A Japanese like an evil spirit was arrested by the Japanese police yesterday.
The man like the devil who killed a pure British woman for own desire was arrested at last yesterday.
The 30-year-old Ichihashi, who had been on the run since police found the body of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, was arrested on suspicion of abandonment of a body, after being spotted at a ferry terminal in the western city of Osaka Tuesday.
Man resembling fugitive wanted over Briton's killing underwent plastic surgery
--This is quotation from Japan's website news.
Suspect wanted over slaying of Briton was probably laying low in Osaka: investigators
Wanted: Tatsuya Ichihashi
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.
Fugitive Ichihashi may have had plans to flee Japan
A picture of fugitive Tatsuya Ichihashi while out bowling with coworkers in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, April 11, 2009. (Courtesy of a former coworker)
A picture of fugitive Tatsuya Ichihashi while out bowling with coworkers in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, April 11, 2009. (Courtesy of a former coworker)
Fugitive Tatsuya Ichihashi may have planned to flee the country, it's been discovered, after police found a passport application form in his room at a construction firm dormitory.
"I've been stuck inside so long, I want to go and see the world," he told a coworker at the firm in Osaka Prefecture, where he worked under a false identity. Ichihashi also asked him for help in applying for a passport.
Ichihashi, 30, worked at a construction firm in Ibaraki, Osaka Prefecture, as a day laborer, specializing in installing home solar panels. Typical working hours were 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., six days a week, for around 10,000 yen a day.
He was known as a hard worker. "I'm going to save up around a million yen and take my parents to a hot spring or something," he once told his coworker.
"Dai-chan," as he was nicknamed, also had some strange habits, however. He never took off his hat, even while eating; always bathed alone, and had an aversion to being photographed, even hiding behind another person in a photo taken while bowling earlier this year.
There were also more serious incidents: Ichihashi once lost his temper after he was reprimanded by a superior at work, grabbing his collar before he was calmed down by a coworker.
Ichihashi burst into tears, saying "Sorry," after he was warned that he could beat others to death.
Finally, he left the company on Oct. 11, telling people he was going on a trip. He left behind some comics, an English-Japanese dictionary, a comb and several hand mirrors.
(Mainichi Japan) November 10, 2009
Tatsuya Ichihashi was arrested by the police at the Osaka Minami harbor ferry platform in Suminoe-ku, Osaka-shi on the night of November 10.
He sacrificed the one human being's life.
It is never allowed.
I desire his death penalty.
I pray for her repose.
by Hararie
