Haruka Juliana Tsunemine Weiser, an 18-year-old dance and theater major at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), was last seen on April 4, 2016. She didn’t come back from dance practice the night before, so she missed her class on Monday at 11 a.m.
In all black and carrying a blue bag with red straps, she was last seen on the Austin campus the night before. Her laptop, a sweater, a book from her parents, and a calculus book were all in the bag. At 9:40 p.m. on Sunday, she stopped texting a friend all of a sudden.
On Tuesday, April 5th, two days after her disappearance, a body was found de-ad in Waller Creek, on campus
It wasn’t until April 7th that the body was identified as Haruka Weiser.
Haruka, a freshman from Portland, Oregon, began dancing ballet when she was six years old. The dance teachers at UT were impressed by her ballet training at the National High School Dance Festival. They asked her to join the College of Fine Arts in the fall of 2015. She was going to major in both dance and pre-med. She was also a part of Dance Action, a group for dancers run by students.
Haruka talked a lot about how much she loved dancing. Her Oregon studio, Dance West, says she said, “I love to dance because it always challenges me.”
I love that there is a finished, perfect product. My dancing is constantly changing as I strive to improve. Because of this, I find that even the smallest successes can be the most rewarding.
On Tuesday, April 5th, two days after her disappearance, a body was found dead in Waller Creek, on campus
It wasn’t until April 7th that the body was identified as Haruka Weiser.
Haruka, a freshman from Portland, Oregon, began dancing ballet when she was six years old. The dance teachers at UT were impressed by her ballet training at the National High School Dance Festival. They asked her to join the College of Fine Arts in the fall of 2015. She was going to major in both dance and pre-med. She was also a part of Dance Action, a group for dancers run by students.
Haruka talked a lot about how much she loved dancing. Her Oregon studio, Dance West, says she said, “I love to dance because it always challenges me.”
I love that there is a finished item that is perfect. I’m always changing how I dance because I want to get better. Because of this, I believe that even small successes can be very satisfying.
The sudden, tragic, unfathomable loss shocked her family, friends, and college campus of 50,000 students
A brutal attack was clear from the crime scene and autopsy. Haruka was s*exually assa*ulted and strangled on her way to her dorm room after dance practice. Her naked, bruised body was hidden between two rocks next to the creek and covered in brush. At the scene, her blue and red duffel bag was not found.
A yellow nylon strap was used to choke Haruka to death. It looks like someone hit her head on something hard, like a boulder, and hurt her face.
The community was sad and worried about the safety of the campus. The Tower Shootings in 1966 were the last mu*rder on college grounds. More police officers were sent to the area, and students were told to be careful and only walk in well-lit areas. Students who were scared took to social media to criticize UT for making them do so much.
A lot of students made buddy systems or left campus. Due to the fact that they were often in the area late at night, the Dance and Theater students traded phone numbers to set up walks after rehearsals.
Police looked at security footage while parents, teachers, and students were on edge.
Police released a video of the suspect and offered a $15,000 reward
The short video showed clips of someone riding and walking with a woman’s red bicycle on the evening of April 3rd, close to the UT football stadium.
At 9:40 pm, a 6-foot-tall black man follows a black woman after she walks by him. The man has glasses, a backpack, an orange bandana around his neck, and a black jacket with patches on the sleeves. He also has a red woman’s bike. He takes something shiny and stiff out of the back of his pants.
At 11:25 pm, the man walks back into view of the camera while carrying a blue duffel bag. He is missing his glasses and is limping.
Police told people to call them if they saw him.
The Austin Fire Department called in a tip.
The Austin Fire Department and APD were called to a small fire in an empty lot near campus on April 4, 2016. Teenage runaway Meechaiel Criner was asleep at the scene of the crime. He had been setting things on fire in the empty building.
The police told Criner to get his things. One officer saw a silver laptop and thought it was strange that a homeless person could afford it. The officer didn’t know about Haruka’s disappearance or death at this point. They took Criner to Lifeworks, a shelter for young people run by volunteers.
When the surveillance video came out, firefighters and another witness thought Criner looked a lot like the person they thought ki*lled Haruka.
Criner was caught by police at Lifeworks on April 8, three days after her body was found. Some things from his Lifeworks locker were taken, including a silver MacBook with a Portland sticker that looked just like Haruka’s.
Criner went into police cust*ody on first-degree felony mur*der charges
He had three bags on him, one of which was a blue duffle bag. Criner said he found the bags with condoms, gloves, ropes, a laptop, clothes, and one shoe inside. The one shoe “happened” to land in the fire pit he had made when he threw it. Criner found a phone, but the chargers didn’t work with it, and the sim card didn’t fit, so he burned it. Haruka’s phone was never found again.
Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) had been taking care of Criner, but no one knew where he was at the time of the crime. His overly religious grandmother and then his aunt were the people CPS put him with before he ran away. His grandmother beat him. Some people said his mother was awful, and his grandmother told him he should go out and find his own way in the world. He hitched a ride to Austin that was more than 300 miles away.
Before the mur*der on March 30, Criner was also seen in a UT storage room. Things like a backpack, ropes, shoes, cleaning supplies, and food were stored in the room. Criner said he found the storage room by accident and didn’t know he was on a college campus until he tried to connect to the wifi. Criner slept in the storage room at least once, hoping and kind of expecting to be kicked out.
Criner said that being arrested was one of the best things that had ever happened to him. At the trial, he still had a strange mood.
Criner pleaded not guilty at the trial which began on July 11, 2018
The things that were found on Criner were used as proof. They were a partially burned black shoe, black pants, a black turtleneck, a black jacket, and an orange bandana. The clothes were the same as what Haruka and the k*iller were said to be wearing.
A pair of glasses found at the crime scene was shown by the prosecution. Someone in the video had glasses at one point and then didn’t have them. The manager of an Eyemart Express store said that she sold Criner the same frame and lens prescription. The glasses didn’t look like Criner’s because they were too small and didn’t have any bite marks on them.
Criner was seen on video from a different day wearing a neon green shirt. That kind of shirt was in the burn pile, along with a piece of hair that DNA experts said might belong to Haruka. The analysts left out 99.89% of North Americans, which includes Criner and his family. This means that it was probably Haruka’s hair.
The judge told Criner not to go on the stand, but he did it anyway. The way he was acting was scary. He laughed and talked with a lot of energy about high school. He used porn to get ideas for writing because he wanted to be one. The prosecution read from Criner’s journal an entry called “Therapy Gone Wrong,” which he said was written by him. His words clearly showed violence and rape, making everyone in the courtroom feel uncomfortable.
The red bike from the video was stolen by Criner, but he said he didn’t have it when Haruka was ki*lled. He said the bike and bags were found on April 4th.
Criner said he never saw a woman walking that night, and when asked if he k*illed Haruka, he said no. The fact that everything happened at the same time didn’t add anything.
Sentenced him to life in prison
Criner was only 17 years old when he did the crime, so the death penalty wasn’t an option. Criner would never get out of prison, Haruka’s dad promised. Her family and friends would write so many letters, they would fill a room.
Criner put in two requests in 2019: one to throw out evidence from the trial and the other for a new trial. Both were turned down.
Mr. Weiser thinks that his daughter’s death was just because it stopped a possible serial k*iller. He also told Criner:
Haruka did win in the end. Her spirit, her bright faith, is looking down at this scene right now and smiling with joy that you were caught and found guilty of the horrible crimes you committed against her.
