Lindsay Hawker was teaching English in Japan in March 2007 when she agreed to give a private lesson to Tatsuya Ichihashi — who then strangled her, buried her body in a tub on his balcony, went on the run, and gave himself cosmetic surgery to conceal his identity.
Hawker FamilyLindsay Hawker dreamed of traveling to Japan to teach English — but her time there was cut short by Tatsuya Ichihashi.
In October 2006, Lindsay Hawker left England and traveled to Japan to begin a year teaching English. She had just graduated from the University of Leeds and planned to pursue a master’s degree after gaining some experience abroad.
But Hawker had bigger plans than simply spending a year in Japan. She dreamed of traveling the world with her boyfriend once her teaching contract ended. Her time in Japan was supposed to be the beginning of an adventure.
Instead, it would be the last place she would ever live.
On March 25, 2007, Lindsay Hawker met a man named Tatsuya Ichihashi for an English lesson — and she was never seen alive again.
Who Was Lindsay Hawker?
Lindsay Ann Hawker was born on Dec. 30, 1984, and grew up in Coventry, England, with her parents and two sisters. She was a bright student who studied biology at the University of Leeds.
In 2006, Hawker graduated with first-class honors, but she wasn’t ready to settle into a conventional life. She wanted to travel and experience the world.
After graduating, she accepted a job teaching English in Japan, giving herself a chance to live abroad before returning to school for a master’s degree.
Hawker FamilyLindsay Hawker was just 22 years old when she was murdered in 2007.
Hawker moved to Japan in October 2006 to teach English at Nova, a private English conversation school. She shared an apartment with two other female teachers in Chiba Prefecture, just outside of Tokyo.
Hawker quickly settled into her new life. Her parents traveled to Japan to celebrate her birthday in December. They found their daughter happy and thriving in the country she had been so excited to explore.
She also remained close to her family back home. Hawker regularly kept in touch with her parents through phone calls, emails, and Skype. For her family, hearing from Hawker was simply part of everyday life.
But one day, those messages suddenly stopped coming.
How Lindsay Hawker Met Tatsuya Ichihashi
On March 20, 2007, Lindsay Hawker was traveling home from work when a man approached her near a train station. His name was Tatsuya Ichihashi.
Ichihashi told Hawker that she was his English teacher. She knew he was lying. Hawker knew her students, and Ichihashi wasn’t one of them — but he continued talking to her.
When Hawker unlocked her bicycle and started riding home, Ichihashi followed her. He eventually reached her apartment and asked if he could have a glass of water. Hawker felt sorry for him and let him inside.
Police PhotoTatsuya Ichihashi, the man who raped and murdered Lindsay Hawker.
Her two roommates were home, so Hawker introduced them to Ichihashi. He then asked if she would give him private English lessons.
The request wasn’t unusual. Nova allowed its teachers to give private lessons as long as they followed certain rules, including meeting students in public places. So, Hawker agreed to meet him at a cafe a few days later.
Before leaving, Ichihashi handed her a piece of paper with his name, phone number, and email address. He had also drawn a picture of Hawker.
That evening, Hawker sent an email to her boyfriend back in England. According to the British newspaper The Northern Echo, it read: “Love u lots dont worry abt the [guy] who chased me home, its jus crazy Japan.”
At the time, there was no reason to think the strange note or foreboding email would become evidence in a murder investigation. However, they would later help the police find the man who killed her.
A Brutal Murder In An Ichikawa Apartment
On March 25, 2007, Lindsay Hawker met Ichihashi at a cafe near her home for the English lesson they had arranged. Security cameras captured the two sitting together. Hawker appeared to keep some distance from Ichihashi as they talked.
When the lesson ended, Ichihashi told Hawker that he didn’t have the money to pay her. He said he had the cash at his apartment, so Hawker agreed to return with him.
The two took a taxi to Ichihashi’s apartment in Ichikawa. Hawker asked the driver to wait, because she expected to be gone only a few moments. She followed Ichihashi inside. Seven minutes passed, but Lindsay Hawker never returned.
CCTVCCTV footage captured Lindsay Hawker and Tatsuya Ichihashi meeting at a cafe on the morning of her murder.
The taxi driver eventually left, unaware that he had just watched Hawker walk into the place where she would die.
The next day, Hawker’s friends and coworkers began to realize something was seriously wrong. She hadn’t shown up to teach her classes, something that was completely out of character for her. They alerted the police, and Hawker’s roommates gave officers the information Ichihashi had left behind. On March 26, investigators went to Ichihashi’s apartment.
But there was a problem. The officers did not believe they had enough evidence to force their way inside. Still, they could see someone through the window, and they also noticed something strange on the balcony. Ichihashi’s bathtub appeared to have been moved outside.
By 8 p.m., nearly a dozen officers had gathered outside the apartment. Then, Ichihashi walked out. He was barefoot and carrying a backpack — and when he saw the police, he immediately ran.
One officer managed to grab the backpack, but Ichihashi kept going. He vaulted down the stairway and disappeared into the streets.
Associated Press/YouTubeLindsay Hawker’s body was found in a bathtub on Tatsuya Ichihashi’s balcony.
For Lindsay Hawker’s family, the search for their missing daughter was about to become something far worse. When the police finally entered the apartment, they found Hawker’s body in the bathtub on the balcony, buried beneath soil and sand.
Her hands and feet had been bound, and she was gagged. She had seemingly been strangled to death.
The young woman who had left England to see the world had been found dead in the home of a man she’d met only days earlier. And Tatsuya Ichihashi was gone.
The Manhunt For A Killer
Tatsuya Ichihashi had escaped before police could arrest him. Now, he was one of Japan’s most wanted men.
Police distributed thousands of wanted posters and released photographs of Ichihashi to the public. They also released the drawing he had made of Lindsay Hawker, hoping someone would recognize the unusual image and identify the man who created it.
But Ichihashi was determined not to be found.
He moved around Japan, avoided cameras, and kept his distance from other people. At one point, he found work at a construction company in Osaka, using a false name and living in a dormitory with other laborers.
Ichihashi began changing his appearance. He used a boxcutter to remove moles from his face and scissors to slice off part of his lower lip. He also saved money while working and eventually underwent cosmetic surgery, including procedures on his nose and eyelids.
Onlooker UK/YouTubeTatsuya Ichihashi tried to disguise himself after seeing wanted posters with his face printed on them outside a police station.
But the changes that were supposed to help Ichihashi disappear ultimately brought investigators closer to him. In 2009, a clinic in Nagoya became suspicious of the scars on his face and contacted the police with photographs showing his altered appearance. Investigators released the images to the public, and Ichihashi saw them on television.
He knew the search for him had intensified. Ichihashi bought another disguise, adding facial hair in an attempt to hide his identity. Then, he prepared to disappear again. But he wouldn’t get the chance.
On Nov. 10, 2009, someone spotted a man resembling Ichihashi at a ferry terminal in Osaka. The police rushed to the scene as he was preparing to board a ferry to Okinawa. This time, Ichihashi had nowhere to run.
He was finally arrested more than two-and-a-half years after Lindsay Hawker’s murder.
Tatsuya Ichihashi’s Chilling Murder Trial
Ichihashi did not immediately confess after his arrest. He was initially charged with abandoning Hawker’s body before prosecutors brought additional charges related to her rape and murder.
Eventually, Ichihashi admitted that he had raped Hawker and suffocated her to prevent her from screaming for help, but he continued to insist that he had not intended to kill her. The prosecution argued otherwise.
The question before the court was whether Lindsay Hawker’s death had been an unintended consequence of the attack or whether Ichihashi had deliberately killed her to silence her and conceal what he had done.
In court, Ichihashi acknowledged responsibility for Hawker’s death. He also apologized to her family. But her parents did not accept his apology. They wanted the harshest possible punishment for the man who had taken their daughter’s life. They asked for the death penalty.
Police PhotoTatsuya Ichihashi after his attempts to alter his appearance.
Japan does have capital punishment, but the death penalty is rarely imposed when someone has killed only one person, particularly when the defendant has no previous murder convictions. On July 21, 2011, the Chiba District Court sentenced Ichihashi to life in prison. The judges rejected his claim that Hawker’s death had been accidental, finding that his actions were deliberate and brutal.
For Hawker’s parents, the verdict brought an end to the legal battle. As reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2011, Hawker’s father spoke to the press after Ichihashi’s sentencing, saying, “We’ve waited a long time for today. We’ve waited four-and-a-half years to get justice for Lindsay, and we have achieved that today, and we are very pleased.”
Today, Ichihashi remains incarcerated for Lindsay Hawker’s murder. He wrote a book about his time on the run titled Until I Was Arrested and offered the royalties to Hawker’s family, but they rejected the money.
Hawker’s family wanted her to be remembered as more than the British teacher whose body was found buried in a bathtub. She was a university graduate who had worked hard for her future. She was a daughter and sister who had traveled across the world because she wanted to experience something new. Sadly, one disturbed man brought all of her dreams to a devastating end.
After learning about Lindsay Hawker’s murder in Japan, read about the Monster with 21 Faces, the mysterious criminal who terrorized Japan with kidnappings, extortion, and threats of poisoned candy. Then, explore another disturbing Japanese case involving Otoya Yamaguchi, the teenager who assassinated a politician during a televised debate.