JAPAN: Murdered British teacher Lindsay Hawker's family makes another appeal for help to find her killer

Record ID: 461622

  • Title: JAPAN: Murdered British teacher Lindsay Hawker's family makes another appeal for help to find her killer
  • Date: 24th March 2008
  • Summary: (W2) TOKYO, JAPAN (MARCH 24, 2008) (REUTERS) THE HAWKER FAMILY ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE MOTHER, JULIA HAWKER, AND FATHER WILLIAM HAWKER HOLDING UP WARRANT FOR TATSUYA ICHIHASHI AND PICTURE OF DAUGHTER LINDSAY (SOUNDBITE) (English) JULIA HAWKER, MOTHER OF LINDSAY HAWKER, SAYING: "As a mother, I appeal to you all to look at this picture. This is my daughter. Remember her face, remember this face and help us get justice for this girl that she so rightly deserves. Please bring Tatsuya Ichihashi to justice for her." (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) WILLIAM HAWKER, FATHER OF LINDSAY HAWKER, SAYING: "Please find this man. I beg you." (SOUNDBITE) (English) WILLIAM HAWKER, FATHER OF LINDSAY HAWKER, REPEATING IN ENGLISH: "Please help me find this man" PHOTOGRAPHERS NEWS CONFERENCE BY THE HAWKER FAMILY PICTURE OF LINDSAY HAWKER FATHER WIPING HIS EYES FAMILY AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Japanese) LISA HAWKER, SISTER OF LINDSAY HAWKER, SAYING: "Ichihashi, you have taken away a precious life, destroyed a whole existence and stolen countless memories from us. " FATHER SURROUNDED BY JAPANESE MEDIA FATHER LEAVING THE NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 8th April 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Reuters ID: LVA3KCRXZX68V9AVMA4T9W4KGGDO
  • Story Text: Family of British teacher Lindsay Hawker returns to Japan to raise the profile of the search for their daughter's killer.
    The family of a young British woman killed in Japan a year ago urged the Japanese people on Monday (March 24) to help find the suspect and bring him to justice.
    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, in a high-profile case that horrified many in relatively crime-free Japan.

    "As a mother, I appeal to you all to look at this picture. This is my daughter. Remember her face, remember this face and help us get justice for this girl that she so rightly deserves. Please bring Tatsuya Ichihashi to justice for her," said Julia Hawker, Lindsay's mother, at a news conference in Tokyo.

    "Please find this man. Please help us find this man," added William Hawker, father of the slain woman, holding a poster of the murder suspect.
    Police launched a nationwide search for Tatsuya Ichihashi, who slipped away when officers arrived at the apartment to question him about Hawker, who had been reported missing.

    "Ichihashi, you have taken away a precious life, destroyed a whole existence and stolen countless memories from us, " Lisa Hawker, the sister of Lindsay, said in Japanese during the same news conference.
    William Hawker said they would be distributing more pamphlets and released home video of Lindsay before her death, enjoying her time in Tokyo.
    Earlier this month Japanese police issued a new poster of Ichihashi, showing him as he would look disguised as a long-haired woman or with dyed blonde hair.
    The police put up on their web site (http://www.police.pref.chiba.jp/police/police_department/gyotoku/info.php#t_1) the poster as well as pictures of socks, shoes and a rucksack he had left behind.
    Japanese police have come under fire for their investigations into previous attacks on foreign women, including Briton Lucie Blackman.
    But William Hawker said he did not come to Japan to criticise Japanese police but to "raise the profile of Lindsay's murder".
    Hawker added that they had created a Facebook site they hoped would also spread the word amongst the younger generations.
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