Michael Cash wrote:

> One of the things about murder cases in Japan which struck me as odd
> was how a murdered corpse going undiscovered affects the statute of
> limitations on prosecuting the murderer.
>
> You ain't dead, you see, until a doctor says you're dead. And it
> doesn't matter if he says it 30 seconds after you give up the ghost or
> 30 years after the last bit of flesh has rotted off your skeleton.
>
> The statute of limitations is 15 years after the murder. You're not
> murdered until you're dead. And you're not dead until you're examined.
> And you're not examined until you're found. There have been people
> prosecuted for and convicted of murder in Japan who, because they
> didn't know this, thought they had long ago safely beaten the rap.

Doesn't it technically start after the paperwork has been filed?

So why did that guy who left the body of a woman he killed 26 years ago under his
former residence escape prosecution? The woman's family and supporters even
falsely claimed that North Korea had abducted her.