“The killer of the katana”: he dismembered his family with a samurai saber when he was only 16 years old in Spain

In Spain, a teenager committed a heinous multiple crime in his own home 23 years ago. What had been a gift from his father, a saber, became the weapon with which he destroyed his home.

That young man was 16 years old and at dawn on April 1, 2020 “he took the gift saber, the sharp blade of which was 71 centimeters long, and killed his father, then chopped up his mother, and finally stabbed his sister, a girl with syndrome from Down, down.” Infobae recalled.

They were all asleep when the teenager committed suicide. From that moment on, José Rabadán Pardo became, inside and outside Spain, “the killer of the katana”.

The events hit the whole country from the Santiago el Mayor district of Murcia. The family was evangelical. It was hard to believe the multiple murder, no one could figure out what led to this madness.

What did the assassin say with the katana?

“José Rabadán called me and I killed my parents and my sister.” That’s what Rabadán said in 2017, looking at the TV camera. His words, still hurtful, he offered for a documentary about his life that he broadcast Dmax.

In November 2017, Nuevo Diario published: “The young man, now a man, wants to show that he has been rehabilitated, that reintegration works and that he can be an example for society.

Until now, no one knew about this boy who is a member of an evangelical congregation and lives in Cantabria with his wife and son.

Why did he kill them? It was the question everyone asked.

“I don’t have a clear explanation… I wanted to be free,” he replied, according to Infobae.

That boy from Murcia

José was “loved” by his neighbours. “He was attentive and polite.”

It is said that “the mothers of some of his classmates at Mariano Baquero High School took him as an example, because he rarely went out at night and he never drank alcohol”l.

At school, behavior was different. “He was not a good student.”

José spent hours at the computer playing the video game Final Fantasy VIII, in which killing with a katana was the path to victory.

Infobae explains: José, who also went to karate classes – another of his passions – rehearsed strokes with her in front of the mirror, as if she were another Final Fantasy character.

Long night and tragic dawn with katana in hand

Years later, José Rabadán said that it was difficult for him to fall asleep on the night of March 31, 2000.

The idea of ​​killing her father had her. At 6 a.m. on April 1, he jumped out of bed and grabbed the katana. He walked into the room and attacked his father Rafael.

“He opened his eyes and when he saw his son with the gun, he tried to protect himself with his hands. The katana came down and cut off three of his fingers. The second blow, to the neck, decapitated him without even being able to scream.

Then he went to the bedroom where his mother and sister were. She killed her parent and the sister screamed. He thought what to do.

I didn’t want to kill her, she later said, but I thought she would be alone in the world and I had to.

They say he broke the katana when he committed the third kill. José, faced with the gruesome scene, severed his father’s head from his torso and dismembered his mother.

He tried to flee, but first called a friend and the police: “I killed my family,” he said. They didn’t believe him.

At a second contact he gave the coordinates of his house and that is how they found out about the horrific facts.

Murcia, horrified, heard what the forensic investigators discovered, who “counted more than 80 lacerations on the corpses: more than 30 on the father, about 35 on the mother, and nearly 20 on the girl’s body.”

Arrested at a friend’s house

The police mobilized to capture him and José Rabadán was arrested at a friend’s house, located in Barcelona.

– Why did you take their lives?

-I wanted to have a different experience. Being alone. That my parents were not looking for me – he replied. He has at no point denied the allegations.

– And why did you kill your sister?

-And what was she going to do alone in the world…? I killed her so she wouldn’t suffer.

A psychiatric report revealed that José had an idiopathic epileptic psychosis.

The trial was express and because he was a minor, he was sentenced to six years in prison and two more suspended.

When he was released, he went to Cantabria, “where he was placed in the foster home of the Nueva Vida association, an evangelical organization.”

José married Tania, daughter of an evangelical minister.

He told those TV cameras: “I was a murderer” (…) “I am aware that many will continue to think I am a monster.”

He was convinced that God had forgiven him.

He described that macabre event: “It wasn’t me, it was my body, but not me. I was surprised by my own act. I just wanted to go back to my bed so he wouldn’t see me, but my sword went down, it went down by itself.”