Lucie Blackman

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Lucie Blackman (Born September 1, 1978 d. July 1, 2000) was an English woman working illegally as a hostess in Roppongi, Tokyo, who disappeared mysteriously in July 2000. Her dismembered body was found a year later, buried in a shallow grave at a beach in Miura, Kanagawa in June 2001. She was 21 years old at the time of her death.

1 Background
2 Investigation
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Background

Blackman had previously worked as a flight attendant for British Airways but had tired of long-haul routes and had come to Japan to see the world. At the time of her disappearance she had been by working as a hostess at a night club, which can be a very lucrative occupation.

[edit] Investigation

Property developer Joji Obara was charged with drugging, raping and killing Blackman, as well as raping of six other women and murdering another hostess.^[1] According to the indictment, he made Blackman a drink containing a drug before raping her at a condominium in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture. She subsequently died. In September 2006, Lucie's father, Tim Blackman, accepted £454,000 from an associate of Obara having signed documents questioning key elements of the prosecution case, according to reports in the Japanese press and The Times in London.^[2] According to a report in the Japan Times, a ruling in the case will be handed down April 24, 2007.^[3] Evidence supporting Obara's guilt includes the approximately 400 videos he took in which he engaged in date rape activities, as well as his alleged involvement in the rape and subsequent death of an Australian hostess, Carita Ridgeway.^[4]

[edit] Aftermath

The mysterious disappearance and later discovery of Blackman's body received an enormous amount of press coverage in Japan and internationally, especially in British newspapers. British Prime Minister Tony Blair even made mention of the murder during an official visit to Japan. Blackman was, however, not the first foreign woman employed in Japan's mizu shōbai (literally "water trade") to suddenly disappear. Mizuho Fukushima, a member of Japan's Upper House parliament and a high-profile women's rights advocate, said in an interview with TIME that many Asian women had disappeared previously but the media "barely covered this problem until Lucie's case. All of a sudden it was news when a white girl disappeared."^[5] The Japanese judicial system has also received some criticism for its handling of the case, as well as the police leaking information in the case to the press that could cause a mistrial.^[4]