22 year old British woman found buried in sand in bathtub on Veranda

[Greji]

"..... The couple have two other daughters Lisa and Louise....."

I wonder if they're coming to Japan to teach English?

[Mulboyne]

If you are in the UK, or can use a UK proxy IP address, you can see the BBC programme here for another week. It is a local programme so wasn't broadcast on the national BBC network although anyone with an internet connection can see it if they know where to look on the BBC iplayer site.

They programme goes to Ichihashi's apartment block and, when you see it, it beggars belief that he got away from the police. There isn't much new information: they interview a girl who was working at the coffee shop and she confirms, as much as she can recall, they were having a lesson and did not appear to be close friends. No-one really understands why Hawker followed Ichihashi into his apartment although her friends and family speculate she may have been drugged at the shop which might have made her dopey. Her father confirms that her body was covered in bruises showing a very heavy beating although noting is said about when the injuries were inflicted.

A former police liaison officer for the UK says that he found two difficulties when dealing with the police in Japan although it doesn't seem he was involved with this case. Firstly, he says the districts are badly co-ordinated which means that little information is shared nationally. He also felt his counterparts were secretive and bureaucratic which he found frustrating. Asked to give a judgement about how the Hawker investigation was going, he replied that you really couldn't say because you couldn't even get an idea of what methodology the police were using. The reporter followed a team around Shinjuku and concluded that it was clear the police were putting in a lot of effort but not clear to what end.

The programme carried out an impromptu street survey and found that most people they questioned recognized a picture of Ichihashi and knew what he had done which made them feel that the case wasn't being ignored. In fact, there are around 10 sightings of Ichihashi reported each day which suggests the investigating team might be swamped with data without any real means to organize it.

[GuyJean]

Just saw on NHK, they're releasing a life-sized, cardboard cutout of Ichihashi with a button; when you press the button, it plays his real voice..

GJ

[Marked Trail]

Just saw on NHK, they're releasing a life-sized, cardboard cutout of Ichihashi with a button]plays his real voice[/URL]..

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8pqbu_ichihashi_webcam

[dm]x8pqbu_ichihashi_webcam[/dm]

[Mulboyne]

AP: Japanese police up reward in slain Briton's case

Japanese police said Friday they were raising to 10 million yen ($104,000) the cash reward for information leading to the suspect in the slaying of a British woman since their investigation has made little progress over the past two years. Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, was found dead in March 2007, her body taped up and half-buried in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of an apartment in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo. She was an English teacher at a private language school. The prime suspect, Tatsuya Ichihashi, who was her student, has been on the run since police found Hawker's body at his apartment. The hike in the award _ from the current 1 million yen _ underscores the desperate effort by Japanese authorities to resolve the high-profile case. The average amount paid for tips for murder, rape, kidnapping and arson usually from 1 million yen ($10,400) to 3 million yen ($31,300). Police will begin offering the reward next Monday for one year, the National Police Agency said in a statement. Authorities said the step is to "increase chances of the arrest or resolving the high-profile case." Since Hawker's death, her family members have visited Japan several times, appealing to police and the public for help in finding the suspect.

[Mike Oxlong]

I have a feeling his wealthy parents have a lot more coin at their disposal to pay off any friends and relatives that could or would talk...

[tidbits]

New wanted poster of Ichihashi include new pictures of him. (pls click on picture to get a bigger image)

[IkemenTommy]

You know that this fool is no longer in the country and you're just wasting your time looking for him. The least that the posters can do is make him harder to return to his homeland.

[eddie]

I have a feeling his wealthy parents have a lot more coin at their disposal to pay off any friends and relatives that could or would talk...

may be a silly question, but is there any evidence to indicate this guys parents are not cooperating with the authorities? i don't have kids but i'd like to think that i could see clearly enough to not support my son or daughter murdering someone...

[Mike Oxlong]

may be a silly question, but is there any evidence to indicate this guys parents are not cooperating with the authorities? i don't have kids but i'd like to think that i could see clearly enough to not support my son or daughter murdering someone...

Some folks think so...

[waruta]

may be a silly question, but is there any evidence to indicate this guys parents are not cooperating with the authorities? i don't have kids but i'd like to think that i could see clearly enough to not support my son or daughter murdering someone...

Yo, you don't even know the inaka connection they have going on in the country....he's either one of three options; hiding in the countryside, overseas or killed by someone and buried somewhere he will never be found... if in case he is indeed hiding in the countryside, they will never let an outsider (in this case a gaijin that looks like an okinawan) into their "circle of trust" (c) (meet the fockers), but this 1,000 man reward does certainly make it interesting enough to buy a japan rail pass and tour the country for about a year looking for him. but then again....if any one of us found him, the phone call to the police would certainly be the last item on my list of things to do to him.....dunno about you guys....

[hundefar]

if any one of us found him, the phone call to the police would certainly be the last item on my list of things to do to him.....

what?...you'd shag him first?

[waruta]

maybe you would but calling into the local pachinko parlor would be my first guess in this case...secondary would be the family....according to an informal poll of the japanese friends, the top three reasons that the police cannot find this fucker is

a) he is dead
b) he is dead

and

c) inakamon are covering up for him (but this is really a distant third option)

[tidbits]

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I really doubt it was him...he's been (probably literally) hanging around somewhere for a couple of years now. Long, long gone.
I feel sorry for the poor Hawker family and the victim's friends for not being able to get any closure.

[Catoneinutica]

I really doubt it was him...he's been (probably literally) hanging around somewhere for a couple of years now. Long, long gone.
I feel sorry for the poor Hawker family and the victim's friends for not being able to get any closure.

Wish I could agree with you. I think he's being hidden somewhere, in Japan or in SE Asia. One of the yakuza's core businesses is hiding people, and Ichihashi's parents certainly have the wherewithal to pay for their services. The J-police can't or won't perform the necessary scrutiny of the parents' financial transactions.

I'm curious as to what kind of schemes they're using to launder the asset flows]machi no dani[/I]? What kind of under-the-table income are they receiving? Any shell companies? Whatever mechanisms are being used, it's probably beyond the forensic accounting skills of the police to suss them out, assuming they're even motivated to investigate; after all, the J-police (and sometimes the FBI, to their detriment) are known to have a good "working relationship" with the yakuza. Just ask our own Jake.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

Wish I could agree with you. I think he's being hidden somewhere, in Japan or in SE Asia. One of the yakuza's core businesses is hiding people, and Ichihashi's parents certainly have the wherewithal to pay for their services. The J-police can't or won't perform the necessary scrutiny of the parents' financial transactions.

I'm curious as to what kind of schemes they're using to launder the asset flows]machi no dani[/I]? What kind of under-the-table income are they receiving? Any shell companies? Whatever mechanisms are being used, it's probably beyond the forensic accounting skills of the police to suss them out, assuming they're even motivated to investigate; after all, the J-police (and sometimes the FBI, to their detriment) are known to have a good "working relationship" with the yakuza. Just ask our own Jake.

I wouldn't rule it out and it would not surprise me if this were the case...but I just doubt that someone who had never worked a day in his life has the nous to remain in hiding for so long. Then again, I suppose the incompetence of those chasing him has been a mighty big help....

[GomiGirl]

Every time this thread pops up, I am hoping to click on it to see that he has been found....

[Ketou]

Pretty obvious he has some well connected people looking out for him.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

[Mulboyne]

From here.

...images of a patient recorded at the clinic match photographs of Mr Ichihashi, an unemployed man who is believed to have strangled Ms Hawker at his apartment in February 2006. The man was described as sporting stubble and wearing a dark knitted cap. His height and eyes match those of Mr Ichihashi, although the patient failed to return for a follow up appointment on 31 October...

Hopefully these will be released soon if they conclude it was the man.

[Mike Oxlong]

Wonder if the doc had any connections to the perp's pop, who is/was supposed to be a doc...?

[Mulboyne]

If it really is him, then it seems he's on a nationwide tour:

Yomiuri: 'Ichihashi' had nose job in October

A man believed to be the suspect sought by police in connection with the murder of British woman Lindsay Hawker underwent cosmetic surgery on his nose at a cosmetic surgery clinic in Nagoya on Oct. 24, it was learned Wednesday. According to police investigators, the man, believed to be Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, also visited another cosmetic surgery clinic in Fukuoka in mid-October. Ichihashi is on a nationwide wanted list on suspicion of abandoning Hawker's body in a bathtub on the balcony of his apartment on March 25, 2007. The Chiba prefectural police believe Ichihashi has undergone repeated cosmetic surgeries, moving from place to place to shake off the police. According to the investigators, the prefectural police received a report from the Nagoya clinic on Oct. 27 saying that a man resembling Ichihashi had visited the hospital. The man had undergone a rhinoplasty three days before. He visited the clinic again to receive postsurgical treatment, the investigators said. After analyzing photos of Ichihashi and those of the man taken before and after the surgery, the police concluded the man was Ichihashi.

The man bears almost no resemblance to the photos on wanted posters, which show Ichihashi with uncreased upper eyelids and a protuberant lower lip. The man in the postsurgery photos has creased upper eyelids and his lower lip does not protrude. Old and new surgical scars could be seen in the pictures, the investigators said. The man paid for the surgeries in cash and made an appointment to have his stitches removed at the end of the month, but he did not appear at the clinic on the day, the investigators said. The man wrote the name, address and phone number of a man who lives in Osaka Prefecture on a questionnaire at the clinic. The Chiba prefectural police confirmed that the man had no connection with Ichihashi.

In late October, the prefectural police also received a report from an official of the cosmetic surgery clinic in Fukuoka that a man resembling Ichihashi visited the clinic on Oct. 13. From his appearance and clothes, the police believe he was the man who underwent surgery in Nagoya. The man asked the clinic to modify the shape of his mouth, but the clinic declined the request, the investigators said.

Some of the articles in the Japanese press are openly asking where Ichihashi could get the money to travel so widely and pay for plastic surgery. No-one is openly speculating about parents or other helpers but, given how many are struggling to make ends meet these days, there is scepticism that he could be earning enough even in the fuzoku business to have so much cash in hand.

[IkemenTommy]

Here is the picture of the ugly mother fucker after the surgery. Linked from here.

Hopefully he will soon be caught and this case will come to closure.

[let`s talk]

That is just brilliant. He had some plastic surgeries and for all this time none of his plastic surgeons reported to police. They just made what he asked and got cash.

[Mike Oxlong]

Looks like he's gained some weight, assuming they've got the right man. A surgeon who didn't have some sort of relationship with the perp's family might take the 10 million yen reward over the several hundred thousand medical bill. But, someone owed his pops some favors...

[let`s talk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyUBjCZWmw0

While J-police is "doing" their job, the guy is peacefully doing his gomi.

[sublight]

Damn, he looks like one of my co-workers now. At least the co-worker looked like that long before Hawker was killed.

[Mulboyne]

Here is the picture of the ugly mother fucker after the surgery.

He's going for a Metallica look

[eddie]

Pretty obvious he has some well connected people looking out for him.

can't the authorities put pressure on these (potential) connections to give up this guy?

and what awful parents would leave a (suspected) murderer out on the street - assuming they know the mans whereabouts.