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.