Her abuse was mainly perpetrated by four male teenagers, Hiroshi Miyano (18), Jō Ogura (17), Shinji Minato (16), and Yasushi Watanabe (17), and took place over a 40-day period starting on 25 November 1988.

[4] At the time of her murder, she was a 17-year-old senior at Yashio-Minami High School, and worked a part-time job at a plastic molding factory from October 1988 to save up money for a planned graduation trip.

[2] The perpetrators of the murder were four male teenagers: Hiroshi Miyano (宮野裕史, Miyano Hiroshi, 18 years old), Jō Ogura (小倉譲, Ogura Jō, 17), Shinji[a] Minato (湊伸治, Minato Shinji, 16), and Yasushi Watanabe (渡邊恭史, Watanabe Yasushi, 17), who in court documents were referred to as "A", "B", "C", and "D", respectively.

[5][7][8] On the evening of 25 November 1988, Miyano and Minato rode around Misato on their motorcycles with the intention of robbing and raping local women, and spotted Furuta, who was on her way home from her part-time job.

After further gaining her trust, Miyano walked Furuta to a nearby warehouse and threatened her, telling her that he was a yakuza member and that he would spare her only if she followed his orders.

In the early morning hours of 26 November, Miyano took Furuta to a park near the hotel, where Ogura, Minato, and Watanabe were waiting.

To discourage further investigation, the kidnappers forced Furuta to call her mother three times to convince her that she had run away but was safe and staying with friends.

In early December, as punishment for an escape attempt, the group repeatedly punched Furuta in the face, and Miyano burned her ankles with a lighter.

They forced Furuta to dance to music while naked, masturbate in front of them, and stand on the balcony in the middle of the night with little clothing, and inserted objects into her vagina and anus, including a metal rod and a bottle.

They also forced her to drink large amounts of alcohol, milk, and water, smoke two cigarettes at once, and inhale paint thinner fumes.

In one attack in the middle of the month, Furuta was beaten by the group on the pretext that Miyano had stepped on a puddle of her urine, after which he burned her thighs and hands several times with lighter fluid.

Due to her injuries, she had become unable to walk to the downstairs toilet, and was confined to the room's floor in a state of extreme weakness.

Her appearance had been altered by the beatings, with her face becoming swollen to the point of unrecognizability, and her wounds had started to emit a foul odor.

Miyano poured lighter fluid on Furuta and set her on fire; she made weak attempts to put herself out, but soon stopped moving.

At around 8:00 p.m. on 5 January, the group drove to a vacant lot near a construction site on the island of Wakasu in Kōtō, Tokyo, and dumped the drum there.

Journalists from the Shūkan Bunshun tabloid uncovered their identities and published them, arguing that the accused did not deserve to have their right to anonymity upheld, given the severity of the crime.

[7] From the time the case was first reported in the media, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (the investigating body) received many calls and letters from the general public demanding that the perpetrators be severely punished, including by life imprisonment or with the death penalty.