A Japanese woman living an isolated, insular life with her brother, sister and mother in North Yorkshire lay dead for weeks while her family bought surgical spirit, convinced she was still alive.
An inquest on Friday heard that the partially-mummified body of 49-year-old Rina Yasutake was found on a mattress in her home in Helmsley on 25 September 2018.
The discovery came after a pharmacist alerted police to the fact that two people, Yasutake’s brother and sister, were regularly buying large amounts of surgical spirit.
Jon Heath, the senior coroner for North Yorkshire, gave an open verdict into the death of Yasutake after hearing evidence that there was no toxicological or third party cause.
A judge in 2021 ruled that the sister Yoshika Yasutake, now 51, brother Takahiro Yasutake, 56, and mother Michiko Yasutake, 80, would not face a trial for preventing the lawful and decent burial of a dead body without lawful excuse.
It was decided prosecution was not in the public interest. Sean Morris, the recorder of York, said at the time: “These three defendants suffer from an extremely rare mental affliction which has created a unique situation for the criminal courts.”
At Friday’s inquest in Northallerton further fragments of information were provided about Rina Yasutake and her life.
As a young woman she attended Cambridge University and studied classics, specialising in linguistics. She lived in Cambridge for around a decade with her family. She did not work full-time but was evidently a talented artist who on occasion sold her work.
The family moved to Helmsley, where they lived for two decades but they were not part of the community.
Det Insp Nichola Holden said the Yasutakes were an “isolated, insular” family who lived with no modern communication devices such as a television or radio. “They were very much a unit,” she told the inquest.
Holden said there was a significant language barrier, even with the help of an interpreter as they had a particular dialect. “The Japanese they spoke was fairly unique.”
In testimony given to a psychiatrist and read out in court, Yasutake’s brother and sister described how from April 2018 Yasutake stopped eating and often did not drink. She became weaker and did not want to leave her bed.
Neither sibling knew why this was happening and they encouraged her to eat. But they also decided she was on her own path and did not want to change her ways.
They wanted to look after their sister themselves and feared something could happen to her if they took her to hospital.
Yoshika Yasutake said her sister was being nourished with spiritual food and was being fulfilled.
In the days before the body was discovered, the siblings were buying surgical spirit, two bottles at a time, which they indicated to the pharmacist was for their sister. Staff reported that they could smell dead bodies.
The pharmacist alerted the authorities, and an ambulance and police went to the house. Evidence from an ambulance worker said it was obvious Yasutake was dead.
DI Holden was asked by the barrister Craig Hassall KC, representing the family, whether they were “utterly convinced” Yasutake was still alive. Holden said they were and remained convinced of this for many months after police became involved.
The court heard that Yasutake was seen by her GP in 2013 after an aggressive episode and was given counselling and community mental health treatment. But she was not seen after that.
The siblings said Rina was gifted and was privately educated at Queen Mary’s school near Thirsk in North Yorkshire. They had moved to Britain after the mother married a British man.
No expert has been able to suggest a cause of death, hence the coroner’s open verdict. “I am unable from the evidence available to determine how she died,” he said.
