The case of Mayuko “Mayu” Kawase, a 21-year-old Japanese international student who vanished in 2001 after failing to show up for classes at Oklahoma City Community College, remains unresolved. More than 25 years later, her family, her fiancé and her friends are still waiting for answers about what happened to her.
According to the Oklahoma City Police Department, Kawase had moved to Oklahoma to study at the University of Central Oklahoma’s English Language Institute before later attending Oklahoma City Community College in southwest Oklahoma City. She stopped showing up for class and was reported missing.
Accounts differ on exactly when and where Kawase was last seen. The Oklahoman reported that she vanished on August 22, 2001, and was last seen at the college library, adding that she was not reported missing until a week later. The Charley Project, a nonprofit database of missing persons cases, reported that she disappeared on August 20, 2001. NBC News, meanwhile, reported that she was last seen in August 2001 at her home in south Oklahoma City, and that she was reported missing by her family in Japan.
Remains Discovered Nearly Six Years Later
The case remained unsolved for years until children discovered partial human remains in April 2007, according to the same Oklahoman report. The OKCPD Facebook post describes the discovery site as being near the Boy Scouts’ Camp Kickapoo in southwest Oklahoma City, while NBC News had previously reported the remains were found at the camp in far southeast Oklahoma City; The Oklahoman placed them at Camp Kickapoo itself, near SW 119 and County Line Road…