Missing student’s story filmed on campus

A special three-hour drama will air April 3 in Japan. It will tell of a Japanese girl who went missing in Oklahoma City in 2001 and was never found.

Twenty-one years old at the time, Mayuko “Mayu” Kawase was reported missing on Aug. 20, 2001. At the time of her disappearance, the international student attended OCCC.

In 2003, Kawase’s mother Reiko Kawase contacted TV Asahi’s “The Power of TV,” — a show best described as the Japanese version of “America’s Most Wanted” — asking them to help find her daughter.

The television crew of “The Power of TV” filmed a special on Kawase in Oklahoma City and Edmond March 14 through 22.

In the first few days of filming, retired criminal profiler Marx Howell, hired by TV Asahi as a consultant to the show, did a number of taped interviews.

He met with District Assistant Attorney Jennifer Austin, detectives from the Oklahoma City Police Department, and Kawase’s host family whom she stayed with while attending the English Language Institute on the campus of the University of Central Oklahoma prior to enrolling at OCCC.

Howell also interviewed Ashley Martin, former Pioneer staff writer, who first reported on Kawase’s disappearance. Howell asked Martin questions regarding information she had gathered about Kawase’s disappearance and talked to her about sources she had used.

TV Asahi’s Production Coordinator, Nazu Kikkawa, said Reiko Kawase and younger sister Risako Kawase traveled to Oklahoma to participate in the filming from March 17 through 20.

While here, the mother and sister visited several places Kawase had frequented, including the English Language Institute, the OCCC library and her apartment complex, Kikkawa said.

The television crew also met with Brenda Paine, a close friend of Kawase’s who first reported her missing, and Kawase’s host mother Jean Mort and her daughter Phyllis Switzer. The host family still had boxes of Kawase’s belongings, Kikkawa said.

Then, it was back to OCCC, where the crew filmed re-enactment footage at the bookstore and library on March 21.

Actress Lisa Tamashiro, 24, of Los Angeles, portrayed Kawase for the re-enactment.

Kikkawa said everything went smoothly.

“Everybody was so helpful and almost everyone said they were praying for Mayu,” Kikkawa said. “Her family was very grateful as well.”

—Caroline Ting, Contributing Writer