CONTENT WARNING - CHILD ABUSE
You're going to think you know the scary part when you see it. Trust me. The truly scary part will be the final line.
In the 1987, there was a woman in Japan who had 4 children from 4 different fathers and, seemingly, only one of them was registered with the government. We do not know their names but they were referred to as Child A, B, D, and E. They were 13 (A), 6 (B), 3 (D) and 2 (E). They did have another sibling referred to as Child C (with yet another different father) but they passed away shortly after birth in 1984. None of the children attended school.
In the autumn of that year, this woman met a new man and developed a relationship with him. She wanted to live with him but did not want to bring her children for whatever reason. So, she made the decision to leave around $350 to Child A and leave him in charge of taking care of the others while she moved in with her boyfriend.
In July of 1988, almost a full year later, the first adult set foot into the apartment and found 3 children, now a year older, in an state of severe malnourishment. What they also discovered was the body... of Child C. Child E was nowhere to be found and information that was given by the children was vague. They had shut down.
Over the course of this year, the children had survived primarily on food bought from convenience stores and had wasted away. The house was obviously in disrepair and a general state of awfulness. These children were living in a hell because their mother abandoned them. However... a couple of months earlier, in the middle of April of 1988, two friends of Child A attacked Child E. As a result of the attack, Child E died at either 3 or 4 years old. After a week, Child A revealed that 'Friend B' had killed his sibling. Child A and Friend A then buried the body of his sister in the woods.
Now you might be wondering what the punishments are here, right?
Well, let's start with the murder. Friend A and Friend B were sent to a reform school for their involvement in the death. It was determined that Child A was likely not around at the time of Child E's death, he was actually indicted for abandoning a body but sent to a care facility instead.
The mother? After the children were found, there was a media uproar. The children were found on July 17th. She turned herself in almost a week later on July 23rd and indicted in August for child abandonment. She got a 3-year sentence with a 4-year suspended sentence. If you're curious, this is known as the Sugamo Child Abandonment Case from Japan. A hauntingly beautiful movie was made called Nobody Knows that is a dramatized version of the case with some slight things changed.
But I promised you at the start of all of this that the final line would be the scariest.
After she served her 3 years, she was given custody of the children back.