News

Wanted: Tatsuya Ichihashi

ICHIKAWA, Chiba -- A 30-year-old fugitive wanted in connection with the March 2007 killing of a 22-year-old British English teacher was probably laying low in Osaka Prefecture, investigative sources have told the Mainichi.

Tatsuya Ichihashi is wanted in connection with the killing of British woman Lindsay Ann Hawker, whose body was found buried in a bathtub on the balcony of his home in Ichikawa.

Investigators said that when a man resembling Ichihashi underwent cosmetic surgery in Nagoya, he gave the name and address of a man who was actually living in Osaka Prefecture, without misspelling any of the information, leading police to suspect he had been hiding in the area. The investigative headquarters at Gyotoku Police Station in Chiba Prefecture has dispatched officers to search for the 30-year-old.

Investigators said the man believed to be Ichihashi visited a medical institution in Nagoya on Oct. 24, and had surgery on his nose. Three days later, the institution contacted police, telling them they had seen a man resembling Ichihashi.

When the man visited the institution, he wrote down a name and address on documents, but the information was for an elderly man living in Osaka Prefecture. The elderly man bore no relation to Ichihashi, but the address and the kanji for his name was reportedly written correctly.

When investigators obtained a photograph taken after the surgery, they found that not only the nose but also the eyelids and lips of the man were different from those in a photo of Ichihashi that police have distributed, with one investigator describing it as the "face of a different person." Investigators suspect Ichihashi underwent surgery several times. They are considering releasing the photograph of the suspect and calling for information from the public.

Based on the fact that the surgery was paid for in cash and due to reports that the man resembling Ichihashi tried to receive cosmetic surgery in Fukuoka, investigators suspect that someone has been supplying Ichihashi with funds to remain on the lam.

The man who underwent surgery in Nagoya was due to return to have stitches removed, and investigators obtained cooperation from Aichi Prefectural Police in keeping watch for him, but he did not show up.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the Mainichi, the victim's 56-year-old father, Bill Hawker, said it was clear that Ichihashi had no intention of reflecting on the crime or turning himself in, and added that his whole family was angered. He called for investigative authorities to release information on the cosmetic surgery and have people who saw anyone resembling the man to provide information.

Bill Hawker said he learned about the cosmetic surgery in the predawn hours of Wednesday (Wednesday morning Japanese time), when he was contacted by a news organization. He said he hadn't received any confirmed information from the embassy or other sources, but said he was overcome by shock. He asked why the most sought-after person in Japan could keep escaping, and why medical institutions allowed him to undergo surgery, adding that just thinking about it made him angry.