Tatsuya Ichihashi in Custody!

According to breaking news airing on various TV channels right now, Lindsay Ann Hawker murder suspect¹ Tatsuya Ichihashi has apparently been arrested after being found (or turning himself in) in Osaka's Suminoe-ku. This follows his mother's plea to do so on TV this morning (see previous entry).

Updates provided as they come in.

As a flood of Japanese articles come in, The Mainichi Daily News is the first English-language outlet with a full story here. Apparently Ichihashi was taken into custody while trying to board a ferry for Okinawa earlier today. Passage to Okinawa would've made Ichihashi's alleged plans to escape Japan much easier.

The man in custody still needs to be positively identified, but it seems as if the hunt for Tatsuya Ichihashi has finally come to an end...

Update

The man has positively been identified as Ichihashi. You can follow the multitude of articles coming in on Google News here.

Most importantly, the family of Lindsay Hawker can finally begin to move on with their lives as justice takes its course.




Reward Update

The Mainichi Daily news is reporting that the 10-million yen (US$111,800) reward will be split between three people whose information led to the capture of Ichihashi: "the person who phoned police shortly before Ichihashi's arrest, saying that there was someone resembling the suspect at a ferry terminal in Osaka; the person at a construction company in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, where Ichihashi had been hiding, who filed a report; and the clinic in Nagoya which reported that it had performed cosmetic surgery on a person resembling Ichihashi." They deserve it.

Ichihashi is now in the custody of Gyotoku Police under interrogation. What's sure to be a lengthy legal process has begun...



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.