New Ichihashi Photos & Wanted Poster

Apologies for not posting this news when it broke on Friday June 27th.

The investigation headquarters of Gyotoku Police (Chiba Prefecture) have released two additional photos of Lindsay Hawker murder suspect¹ Tatsuya Ichihashi, which also appear on a new version of the wanted poster.



The photo on the left appears to be either a newly created composite showing Ichihashi with dyed blonde hair, or an already existing photo with heavy retouching (see left side of face). The photo on the right appears to be an older image, perhaps a purikura photo (see borders in upper and lower right corners) without retouching.

Police have announced that the offer of up to a one millon yen reward (approx. US$9,400) for information leading to Ichihashi's arrest established one year ago (see the June 29th 2007 entry) has been extended for another year. A new, more eye-catching wanted poster has been created featuring the two photos above.


(a high resolution PDF version of the poster can be downloaded on the police site).

As of the end of May, police have received 4,572 tips nationwide. This means there have been approximately 1,464 new tips since the previous wanted poster (please see the March 17th entry), featuring conceptual images of Ichihashi in radically different disguises. As with previous wanted posters, an A4-sized flyer has also been produced and is being distributed.



¹ Although Ichihashi is the prime suspect in Lindsay Hawker's murder, the official crime he is listed as being suspected of is "illegal disposal of a dead body," which is often the first charge in a murder case.


Article Source: Yahoo! News Japan, June 27th 2008, 3:39pm (Tokyo). Originally appeared on Mainichi Shimbun (MSN portal) on the same date. Unfortunately there is no guarantee as to how long original Japanese language articles remain archived online for free.

40 Eyewitness reports of Ichihashi in Ikebukuro

The investigation headquarters of Gyotoku Police (Chiba Prefecture) have announced that they have collected approximately 40 eyewitness accounts of Lindsay Ann Hawker murder suspect¹ Tatsuya Ichihashi in Tokyo's Ikebukuro² district (please also see the March 18th entry for the first mention of the Ikebukuro theory). Exactly one year has passed since the discovery of Lindsay Hawker's body at Ichihashi's condominium on March 26 of last year.

Police announced additional investigators have been dispatched to Ikebukuro and that all efforts would be made to resolve the case.

From the time police first released wanted posters of Ichihashi (see the April 10th 2007 entry) until recently, a man said to resemble the suspect, including his eye characteristics, has been seen on frequent occasions at pachinko parlours, hotels and restaurants in the vicinity of JR Ikebukuro station.³

Additionally, it has been established that Ichihashi had visited Ikebukuro with an acquaintance before the time of Hawker's murder. Police believe that Ichihashi is familiar with the area and has possibly returned, leading to concentrated efforts to investigate restaurants, hotels and fûzoku businesses in the area.


¹ Although Ichihashi is the prime suspect in Lindsay Hawker's murder, the official crime he is listed as being suspected of is "illegal disposal of a dead body," which is often the first charge in a murder case.

² Ikebukuro happens to be very close to where this blog originates from.

³ Although exact details of the eyewitness reports were not mentioned, it is likely that the pachinko parlours and hotels being referred to are those concentrated in the area north/north-west of Ikebukuro station.


Article Source: Yahoo! News Japan, March 26th 2008, 3:59pm (Tokyo). Originally appeared in Mainichi Shimbun on the same date. The last two paragraphs of the article briefly summarize information covered in the March 17th entry. Unfortunately there is no guarantee as to how long original Japanese language articles remain archived online for free.

Lindsay Hawker's family come to Japan in the continued quest for justice

Lindsay Hawker's entire family have come to Japan for the one-year anniversary (if that's the appropriate word) of Lindsay's murder. The Hawker family hope to urge continued and increased efforts to bring Lindsay's killer to justice.

This excellent article in The Times Online covers the press conference that was held in downtown Tokyo yesterday. The Japanese media is of course covering the news as well (if there is anything of note not found in the English press, it will be translated for this blog).

I was impressed to read that the family have been studying Japanese and that one of Lindsay's sisters, Lisa, spoke in Japanese at the conference. It's a shame that such tragic circumstances forced them to learn such a great language.

Possible sighting(s) of Ichihashi in Ikebukuro / New images on police site

On the heels of the latest wanted poster released by Gyotoku Police comes news of possible sightings of Lindsay Ann Hawker murder suspect¹ Tatsuya Ichihashi in Tokyo's Ikebukuro² district.

An (unnamed) female resident of Ikebukuro recounted the police's visit to her apartment last week in today's issue of pseudo-tabloid newspaper Nikkan Gendai.

"Two plain-clothed detectives visited my apartment last Wednesday at around 9pm. They were handing out flyers and warned me that 'There's a possibility Ichihashi is hanging around this area. He has a tendency to approach women, so please be careful.' The visit surprised me so I called my friend and she said the cops had been going door to door at restaurants and bars in Ikebukuro doing the same thing. When I stepped outside, a bunch of patrol cars drove by."

The Ikebukuro theory is the latest of possible Tokyo hideouts that include the Tokyo Bay area³ and the gay quarters of Shinjuku's 2-chome district (please see the July 31st 2007 entry).

Today Gyotoku Police updated their page on Ichihashi for the second time in two weeks, featuring the sketch Ichihashi made of Hawker on March 21 2007, 5 days prior to the discovery of Hawker's body. There are also photos of the articles of clothing Ichihashi dropped during his shoeless escape.

How nobody noticed which direction a 180cm tall, barefoot man on the run went in the minutes and hours directly after the escape remains a mystery.



¹ Although Ichihashi is the prime suspect in Lindsay Hawker's murder, the official crime he is listed as being suspected of is "illegal disposal of a dead body," which is often the first charge in a murder case.

² Ikebukuro happens to be very close to where this blog originates from.

³ I had not previously read or heard of the Tokyo Bay area theory until its mention in today's Nikkan Gendai article.



Article Source: Original article and commentary based on information and quotes from Yahoo! Japan News, March 18th 2008, 10:00am (Tokyo), originally published in Nikkan Gendai (article not available online). Unfortunately there is no guarantee as to how long original Japanese language articles remain archived online for free.

New wanted poster with Ichihashi in disguise as first year comes to a close

It has been almost one year since the body of Lindsay Ann Hawker was discovered at the residence of yet-to-be-apprehended murder suspect¹ Tatsuya Ichihashi on March 26 of last year, resulting in renewed interest and articles in the media.

Late last week on the 13th, the Gyotoku Police Department in Chiba Prefecture released a new wanted poster featuring images of Ichihashi in disguise (hensou) on the left and a female disguise (josou) on the right. The central image and text remain the same as seen on previous flyers and posters. If you click on the image of the poster found on the police site, you can download a large format PDF version.

3000 A4-size flyers and 4000 A3-size posters were printed and have been distributed at police stations/koban, train stations and lodging facilities in urban and suburban areas.

For those who haven't followed the case since the early days, information that came to light last summer (please see the July 31st 2007 entry) led police to believe that Ichihashi may be hiding out in Shinjuku's gay quarters, hence the type of disguises police believe he may be using. Why these two particular looks were rendered has not been mentioned but it is assumed that they are based on eyewitness reports of people matching Ichihashi's description.

The two renderings are the work of artist Motoaki Sudo. With the aid of computer "age progression" software first used to create portraits in the case of North Korean abductee Megumi Yokota, Suda created the two images.

The police also released current statistics on the case. From the time of the murder up until the 6th of March, approximately 42,000 police and detectives have worked in some capacity on the case. There are currently 141 active investigators. There has also been a total of 3108 eyewitness reports nationwide, none of which have led to Ichihashi's whereabouts.

While the police have been rightly criticized for letting Ichihashi slip away in the first place, the subsequent efforts to locate him have been constant and widespread. While it is hard to comprehend that someone could seemingly vanish as Ichihashi has, sadly there are many other cases that date back much further than this one where suspects have yet to be tracked down.


¹ Although Ichihashi is the prime suspect in Lindsay Hawker's murder, the official crime he is listed as being suspected of is "illegal disposal of a dead body," which is often the first charge in a murder case.


Article Source: Original article and commentary based on information from Sankei Newspaper, March 13th 2008, 6:27pm (Tokyo) and Mainichi Newspaper, March 14th 2008. Unfortunately there is no guarantee as to how long original Japanese language articles remain archived online for free.