Yuka Takaoka: A Shocking Crime of Passion
Yuka Takaoka is described as a "too beautiful criminal". Photo: Wikipedia.
Yuka Takaoka is a Japanese woman who attempted to murder her boyfriend in a fit of jealous rage. She then dragged his unconscious body to the foyer of her apartment complex and ignored police while smoking a cigarette and talking on the phone.
What is a Yandere?
Some fan art depicting the infamous crime scene photo of Yuka Takaoka. Photo: Yandere Wiki
A yandere is a character trope in anime and manga who is initially loving and sweet, but becomes violent and possessive when it comes to their romantic interest. The term "yandere" is a combination of the Japanese words "yanderu," meaning "mentally ill," and "dere," meaning "lovestruck."
Who is Yuka Takaoka?
Yuka Takaoka was the manager of a “girls bar” in the red-light district of Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. About one year before the incident she met her boyfriend Phoenix Luna who worked at another club in the area.
Phoenix was very popular at his club and often boasted about how he was the third most popular host. Some people who knew Phoenix and Yuka believe that Yuka was instrumental in Phoenix’s success.
The couple had been living together for just three days when the attack occurred.
The Night Yuka Takaoka Stabbed Her Boyfriend
On the 23rd of May 2019, Phoenix came home late from work. Yuka was suspicious and went through the photos on his cell phone after he went to sleep. To her horror she discovered pictures of Phoenix being intimate with another woman.
Yuka was distraught and filled with rage. She wanted to kill Phoenix and herself. She went into their bedroom and stabbed Phoenix in the abdomen. She then dragged him, unconscious, down to the apartment lobby, believing he was dead.
An infamous photo was taken at the scene of the crime where Yuka is seen smoking a cigarette and talking to someone on a cell phone, seemingly ignoring the police officers who rushed to the scene.
You can see the photo here. Be warned it is very graphic.
Phoenix Luna was taken to hospital in a critical condition but eventually made a full recovery.
The Aftermath of Yuka Takaoka’s Attack
Yuka Takaoka went to trial for the attempted murder of Phoenix Luna in December 2019. She was found guilty and sentenced to 3 and a half years in prison.
Phoenix says he doesn’t hold a grudge against Yuka and that people should be able to live a normal life after serving jail time for their crimes. Phoenix settled a lawsuit against Yuka out of court for ¥5,000,000.
Yuka Takaoka Becomes a Social Media Sensation
This video tells the story of Yuka Takaoka and Phoenix Luna
The internet was wowed by Yuka Takaoka’s good looks and dubbed her a Yandere. Users on social became obsessed with Yuka and her crime and began to create paintings and drawings of her. Several reporters have written articles describing the strange fascination that people have with attractive criminals that is almost akin to worship.
If you enjoyed this article you might also be interested in reading about Brandi Worley, a mother who killed her children or the skin suit murder of Katarzyna Zowada.
Lynne Martin is accused of igniting the fatal fire that claimed the life of her 88-year-old father, Ronald Russell Allison, at his remote farm home 30km north-west of Gisborne, New Zealand, in the early hours of January 25, 2013.
Dylan Schumaker was babysitting Ashlee Smith’s two children while she was at work. She returned to find that her eldest child, two year old Austin Smith, had been murdered.
Nikko Jenkins committed a series of murders in Omaha over a 2 week period in 2013. He blamed the Egyptian Serpent God Apophis for his actions, eventually cutting his tongue and penis into a serpent shape as an act of worship to this deity.
In 1992 a man named Steven Clark went into a public restroom while on an outing with his mother. He was never seen or heard from again.
Cynthia Cdebaca is a grandmother from Fallbrook, California who killed her son-in-law, Geoward Eustaquio. She showed no remorse, stating she would do it again if she had the chance.
Chandler Halderson claimed to be working remotely for an insurance company while studying for a degree in IT. He also claimed he had a lucrative job lined up at SpaceX starting in the next few months. It turns out in reality he flunked out of college, was unemployed and spent all of his time at home playing video games. When his parents found out the truth he murdered them to cover up his lies.
On the 28th April the naked, decapitated body of Erica Green was found by police in Kansas City. The child went unidentified until 2005 when her mother and step father were convicted of her murder.
In 2014 Kelly Cochran and her husband, Jason, killed a man with whom Kelly had been having an affair. Friends of the couple believe they may been served the man’s remains at a barbeque. In 2016 the guilt caught up with Kelly and she decided to murder Jason to ‘even the score’.
On September 23, 2002, 18-year-old Rachel Burkheimer, was forced to watch her own grave being dug by her ex-boyfriend and his gang in foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
In December 2014, a well preserved human head was found in the woods in rural Pennsylvania. It is still not known how the head got there and who is belonged to.
Father Ryan Erickson, a Roman Catholic priest, died by suicide in 2004. A subsequent investigation found probable cause that he was responsible for the murders of funeral home director Daniel O'Connell and mortuary science intern James Ellison, shortly before O'Connell was to confront Erickson with allegations of sexual abuse towards a teenage boy.
In 2002, Jermaine Fuller, the vocalist of the viral tune "Peanut Butter Jelly Time," was Snoop Dogg's brother-in-law. Jermaine passed away after an intense 11-hour police confrontation, during which Snoop Dogg tried to pacify him and encourage him to end the police standoff.
In 2011, David Glasser and Edward Frampton and Robert Chadwell were murdered for testifying against members of the Hell’s Angels gang. Caius Veiovis, one of the convicted murderers, gained international notoriety as he claimed to be a vampire and a satan worshipper.
In 1975, Cindy White set a fire in her home hoping to escape from sexual abuse from the couple she lived with. This fire resulted in the deaths of 6 people, including four small children.
Jim Donnelly went missing from the Glenbrook Steel Mill in Waiuku, New Zealand on Monday, June 21, 2004. He has not been seen since, leaving his family devastated and police puzzled.
During the lunch hour at Okubo Elementary School in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, on June 1, 2004, "Girl A," or “Nevada-tan” an 11-year-old schoolgirl, killed her 12-year-old classmate Satomi Mitarai in an empty classroom.
Nasra Yussef Mohammad al-Enezi, set fire to a tent where women and children were celebrating during her husbands wedding. 57 people were killed and approximately 90 others were wounded.
In 2020, college athlete Grant Brace died of heat stroke at wrestling practise as coaches refused to let him have water.
In 1946, Pearl Lusk was given a job following a woman who she thought was a jewel thief. She was tasked with taking an x-ray photo of the woman with a hidden camera. It turned out the camera was a gun.
Famous actress Dominique Dunne was brutally strangled by John Thomas Sweeney on October 30th, 1982.
David Alan Kirwan was a 24 year old man who tied trying to save his friend’s dog, Moosie, from a hot spring at Yellowstone’s Fountain Paint Pot thermal area in Wyoming in 1981.
Oklahoma man Lawrence Paul Anderson, plead guilty to murdering a woman, cutting out her heart, and then cooking it and serving it to his family.
In 2005, China Arnold killed her 28 day old baby by putting her in the microwave while fighting with her boyfriend over the child’s paternity.
On the 13th March, 2019, Keyona Griffin made a desperate call to 911, begging for help and claiming she was about to be murdered. Two hours later Keyona and her aunt, Cherletta Barber-Bey were found dead in their home.
In October 2017, Lamora Williams became overwhelmed with motherhood, placed two of her children in the oven, then turned it on high.
Joann Romain was found dead on Boblo Island, two months after disappearing from outside her church. Police immediately ruled the case to be a suicide but many concerning details have arisen that suggest that Joann may have been murdered.
Christian Booth was at breaking point when she slit the throats of her three children in order to ‘make them be quiet for her husband’.
Kelly Cook was murdered by a man who claimed he needed her babysitting services. Despite several people having interacted with the man and even watching as Kelly got in his car, the murderer has never been found.
Ryan Waller and his girlfriend Heather Quan were shot during a home invasion in December 2006. Police arrived at the scene and assumed critically injured Ryan had killed his girlfriend, interrogating him for hours, and preventing him from receiving vital medical treatment.
Over the last decade, pessimism about the future of humanity seems to have ramped up, particularly in online spaces. Could it be that we instinctively know things are about to change drastically?
The Illuminati card game has become infamous for its uncanny predictions that seem to have come true.
American Mother Riss White has taken to TikTok to tell of how her daughter seems to remember a previous life where she died in the Twin Towers.
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1975 during a storm, resulting in the loss of all 29 crew members. The wreck, discovered at a depth of 530 feet, has yielded minimal recovery of bodies, with only one crew member ever found.
Strange, undecipherable ads appeared in the Daily Wildcat Newspaper every year on the first of may. Several theories exist concerning the origin of the ads but their purpose is yet to be understood.
In London, a woman without any previous mental health issues heard voices in her head while reading at home. The voices reassured her, saying not to be afraid and expressing a desire to help. Worried about her sanity, she sought medical assistance. A psychiatrist, Mr. Ikechukwu Azuonye, documented her case in the British Medical Journal.
Many people who have used the drug DMT report seeing Machine Elves during their trips. Could these creatures be real and, if not, why do so many report seeing the same hallucination?
The 'Little Red Man of Destiny' gained widespread recognition as a bringer of misfortune and calamity throughout France, making appearances to some of the country's most prominent figures for over 260 years.
A newspaper article from 1936 reported that a dying man, after seeing himself in a hand mirror, somehow caused it to be fused with the table it was placed on. No one was able to lift the mirror after the man’s death until it was removed violently with an ice pick.
Katherine Hobbs was convinced she wouldn’t live to 16 years old. She had several premonitions throughout her life that led her to believe she would die young. Katherine lived to be 16 years, three months and three days old.
Slime Mold is a strange single celled organism that has baffled scientists for decades. It can solve mazes, communicate with other slime molds and repair itself in minutes.
In 1936 a teenage girl witnessed a man using a jetpack, flying in the sky above her. Was this event extraterrestrial, a time slip or evidence of secret military technology?
Before the police went to Chris Benoit's house and found him and his family dead, someone made changes to the Wikipedia page about him. These changes were made anonymously and talked about the death of his wife, Nancy Benoit.
On May 13, 1848, a strong earthquake struck Chantibun in eastern Siam (now Thailand). Strangely, human-like hairs emerged from the ground in various locations during the quake, including bazaars, roads, fields, and even solid areas.
The Eltanin Antenna is a strange antenna like structure spotted on the ocean floor at a depth of 12,808 ft by a research ship in 1964. Some believe it may be an extraterrestrial artifact.
The Gate of the Gods is an ancient structure in Peru with mysterious origins. No one knows who built it or why.
A four-mile stretch of Missouri-Pacific railroad is home to a strange ball of light that has been sighted hundreds, if not thousands of times. What is not known is what the Gurdon Light is and what causes it.
A caulbearer is a baby born with a “veil” covering its face made from an unbroken amniotic sac. It is said that a child born this way will grow up to have unique paranormal protections or even psychic abilities.
On the 25th November 1972 Captain John Gray returned to his bunk aboard the SS Great Britain complaining of stomach pain. He was never seen again.
Nestled within the breathtaking landscapes of Alaska lies a mysterious and foreboding place known as the Alaska Triangle, where people and planes vanish without a trace, and unexplainable phenomena abound.
Soldiers stationed at OP Rock have witnessed bizarre occurrences: eerie lights, chilling static on the radio, fluctuating temperatures, and haunting whispers in the night, accompanied by an unexplained stench of death.
In 1775, a ghost ship named Octavius was discovered stranded off the coast of Greenland, with the frozen remains of all 28 crew members found below deck.
The Hathor Temple is an ancient Egyptian temple located within the Dendera Temple complex in Egypt. Strangely, some of the temples solid granite stairs appear to have melted.
The Sky Stone, a striking bluish rock, is thought to be a piece of a meteorite that fell to Earth. This unique stone was found in Africa and is said to contain a high concentration of oxygen.
In August 1942, the L-8 came back from its patrol of the California coast to search for Japanese submarines, but its two-person crew was no where to be seen.
On the evening of the 18th April 2023, a strange pillar of light has been seen by hundreds of people in the sky over Detroit. What is going on?
Chaneque are legendary creatures from Mexican folklore that are said to look like children with the face of an old person.
Some researchers believe that an archaeological site unearthed in Tennessee may have been created by ancient Egyptians.
In 1983, Loren Coleman coined the term "Bridgewater Triangle" to refer to an area located between Abington, Rehoboth, and Freetown in Massachusetts. This area seems to be a focal point for strange phenomena in the United States.
Barbara Rogers and her boyfriend Steven Mineo were devoted followers of Sherry Shriner, an online peddler of reptilian conspiracy theories. The couple’s dedication to these beliefs eventually ended in Steven’s death by gunshot wound at the hands of Barbara.