Lindsay Hawker

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Lindsay Ann Hawker was a 22-year old British citizen who was murdered in Japan.

1 Background
2 Investigation
3 Comparisons
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Background

Hawker moved to Japan in October, 2006 to teach English to Japanese at the Koiwa branch of Nova, Japan's largest private English conversation school. She was reported missing on Monday March 26, 2007 by her employers after she failed to answer her mobile phone when her flatmate called.

After being alerted to her disappearance, police visited the apartment of 28-year old Tatsuya Ichihashi in Ichikawa, east Tokyo. Ichihashi escaped the scene, losing his shoes in the subsequent chase, and still remains at large. Hawker's naked body was found buried in a sand-filled bath on the apartment's balcony. She had severe injuries to her face and arms, and her possessions were strewn across the room.^[1]

Ichihashi had followed Hawker home a few days previously. Hawker's father, William Hawker, said that his daughter was not in any kind of relationship with Ichihashi and said that she had been tricked to the flat when he asked her to help him with his English.^[2]

[edit] Investigation

Police said Hawker had been strangled following a struggle during which she was punched in the face and had collided furniture.^[3] Police suspect that between Sunday night and early Monday, Ichihashi moved the bathtub from the bathroom to the balcony and put Hawker's body into it. Neighbors said they heard sounds of something striking metal and something being dragged during that time period. Police obtained an arrest warrant Tuesday for Ichihashi on suspicion of abandoning her body, and put him on the nationwide wanted list.^[2]

On March 29 an autopsy report showed that Hawker was strangled to death.^[3]

On April 2 Sky News reported that CCTV footage from a surveillance camera in a coffe shop in Tokyo shows Lindsay and her killer on the same day as the murder.^[4]

[edit] Comparisons

Although the circumstances of the murders were different the case has been compared^[5] to that of Lucie Blackman, another female British citizen, whose dismembered body was found buried in a shallow grave at a beach in Miura, Kanagawa in June 2001.