Into The Forest: The Mysterious Case of Atsumi Yoshikubo
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Only on Netflix, October 18, rated R.

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In 2014, a female tourist arrived in northern Canada for a week-long vacation. Was the woman drawn by the spectacular beauty of the northern lights? Or the dramatic terrain left by retreating glaciers? Or the rich, indigenous culture of the area? While tour groups bustled around the small community checking attractions off their must-see lists, the female tourist walked alone. One day, she vanished altogether.

Her mysterious disappearance would leave her family members halfway around the world shocked and saddened, and a community forever haunted. Part 1: The Tourist On October 17th, 2014, Atsumi Yoshikubo arrived in Yellowknife, a small city in Canada's Northwest Territories. She would check into the Explorer Hotel, one of the area's best accommodations, located on the edge of town.

Atsumi's presence in Yellowknife was, in many ways, unremarkable. She was one of many Japanese tourists visiting the area. Yellowknife is among the most popular destinations in Canada for visitors from Japan. Each year, over 10,000 tourists from the island country arrive in Yellowknife and inject about $20 million into the local economy. Many signs in Yellowknife are written both in English and Japanese.

And Yellowknife's population of 16,000 includes people of Japanese descent, many of whom work in the tourist industry. So, what attracts Japanese visitors to this arctic landscape over 700 miles north of the US border, with temperatures reaching -15 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter? The answer is the night sky.

With its airport and amenities, Yellowknife is considered one of the best places in the world to view the Northern Lights, also known as the Aurora Borealis. The phenomenon is caused when solar disruptions produce electrically charged particles that race toward the Earth at 900,000 miles per hour. The result is sparkling blue and green cloud formations that light up the night sky.

The aurora occurs in the north, and only at certain times of the year. Despite the steep travel costs, Japanese tourists flock to Yellowknife to witness this wonder of the natural world. And the city is ready for them. Tour operators take visitors to optimal viewing sites where they crane their necks for hours to see the aurora. For many, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

But when Atsumi arrived, Yellowknife was in its off-season for viewing the Aurora, the tour operators were closed. So why was 45-year-old Atsumi in Yellowknife, if not to see this celestial wonder? And she was also traveling alone. A bus driver who worked for one of the Aurora tour operators would comment that she thought it odd that Atsumi was traveling alone.

While Japanese tourists often traveled in groups, some did travel alone. But in the bus driver's experience, solo travelers would not be solo for long. They would quickly be absorbed into groups, drawn by their common language and the appeal of social interactions and friendship. But not Atsumi. Her slight figure was spotted around town, and on security cameras buying souvenirs in the gallery of the Midnight Sun gift shop.

and she was always alone. Perhaps Atsumi, who was a psychiatrist, preferred her own company. And we know she had a history of traveling alone. As a solo traveler, she was memorable in her pink parka and matching hat. Ricky Shimada, who worked at the Canada Aurora Visitor Center, recalled seeing Atsumi in downtown Yellowknife. He commented that she looked like a normal tourist.

But Atsumi Yoshikubo would quickly become anything but a normal tourist. When staff at the Explorer Hotel realized Atsumi had missed her checkout time, they knocked on her hotel room door. There was no answer. Part 2: Missing Staff at the hotel called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Detachment after they entered Atsumi's room and found her belongings, but no sign of her. She had missed her checkout time by two days.

The police would quickly learn she had also missed her return flight to Japan. To the police, the condition of her luggage suggested that she intended to return home. So where was she? On October 27th, 10 days after her arrival in Yellowknife, Atsumi Yoshikubo was declared a missing person. News of her mysterious disappearance spread quickly through the town and around the world. Japanese news teams arrived in Yellowknife

The police urged anyone with information about Atsumi's whereabouts to come forward. Security footage captured her buying souvenirs. She was also captured at a visitor's center. Her face was animated and she was smiling. Citizens recalled seeing the distinctively dressed Atsumi walking around town. But these random sightings meant little. This was typical tourist behavior.

But when Yellowknife resident Carrie Rieu heard about the disappearance, she immediately called the police. Yes, she did remember seeing Atsumi around 11:30 in the morning on October 22nd. She was driving along the highway and remembered seeing the missing woman walking along the shoulder and in the direction of an abandoned mine.

a search party of police officers, sniffer dogs, a helicopter and local volunteers combed through tourist hotspots near the city. They searched along highways, hiking trails and through the woods. On October 31st, the police expanded their search north and added an airplane equipped with infrared technology, which detects body heat. At this time, the police announced that they believed Atsumi was traveling through the woods.

but would not reveal why they believed this. Carrie's recollection of Atsumi walking along the shoulder of Old Highway 4 would be the last known sighting. Four days later, she would be declared a missing person. Old Highway 4 is the first leg of the original Ingram Trail, built in the 1960s.

The 43-mile-long Ingram Trail extends from Yellowknife to Tibbet Lake and was originally constructed as a resource road for the mining industry. The road runs through the abandoned Giant Mine, a 70-year-old gold mining operation that was shuttered in 2005. Ten years later, a bypass road was built so drivers could avoid the old mine, which is now a contaminated site.

But Atsumi was not on the bypass road. She was last seen walking on Old Highway 4 in the direction of Jackfish Lake and Giant Mine. So where was she going? At the time of Atsumi's disappearance, the temperature in the area was hovering around freezing. Winter was in the air. Ice fog and snow were routinely in the forecast, and the landscape around Yellowknife is unforgiving.

Carved by the retreat of the Laurentide Ice Sheet over 10,000 years ago, the terrain looks like a wire brush has been dragged over it. The land is a mix of scarred rock outcroppings, lakes, fens, bogs, and forests of jack pine and black spruce. The land is also home to bears, wolves, and coyotes. Walk 15 minutes in any direction from downtown Yellowknife, and you are in the wilderness.

And to most, it's an unfamiliar landscape of permafrost and raging rivers drawn north to the Arctic Ocean. It's an outdoor enthusiast's paradise. But was it Atsumi's paradise? In her pink parka and matching hat, white boots and black pants, Atsumi must have stood out as she walked along the edge of the highway. Being a woman by herself, was she considered an easy pick by someone? Was she dragged into a predator's vehicle?

Meanwhile, official search parties continued to comb the area for evidence during the day. But the people of Yellowknife were not content to leave the evening hours idle. They formed unofficial search parties to keep hope alive that Atsumi would be found. Volunteers met at the ski club parking lot and divided into pairs. They mapped their routes and then set off. Using flashlights and headlamps, they trekked through fresh snow, looking under trees and bushes.

One searcher carried bottled water and a blanket in case she found the lost tourist. She said, "It makes me sick to my stomach thinking about her out there." The community of Yellowknife was deeply troubled by Atsumi's disappearance, and with colder temperatures moving in, the rock outcroppings would have been slick with new ice making walking dangerous. It wasn't a good time to be in the forest.

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They announced that the missing tourist was presumed dead. In the RCMP's official media release, it stated that Ms. Yoshikubo arrived in Yellowknife with a plan to go into the wilderness and become a missing person. Her case was handed over to the coroner's office, and authorities advised the Japanese consulate to convey this tragic news to her family. Again, the police did not reveal what evidence they had used to reach this conclusion.

But they did note that Atsumi took steps to avoid being found. Again, they did not elaborate what steps she had taken. Was it possible that Atsumi traveled some 5,000 miles from Japan to Yellowknife to commit suicide? In Japan, people sadly choose a site much closer to home. The Aokigahara Forest at the foot of Mount Fuji has been called "the perfect place to die" and is known as Japan's "suicide forest."

The trees grow very tightly together, making it easy to lose oneself. And with very little wildlife, the 7,500-acre forest is eerily silent. It also has the somber distinction of being the second most popular place in the world to commit suicide, besides leaping from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

Aware of some visitors' intentions, signs at the entrance to the forest tried to dissuade people from taking their lives, reading: "Your life is something precious that was given to you by your parents." But as many as 30 people a year ignore the signs, enter the forest, and never return. Did Atsumi enter the forest to die under the beauty of the aurora's magical lights?

Meanwhile, the Yellowknife community was shocked and saddened by the news that Atsumi was presumed dead. Would a person really travel to a beautiful northern town to disappear? Many wanted to keep searching for the tourist. Then, back in Japan, a woman received a letter in the mail from a friend.

The friend was Atsumi Yoshikubo. Atsumi had sent the letter before leaving for Yellowknife, and in it, she revealed that she intended to commit suicide. When told of the letter, Atsumi's brother, Kenji, was deeply troubled. He wanted to know why his sister would buy souvenirs if she planned to take her life. It didn't make sense. Kenji refused to accept that his sister was dead and believed he would see her again.

Part 4: The Family Experts weighed in on Atsumi's disappearance, which was looking more and more like a planned suicide. Professor Simon Hatcher of the University of Ottawa stated that taking a lengthy trip into the wilderness can be a form of suicide. The person is withdrawing and can be ambivalent about the outcome. Maybe they will live and maybe they will die.

He also described how people who are suicidal often fantasize about a temporary escape as a way to draw attention to themselves and from which they will be rescued. Was Atsumi tempting fate in this way? Did she travel to Northern Canada to die away from her family? While Atsumi's brother Kenji believed he would see her again, he also admitted that he had incredibly not seen her in over a decade. He didn't even know she was in Canada.

Atsumi's father also had no idea his daughter was visiting Canada's north. Six years before her disappearance, Atsumi had worked as a psychiatrist in her father's clinic. But now, her father knew nothing of her whereabouts. Clearly estranged from her family, did this cause her sorrow and push her to seek a way out? Was 45-year-old Atsumi single?

In Japanese culture, arranged meetings can be a way for young people to find potential marriage partners. Yet Atsumi chose a professional career. She became a doctor of psychiatry. Was she forced to make sacrifices to pursue her dreams? Did her choices draw criticism and lead to the distance that was evident between her and her family members? Her father said, "I only hope she's coming back."

Meanwhile, in Yellowknife, the community remained haunted by Atsumi's disappearance. Had they searched behind a few more trees, and for a few days longer, maybe they would have been able to save her life. Yes, the search was over, but the community's grief that they had somehow failed their visitor hung in the air like a dark cloud. As November wore on, temperatures plunged to negative two Fahrenheit. Winter had set in.

Part 5: The End While the RCMP might have moved on from Atsumi's case, the people of Yellowknife were determined to keep the search for her alive. They wanted closure. They wanted to find her. Eight months later the snow had finally melted, and the search could safely be resumed. Search and rescue volunteers returned to the bush looking for clues to explain Atsumi's disappearance.

they searched for objects or clothing, like her distinctive pink parka. Teams combed the woods along Old Highway 4 where she was last seen. Then, three months later, on September 3rd, 2015, a hiker found personal items and bone fragments in the woods near Yellowknife. The human remains were sent for testing,

Six months later, DNA results confirmed what most had guessed. The bone fragments were identified as belonging to Atsumi Yoshikubo. Her manner of death, however, was unclear. All that is known is that she entered the forest. A community member who had taken part in the search organized a card of condolences to be sent to Atsumi's family from the people of Yellowknife.

For two weeks, the card was kept at City Hall's customer service desk so anyone who wished could sign it and include a personal message. With her remains identified, the people of Yellowknife hoped it would help bring closure to the family and to the remote community under the dazzling northern lights, where a Japanese tourist chose to die.

Hey guys, thanks for listening. I want to give you all a quick heads up regarding some upcoming political ads you may start hearing leading up to this year's presidential election.

These ads do not represent my own political viewpoint. So if you hear a political ad play on the podcast and it's not in my own voice, then it has absolutely nothing to do with me personally as a podcaster. Thank you again for being a dedicated listener of mine, and I can't wait to have another amazing year with you guys. I'll see you in the next episode.