt building. We know everything's in close proximity. The backpackers', Centrecourt and the bin where her bag her passport were found. Let's go through that a bit more, because that's close to the scene. In this enquiry, any lead's always an opportunity to advance it just that little bit further. And one of the openings we'd got turned out to be a rubbish collector going about his normal duties in Auckland City. Some time before Kayo was found, when he was emptying rubbish into his truck, some property spilled out which included, uh, a purse and a passport. The rubbish collector took the passport back to the office, where it sat until reports of Kayo's homicide hit the media. The office administrator put two and two together, called us, and just gave us another lead ` somewhere to take this. Where it took us was the dump. That involved our teams sifting through tons of stuff, looking for minor trace evidence. Looking for a hairbrush, um, minor items of clothing, perhaps jewellery. At the end of the day, we spent probably two weeks sifting through the rubbish to no avail. You know, but we do know that that bin is cleared two to three times a day,... Yeah. ...and it's five days later that property` her property is found. Why five days later, you know? It's, like, what`? You know, has he come back to tidy up the scene,... But being so close to the scene too. ...to be forensically aware? Yeah. But that's confidence as well,... (BOTH ASSENT) ...for someone to go back. Which then leads to ` how did he know about that room? Yeah. How did he know that she wouldn't be found for a long time? Or was that just luck? The original investigation focused on the six-storey Centrecourt building and who had access. That's when the painstaking process of checking all alibis began. The primary tenant was a language school with mainly Asian students. Did Kayo pay a visit to the language school to meet new people, perhaps? We had a look at someone from` associated with the language school. This person provided some timings about when they left the building and some phone calls they'd made. And then, when we checked, that alibi, um, didn't stack up. As the days and weeks unfold, there's highs and lows. A new suspect will pop up, and you go, 'My goodness.' You start looking at the facts, and you start saying, 'Yes, it could be this person, because they did this, and they did that, and they lied about that, 'and they were at this time at the right place.' And you start` In your mind, you start building a picture of, 'Yeah, they could be a suspect.' So you get this real high. So my understanding ` they just got their timings wrong. Yeah. You know, the investigations I've run` And even if someone said to me, 'Oh, what were you doing two or three weeks ago on this particular day?' I'd have to think hard, and I could get it wrong. Yeah. So I understand. People get their timings wrong. Yeah. It's sometimes just natural. Establishing the language school suspect had made a genuine mistake, the team now focuses on who else could use the stairwell. People can access that stairwell from fire escape doors, from the car park... It's quite clear that building wasn't secure. No. You didn't need a card or a DKS key to access that building. But if public can get access to` And they can. Yep. And we know we have stair dancers around. Some of those homeless people, they'll wander around, and they'll find places to go and stay warm. BOTH: Yeah. Yeah. So we` People that know the area know how to get into places. BOTH: Yeah. Centrecourt tenants reported that people often accessed the stairwell without a swipe card. Toilets and public areas were messy after the weekends, and the bar downstairs had a fire exit into the stairwell, where patrons used to smoke. Police want to hear from anyone who was in the Centrecourt building over the time Kayo went missing and noticed anything unusual. Kayo was found 11 days after she was last seen. That makes it difficult` When she's in that room... So we don't know how she got there, who took her there, why she was there. Which` That's the intrigue ` and, to some extent, the frustration ` of the investigation. That's what we need to find out. (DRAMATIC MUSIC SWELLS) (SOUL MUSIC) SONG: # Oooh... # VOICEOVER: The King Living sofa sale is on now. The flexible Delta III from only 1,790. Visit King Living today. (UNSETTLING MUSIC) In the months after Kayo Matsuzawa's naked body was found in the Centrecourt building, the investigation team pored over every possible person of interest, but they were no closer to charging anyone. It felt like, 'We just need that one opening, that one break.' Um, but you know what? You make your own breaks. You know? You make your own luck. So anything that popped up, we just kept chasing it down, running it down, uh, till as far as we could take it. That break came when a witness came forward with a new person of interest. So, Ferg, you looked at a Ukrainian person of interest? Yeah. And, look, to be honest, back in the day, he looked good. And he was quite a long-term resident at the backpackers'. Rather eccentric sort of fellow, possibly, um, with some mental health issues. People talked about him being quite paranoid. Mm. Was he the one where someone reported seeing someone who looked like Kayo with? Yeah. There was a witness who said she saw an older chap with quite a dishevelled look ` which definitely matched our person ` with an Asian female at the time. Um, the witness thought it could have been Kayo. The witness did pick him up out of a photo board lineup as being the person she had seen. So again, it all sort of started to build this picture of 'he could well be it.' Other facts about his movements started to really gain our interest ` the fact that he had attempted to leave the country on the day that Kayo's body was found. He was also someone who dealt in second-hand jewellery. He had pawned, overseas, in Australia, some jewellery that matched the missing jewellery from Kayo. He'd sold a feminine ring ` a gold ring with a pink stone. Kayo had a gold ring with a pink stone in it. So to us, this seemed like a really good avenue. What became immediately difficult was that he had successfully left the country before being identified as a suspect. So he was now overseas. Had he fled the country? Had he just left the country? We don't know. Uh, it was really important that we actually found and located that original jewellery. So the investigation team at the time did a really good job. They actually tracked down the jewellery in Australia? That's right. So a team went over there and actually tracked down the jewellery that he'd pawned, and was conclusively eliminated as being her jewellery. So it wasn't Kayo's jewellery? It wasn't Kayo's jewellery. No. OK. But even though, like, that jewellery ` we would conclusively eliminate it, he hadn't been eliminated. He was still out there, somewhere in the world. To be honest, I didn't think it would take two years till he came to our attention. But then, finally, he made himself obvious at an airport in France. Um, he was described as squatting and living in the airport. Uh, so the French authorities, when they questioned him, checked the Interpol alert. It came up, and we were duly informed. Um, we thought, 'Great. This is` This is it.' The Ukrainian suspect was extradited back to New Zealand. Mark Fergus spent two days interviewing him, but like so many leads before, it was a dead end. Look, at the end of the day, my gut instinct is it` it wasn't him. Here you had a guy who` with a clear mental health history, who was paranoid, who was eccentric. Was he the kind of person that would have been able to approach Kayo and strike up a conversation... Mm. ...and then entice her into a stairwell? From the time that I spent with him, he didn't seem like the kind of person that would be able to take a young, wary Asian tourist... Mm. ...to that level of rapport-building. So, investigations can be quite emotional, and if you're on a rollercoaster ride because suddenly you have a person of interest who looks really good, and then they're not... You know, the staff can go up and go down. And emotionally, that's tough. My job is to keep their feet on the ground, keep them plain sailing, even keel and focused. So, let's go back to the DNA that we found under Kayo's fingernails. Where does that take us? We need to look at this. You know, we've got 20 years ahead. This is the first time police have revealed publicly that they have forensic evidence that that may identify Kayo's killer. In 1998, they collected material from under Kayo's fingernails, but at the time, forensic testing only showed DNA belonging to Kayo herself. The difficulty with the samples that we processed back in 1998 was that the techniques we were using were, um, as advanced as they could be. But the sensitivity didn't really allow us to do the types of things we can do now. Um, around that time, if we wanted to get a DNA profile from a sample of blood, for example, you'd need a bloodstain around about the size of a 5c piece. Nowadays, we don't even need to be able to see the blood. Rian Morgan-Smith is the ESR scientist reviewing the forensic evidence gathered from the scene. One of the techniques that we've used in reanalysis of some of the samples in this particular case involves just targeting cells from male contributors. So we look at DNA on the Y chromosome, which means we can ignore all the other cellular material that may be contributed ` in this case, by Ms Kayo herself. The process we use is just referred to as Y-STR. So we're looking at ways that we can gain more information from that, which may potentially lead us somewhere. (POIGNANT MUSIC) For Kayo's family, the DNA developments come as a surprise. They never knew about the fingernail scrapings collected from Kayo's body. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: This is the first I've heard of it. Is this the suspect's DNA? (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: It's great to find out there's new evidence that might lead to the killer. I think we are one step closer to the offender, so I truly hope this person is arrested. (POIGNANT MUSIC) Can the advances in DNA testing now lead us directly to Kayo's killer? (DRAMATIC MUSIC SWELLS) Unlimited broadband now with Vodafone TV Intro ` it's TV like never before. Switch to Vodafone and get Vodafone TV Intro and three months' free unlimited broadband. That's over $640 of value. Visit vodafone.co.nz to sign up. (TENSE MUSIC) Our Cold Case experts are reviewing the unsolved killing of 29-year-old Japanese tourist Kayo Matsuzawa. For the first time, they've revealed that fingernail scrapings were collected from Kayo's body in 1998. However, at the time, DNA testing techniques were still very simple. The fingernail scrapings from Kayo's body could mean that, you know, she may have had contact with the offender. Um, she may have even scratched the offender. So that's the interesting thing. We don't know what's happened, but there's all these possibilities with the fingernail scrapings. Number one hope would be that the last 20 years, we've come to the point with forensic science that the DNA that still hasn't been identified can be identified. Fingers crossed. And Rian Morgan-Smith has new information that may help the Cold Case team. So, all the DNA from the deceased... We have obtained some DNA from under the fingernails that's foreign to Ms Kayo, which we didn't have back in 1998. And how will that assist the police? The techniques that we can use now involve just looking at DNA found on the Y chromosome. So it's male DNA. So under Ms Kayo's fingernails, there would have been a lot of her cellular material,... Mm. ...and a little bit of extra cellular material from, in this case, male contributors. So we now have some information about those male contributors. (OMINOUS MUSIC) So, the Y-STR testing. We're talking about male chromosomes here` Yes. The Y-STR testing is just on the Y chromosome, which is the male chromosome. And have identified the` There is a contributor from male DNA that was found under her fingernails that's never been identified. All right. Well, first of all, that's exciting. Mm. But my understanding is that we still need to get DNA samples... Yeah, that's right. ...from any person of interest. So, Y-SCR DNA stands alone. We need to actually have a new DNA sample off a suspect, and then they can do Y-DNA testing on that DNA sample against our sample taken from Kayo. OK. So that's either by consent or if there's no consent, through a suspect compulsion order, which we'd have to apply for. Through the court. We have to compel that person to give us DNA... Right. ...to do the testing. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) This is one of the most significant developments in Kayo's case in 20 years. If a suspect's DNA can be matched with the material under Kayo's fingernails, it will prove she had contact with this male. Yeah, it is exciting, what the ESR have come back to us with. That's exciting. It's` Will it lead to a prosecution and conviction? I'd like it to. But we do rely on their expertise and the technology. (HAUNTING MUSIC) (SPEAKS JAPANESE) This is a postcard telling us she'd been good over there. 'Thank you so much for your support when I left. 'It's much colder here than expected, but it's such a beautiful place. 'Everyone here is so kind. I will probably not get killed. 'I'd better get going now. Please don't do too much overtime at work and take good care of yourself.' (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: She had a lot of friends, and she'd make anyone around her happy. I can't describe how kind and nice she was. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: She was the kind of person who would make friends with anyone. It wouldn't be an issue for her to make friends at the backpackers' and go out with people she'd just met. I think that this could be the reason this happened. Because DNA is only one aspect of a murder enquiry, police must continue to use all their investigation tools. Criminal profiling was in its early stages in 1998. Now it's invaluable in identifying types of offenders. I think about who could've done this, you know? It remains open, um, who was involved. To me, this will be someone` This wasn't the first time they've been involved in some kind of act like this. We know Kayo is a 29-year-old Japanese woman. She's a tourist. Yeah, and an offender wouldn't know that she could speak English or not. So, you know, who are we looking at? Someone, obviously, confident enough and comfortable enough to approach a Japanese tourist. I think it would have to be someone around her own age. From what I know of Kayo, I think it wouldn't be someone who was a lot older. She obviously looks like a tourist. She's got the backpack on... She was probably a bit wide-eyed, looking around. She's single. She's by herself too, and she's been easily targeted. It's someone that she was comfortable enough with to stay around. For` For an hour or two hours. Yeah. To have a feel of` Person was trustworthy to her. Appeared to be trustworthy. Yup. Yup. He's charmed her. She's been` Had that confidence that... Yeah. ...'This will be OK.' You know, if you're looking at some kind of way of making her compliant, the drink-spiking's definitely a way. So they had to have shared a meal, a drink, a social occasion... Mm. ...for a short amount of time. This is not a person who it's his first time committing crime. And if we detour down that track, then it's... you know, it's premeditated. Yup. So there's a sexual connotation to it. Yup. So did we look at all our databases, in terms of sex offenders? Yes, we had criminal profiling back in 1998. But in 2018, their databases ` worldwide and... Mm. ...even here in New Zealand ` are so much better. Yup. Look, I think a new profile based on what we've got would be absolutely invaluable. Cos I mean, the suspect list was massive. And, look, the other thing is... the suspect may not have even been on the original suspect list. Mm. So there may be a suspect that's completely not known 20 years ago that since then has offended with a very similar MO. In 1998, the case generated a huge number of public phone calls as people offered up persons of interest they felt police should look into. And over the past 20 years, police have continued to receive new information. But more recently, Scott Beard has heard something that could change this whole investigation. So, our investigation has been advised from another district of a potential person of interest. Which is exciting for us. And what is it about this` Is it this person's MO? Well, the other district just came forward and said, 'Have you had a look at this person here?' OK. Well, that's interesting. What`? Uh, so part of our investigation, obviously, is to work that up, look at that, just like every other person of interest. Yup. When we look back at the forensics and assess and reassess, where does that take us? We need to look at the movements of this person. You know, who are his associates? Does he look good? I think he looks good. Looks really good. Yeah? Mm. We need to do a lot more work now around this individual. Yup. Let's find out everything about them. 20 years later, is this the lead the Cold Case team needs to crack this unsolved murder? And will you have information that links to the new suspect? (DRAMATIC MUSIC SWELLS) Looking for the perfect mascara? Choose Paradise Mascara from L'Oreal Paris. Super soft brush and volumising formula for intense volume and spectacular length. Paradise Mascara - now also available in waterproof. From L'Oreal Paris. * 20 years ago, a young, independent woman with the travel bug came to New Zealand to learn English. But Kayo Matsuzawa never got the chance to return home to Japan. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: When I wake up in the morning or before I go to sleep, I think, 'How are you, Kayo? Where are you now?' I can't accept that she's dead. I didn't get to see her body, so I still think that she's studying in New Zealand. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: There's no special time I think of her. I think of her every day. She was my sister. But at the same time, she was a friend I talked to. When I had questions or problems, I asked her, even though she was my little sister. Now the Cold Case team have made a breakthrough that could finally give Kayo's family some answers. We have an obligation to her family to do our utmost to solve this, to give them answers. So when we get the name of a new person of interest, then we are gonna thoroughly investigate that person. As the Cold Case team focuses on this new person of interest, details start to emerge that look more and more promising. OK, I'm gonna tell you something here that's exciting. Yup. The bank records show that our nominated suspect was on Queen Street using a bank card the same afternoon as Kayo arrived in Auckland. 11th of September. That's huge. Whereabouts on Queen Street was he? Used the card? It was just along from where the Centrecourt building is. Wow. That close? It was close. Wow. Mm. So we know we now have somebody as a nominated suspect who we know and can say was in Queen Street, was in the vicinity of where Kayo was. And he's been nominated for us for a reason, so we now have to do some more work around this. Due to the ongoing investigation, this person of interest cannot be named. Interesting. That's huge, yeah. Mm. So we need to look at his background. We need to look at his friends, associates, where he lived, any vehicles he had, his employment history... So we need a full profile of him. We need a full profile of him from 1998. What was he doing... Mm. ...in 1998 and around Auckland? Cos he was here that day. Obviously, we also need to look at what's happened since. OK. He's probably worth looking, well... maybe the years leading up to '98. Was there similar offending leading up to that? Absolutely. Yeah. Um, has he` where has he come from? What kind of history has he got? Yup. And also, that offending may not have been reported. So... there could have been things that he was doing that we don't know about, that other people do. You're right. There could be some other victims out there who have never reported this to the police. Yeah. Yeah. Does this type of predatory behaviour sound familiar to you? Do you think you may have had an interaction with someone like this? He is bound to have approached other females in a similar way ` being confident, possibly even drugged the females ` and that they've never reported it. Cos quite often, this kind of offending is under-reported,... Absolutely. Mm. ...and people don't come to us. But they can come to us. They still can come to us if it sounds familiar to them,... Mm. ...this type of offending, approached by this confident person. You know, we need people out there who may have been subject to this type of offending, who haven't reported it previously, to come to us. Cos it could be part of our jigsaw to put this all together. This is why we need the public help here. That's what's gonna change this. But this is exciting, you know? Yeah. That's correct. You know, it's been a long time, this case, and we now have a nominated suspect who fits the profile, who just, in general, is looking good. And... And is` But we do have some work to do. For the first time in 20 years, there are positive steps for police to take to solve the killing of Kayo Matsuzawa. Um, I assume we've got a photograph of him? Yup. Um, I assume we've got Is there value, then, in going back through that old CCTV footage that we collected back in the day and seeing if this person's on there? Absolutely. Can we make sure that's an action point? Absolutely. Yeah. Get some staff to dig out that CCTV and just go through it. So, you know, we need to also speak to his associates. You know, former girlfriends, if we can find out who they are. You know, 20 years on, allegiances have changed. Loyalties have changed, and there could be someone out there who's just waiting for us to come to them, and they'll tell us. You know, that Japanese family of Kayo's, you know, they want answers. They want closure. 20 years on. Their daughter left home, went on an overseas trip to New Zealand, has never come back. You know, if I was in their position ` you know, sad as it is ` 'Just give me some closure, please.' This is where you, the viewer, can help. Do you recognise this kind of behaviour? Do you know someone who may have targeted vulnerable women in the late '90s and early 2000s? Or maybe you were in tavern or the food court in 1998 and remember seeing a young Japanese woman matching Kayo's description. Or have you heard similar stories from the time that have gone unreported? (HAUNTING MUSIC) (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: If the killer is watching this, I want to know why on Earth you hurt Kayo. How could you kill a girl who didn't do anything to you? (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: My daughter doesn't know her, of course. She doesn't call her 'Auntie'. She calls her 'Kayo'. But sometimes I tell her I hope she grows up to be like my sister, Kayo. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: I have a granddaughter called Ayaka, but sometimes I call her Kayo, because Kayo is always up here, in my head. And Ayaka looks just like Kayo, but she tells me, 'Grandma, you've got us mixed up again.' (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: Once I was back in Japan, I couldn't shake the thought that I should have gone on that trip with her. But one day, I was sitting in a cafe with a friend, and she told me, 'It wasn't your fault.' It was such a relief. I burst into tears at the cafe. But that was such a big relief for me. I decided to visit her grave every year on her anniversary. So every year, I go to the gravesite, and I tell Kayo how my year has been. (SPEAKS JAPANESE) TRANSLATOR: It's been 20 years. But after all these years, the authorities, media, they're still paying attention to it. I'm so grateful for that. If the real offender is watching this, I'd like you to turn yourself in and pay the price for your crime. For Mark Fergus too, there is finally some hope in the case he still thinks about 20 years later. Every case you work on,... it's a human life. It's something... It's someone that's had their life snuffed out too early. Kayo came to this country with some ambitions, with some dreams ` to learn English, to meet Kiwi people, to have an adventure ` and that was all taken away from her. She should've gone home. She should've been able to go home, go back to her family,... tell her stories, share her photos,... and go and live on an amazing life. And she never had that opportunity. The re-investigation of Kayo Matsuzawa's murder, 20 years later, has resulted in strong new leads, and police are hopeful that, at last, Kayo's killer may be brought to justice. Don't get me wrong. It is exciting. It is solvable. But we've still gotta keep our feet on the ground, and we've gotta do a thorough job. Copyright Able 2018