Sada Abe was born on May 28, 1905, in Tokyo, Japan. She was the youngest of eight children in the Abe family, which was middle-class and known for making tatami mats. Only four of the children survived to adulthood. Sada’s father, Shigeyoshi Abe, was 52 when she was born and was described as an honest and upright man, although some people thought he was a bit self-centered. Her mother, Katsu, also had a good reputation.

Growing up, Sada's mother spoiled her because she was the youngest. Katsu encouraged Sada to take music lessons, especially in singing and playing the shamisen. These activities were more associated with geisha and lower-class women than with serious art at that time. Sada liked to dress stylishly and often skipped school for her lessons.

As her siblings' issues began to cause family problems, Sada found herself alone a lot. She made friends with other independent teenagers. When Sada was 14, she was raped by an acquaintance who was a college student. While her parents initially supported her, they later changed their attitude, saying she became irresponsible. In 1922, they sent her to a geisha house in Yokohama.

Sada had hoped to be successful as a geisha but quickly found it disappointing. She did not progress far up the ranks and mostly ended up providing sexual services to clients. After five years, she moved on to a different profession because she contracted syphilis and did not want to deal with regular medical exams associated with being a licensed prostitute.

In the early 1930s, Sada worked as a prostitute in Osaka's Tobita district. She developed a reputation for causing trouble, stealing from clients, and trying to escape the brothel. After two years, she managed to flee and briefly worked as a waitress. However, she was unhappy with the pay and returned to unlicensed prostitution.

In January 1933, after her mother passed away, Sada visited her father and decided to enter the prostitution market in Tokyo. Sada nursed her father until he died in 1934. Later that year, she was arrested in a raid on the unlicensed brothel where she worked. A friend of the brothel's owner helped her get released, and Sada became his mistress, but their relationship ended after he refused her request to marry him.

In 1935, Sada aimed to leave the sex industry again and began working as a maid in Nagoya. There, she started a romantic relationship with a customer before returning to Tokyo. In Tokyo, she worked as an apprentice at a restaurant owned by Kichizō Ishida, where she began another love affair. 

Ishida and Abe returned to Ogu, where they stayed until his death. During their intimate time together, Abe threatened Ishida with a knife, saying she would make sure he would not be with any other woman. Ishida laughed. Two nights later, they explored choking as a form of sexual pleasure, agreeing to strangle each other during orgasm. On the evening of May 16, 1936, Abe used her obi to restrict Ishida's breathing during sex, and they both enjoyed it. They repeated this for two hours. When she stopped, Ishida's face became distorted, causing him to take thirty sedative tablets to ease his pain. As he fell asleep, he expressed a desire for her to strangle him again while sleeping. Abe thought he might have been joking.

At around 2 a.m. on May 18, 1936, while Ishida was asleep, Abe strangled him to death with her sash. Afterward, she felt relieved and clear-headed. She lay with his body for several hours before using a kitchen knife to sever his penis and testicles, wrapping them in a magazine. She wrote a message in his blood on his thigh, and carved her name into his arm. After dressing in his underwear, she left the inn, telling the staff not to disturb Ishida.

Once she left, Abe met her former lover, Gorō Ōmiya, and apologized to him, not revealing the murder. A search for her began after Ishida's body was found, and a media frenzy followed, called the "Abe Sada panic." The police received numerous false sightings of her. On May 19, Abe went shopping and watched a movie. On May 20, she stayed at an inn under an alias. She spent the day writing letters and planned to commit suicide in a week. During this time, she practiced necrophilia with Ishida's severed parts.

At 4 p.m., police became suspicious of her alias and visited her room. Abe calmly admitted her identity. When they doubted her, she revealed Ishida's severed parts as proof. She was arrested and interrogated eight times. Abe explained that she severed his body parts because they were all she could take with her. She expressed that she loved Ishida and wanted him only for herself, believing that by killing him, no other woman could ever touch him again.

Abe's trial began on November 25, 1936, drawing a large crowd. She expressed regret about being viewed as a sexual pervert. On December 21, she was found guilty of murder and mutilation of a corpse. Although the prosecution sought a ten-year sentence, she received only six years in prison. Abe was released on May 17, 1941, after serving five years. Following her release, she assumed an alias and eventually lived a low-profile life in Tokyo.