THE MURDER WHO CHANGED HIS APPEARANCE. THE CASE OF TATSUYA ICHIHASHI.
Disclaimer: if you don’t like reading about true crime cases please click off. This story consists of the events of the case of Lindsay Hawker. There is pictures but the aren’t sensitive to audience they are photos of Lindsay and some CCTV photos. If you want to please continue to read.
A women with the name Lindsay Ann Hawker, was 22 years old. She lived in Coventry England with her family that consisted her mom Julia, her dad Bill, and her sister. Lindsay was a bright women that has a passion for teaching, she loved her family dearly. Lindsay Hawker was a teacher in England at King Henry the VIII, until she started to teach in Japan. She started her teaching journey in Japan on October 2006 at the Koiwa Tokyo, branch Nova.
When she moved to Japan she shared her apartment with two other teachers that worked at the same school. However, no matter if she lived in a different place from her family, she never failed to keep in contact with her beloved family from e-mails, phone calls, and video calls. She was keeping her family updated on her life in Japan.
As time past when she was in Japan, day by day working. She had an encounter with Tatsuya Ichihashi for the first time. Lindsay Hawker was on her way home from work when Tatsuya Ichihashi approached her claiming that she was his English teacher. Although, Tatsuya Ichihashi claimed that Lindsay Hawker knew that it was not true. Lindsay Hawker continued to cycle home. The whole time Lindsay Hawker was cycling home Tatsuya Ichihashi was chasing her. When he caught up to her, he asked for a glass of water. Lindsay Hawker felt sympathy for him and allowed him inside her shared apartment and provided him a glass of water. When he was inside Lindsay Hawker’s apartment, he drew a picture of her that consisted his name, phone number, and e-mail address.
Previously before Tatsuya chased her down, he asked if she can give him English lessons and she kindly turned the offer down. When he was sitting in her apartment, he asked again but this time he offered money and she kindly accepted the offer. They had plans to meet at a cafe four days after this event. Four days later Lindsay Hawker and Tatsuya Ichihashi met at a cafe on March 24th, 2007. After the English lesson, Tatsuya claimed that he forgot the money at his apartment and he asked Lindsay if she could go by his apartment and pick it up and then leave. Lindsay agreed and they caught a taxi together. Lindsay informed the taxi driver that it wouldn’t take long and she asked the taxi driver to wait for her. Seven minutes went by and Lindsay didn’t return to the taxi, the taxi driver left.
Days went by and Lindsay didn’t show up to teach, within the two days. The school that she was teaching at called the police due to her absence. When the police went to Lindsay’s appointment, they found the sketch that Tatsuya drew. About nine officers went to Tatsuya’s apartment. Tatsuya and the officers ran into each other, in a panic Tatsuya ran in hopes of escaping the officers. The officers couldn’t catch Tatsuya, they started the search his apartment. They soon found Tatsuya’s detachable bathtub on his balcony.
The officers found Lindsay’s naked body buried in the bathtub. There was sand, and compost soil, Lindsay’s hand was sticking out of the mixture. She was bound and gagged with plastic ties and scarves. Lindsay had bruises across her upper body which means that Lindsay was subjected to a prolonged attack. The egg-sizes bruises on her left side of her face was from a fist. The other marks on her upper body was from furniture. The court says that Lindsay was alive until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. on March 26th, 2007. That was until Tatsuya strangled her with his hands, until she past away. Tatsuya strangles her for three minutes after she past away. Later that day Tatsuya went out and purchased the items he would use. He purchased a shovel, soil, sand, deodorants, and a substance to decompose waste. According to the court when Lindsay and Tatsuya entered his apartment, “hit the victim in the face, then used restraining bands to tie up her wrists.” Upon arriving at his apartment and then after that event Tatsuya raped Lindsay.
Officers noticed that Lindsay’s hair was shaved when they found her body. That lead the officers to have theories that Tatsuya was a cross dresser, which means he shaved Lindsay’s head and used her hair as a wig. On Tuesday the police put a warrant out for Tatsuya. Police released pictures of Tatsuya for the warrant but they released pictures of him disguised as a women. The police even released pictures of the sketch, hopeful that someone would recognize the art style. Tatsuya couldn’t be found for 31 months. Tatsuya went all over Japan in hiding, until police finally found him.
Tatsuya could have had the death penalty in Japan but Mr. Hawker asked for the maximum punishment for him. Judge Masaya Hotta said Tatsuya shouldn’t receive the death penalty because he had no previous criminal record. When Tatsuya was on the run he published a book, which consisted on him confessing to killing and he describes how he had cosmetic surgery to change his appearance. Some of the cosmetic surgery was self inflicted, this includes cutting his own lip and removing moles from his face. When he went to get cosmetic surgery, a staff at a clinic where he had surgery on his nose reported him to the police. This lead to his arrest. He was arrested at a ferry terminal in the city of Osaka, in western Japan in November 2009.
When Tatsuya went to court he admitted to killing Lindsay. Tatsuya threw himself on the ground in front of Lindsay’s family and begged for forgiveness, during his trial at the Chiba District Court on July 4th, 2011. However, Tatsuya denied that Lindsay’s death was intentional. “I did not intend to murder Lindsay, but I am responsible for her death and I intend to take the blame for it.” Said Tatsuya. The trail continued on if Lindsay’s death was intentional or if it was an accident. The court was trying to decide if it was an accident, if Tatsuya was trying to prevent her from escaping and screaming for help. The Chiba District Court said in handling a life-term imprisonment sentence to Tatsuya on July 21st, 2011. “We cannot detect any attitude of deep regret (from the killer).” Said the court.
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