One year on, family’s plea in murder suspect hunt

THE family of a young British woman killed in Japan a year ago urged the public yesterday to help find the suspect in the murder.

Lindsay Hawker, a 22-year-old English teacher, was found dead in a bathtub full of sand on an apartment balcony near Tokyo in March 2007.

“Please help us find this man,” William Hawker, the dead woman’s father, told a news conference as he held a poster of the suspect.

“Someone somewhere must be hiding Ichihashi.”

Police launched a nationwide search for Tatsuya Ichihashi, who slipped away when officers arrived at the apartment to question him about Ms Hawker, who had been reported missing.

Earlier this month, Japanese police issued a poster of Ichihashi as he would look disguised as a long-haired woman or with dyed blonde hair. It was posted on the police website with pictures of socks, shoes and a rucksack he had left behind. Video pictures of Ichihashi walking into a café with Ms Hawker and travelling in the elevator in his apartment building were shown on TV last year.

“Lindsay loved your country, Japan,” her sister Lisa Hawker said at the same conference.. “Please don’t forget what happened to her.”