The murder of Kanako Ohyama: When tourism turns deadly

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For many young people, travelling is an exciting time full of adventure and self-discovery. However, this wasn't the case for Kanako Ohyama — a 21-year-old Japanese tourist who was found murdered in New Orleans in 2003.

More than 20 years later, the team at Crime+Investigation are revisiting the case and asking the questions on everyone’s mind: Who was Kanako Ohyama, and why was it so difficult for police to catch her killer?

Crossing paths with a deadly stranger

While every murder is completely horrific, there's something particularly unsettling about the Kanako Ohyama case. Perhaps it's because she was all alone in an alien place, far from family and friends. She was also in the prime of her life — travelling should have been the start of her story, not the end.

However, most disturbing of all is the randomness of the crime. According to research by Sky, stranger killings are rare because there's simply less motive. Despite making sensational headlines, approximately 89% of women are actually murdered by someone they know.

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Like the tragic case of Laken Riley, the murder of Kanako Ohyama reminds us that evil lurks in the most unassuming places. Any one of us could cross paths with a deadly stranger, with devastating consequences.

Who was Kanako Ohyama?

Much about Kanako Ohyama remains a mystery. We know she was a 21-year-old Japanese student and tourist who arrived in New Orleans on 31st August 2003. Presumably on a budget, like most young travellers, she booked a popular youth hostel in the city centre.

Although there's little written about her online, it's only fair to assume she was bold and vivacious. Wallflowers don't usually travel halfway across the world to satisfy their wanderlust, but Kanako did. Not only that, she chose New Orleans as her destination — known for its vibrancy, decadent bohemia and high crime rate.

Whether or not she truly understood The Big Easy's complex reputation is a mystery, but the night she went missing, she didn't seem to care. As soon as she checked in, she left the hostel to explore the neighbourhood. When she didn't return after several days, staff finally reported her missing.

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The crime

On 4th September 2003, the police received an anonymous phone call — the contents of which we don't know much about. Nevertheless, whatever was said led the search teams to a wooded area near the Mississippi River. Here, they found a partially clothed body that had clearly been left for several days.

Despite discrepancies between tooth fillings and Ohyama's four-year-old dental record, the body was believed to be hers. The evidence was too convincing. The body was close to the youth hostel and some of Ohyama's personal belongings, including her purse, were found nearby.

But how did she get here? What happened? Officers worked around the clock to find the perpetrator, but Kanako had no family or friends in the city — no one knew where she was going or who she was meeting that fateful night.

A break in the case

Thanks to surveillance videos and a thorough inventory of criminals in the local area, police soon turned their attention to Timothy Joe Henson — a convicted rapist who had previously served 15 years in prison. Once released in 2002, he became transient, never settling anywhere for long. At the time of the crime, he had been in New Orleans for four months.

It didn't take long for a confession. Henson told investigators he met Kanako near the French Quarter on 2nd September 2003 (although this leaves several days unaccounted for from her disappearance on 31st August). From here, they travelled across the Mississippi River to a secluded levee, where he violently strangled her with a belt.

Due to the condition of her body, it was impossible to tell whether Kanako was sexually assaulted.

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The aftermath

Officials were concerned about how the murder would impact tourism to New Orleans, which was especially popular with Japanese students.

This wasn’t the first time a Japanese student had been murdered on US soil. Two decades prior, in the neighbouring state of Louisiana, Yoshihiro Hattori was shot to death in Baton Rouge. His crime? Accidentally knocking on the wrong door on his way to a Halloween party.

However, sadly, the murder of Kanako Ohyama didn't receive anywhere near as much media attention, and her story soon faded into obscurity.

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