Aug. 9, 2025
E131 - Changing Faces: The Murder of Lindsay Hawker
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Episode one thirty one will cover the case of a young British English teacher living in Japan who suddenly went missing, and was then found to have been murdered. Everyone knows exactly who killed her, but the problem is… they can’t find him. What happened to Lindsay?
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jessica, and you're listening to the Asian Madness podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hi all, welcome back to the Asian Madness podcast.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Happy to have you here and cannot say I'm excited to talk about another horrible case because let's not forget these are real people who had real lives, dreams, likes and dislikes and ambitions.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I am always trying to be aware of how these scripts come off because the last thing I want to do is be disrespectful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I do hope you're all staying safe and happy because life can get crazy and extremely stressful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, I came across today's case via this nice little search tool called Google.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty handy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So in recent years, I feel like the whole travel thing has gone completely nuts.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In a good way, mostly.
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[SPEAKER_00]: People are furiously traveling nowadays, and sometimes not just traveling, but moving to new countries to work, take gap years to study, or just to do the whole wanderlust thing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is great, because despite having the internet, seeing something on an Instagram post is not the same as experiencing it in real life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, not everyone thinks about traveling or even wants to travel, which, again, is totally fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many hobbies out there, we should do whatever that makes us happy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Today's case, though, reminds me of two different cases I've covered previously.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And all involved British women traveling internationally.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The Lauren Patterson case and the Lucy Blackman case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You will see why in a bit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What's also kind of eerie is that all three cases involve a victim with a name that starts with L. Warren, Lucy, and today, Lindsay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is the case of twenty-two-year-old Lindsay Hawker, a promising young woman whose life was taken away all too soon as it tends to be the case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Where did Lindsay go?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Who took her life?
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[SPEAKER_00]: And why?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hope you're paying attention.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because this case kind of plays out like a movie.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Let's begin.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Starting off, allow me to introduce to you a city called Coventry, England.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is a metropolitan burrow located in the heart of the West Midlands.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And on the map, it's almost right in the center of England.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's home to the iconic Coventry Cathedral, or Saint Michael's Cathedral, which was founded in the Middle Ages.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It is regarded as a symbol of resilience because it stands next to the ruins of an old cathedral destroyed during the Second World War.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The symbolic town was also the home of Lindsay and Hocker.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was born on December thirty of nineteen eighty-four to Bill and Julia Hocker, originally hailing from the village of Brandon in the county of Warwickshire.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She had two younger sisters, Louise and Lisa.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay was known for her boundless enthusiasm and her curiosity for other cultures and traditions.
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[SPEAKER_00]: with a sunny personality and curious mind like hers, being a teacher key naturally to her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her passion for learning and her natural aptitude for languages also helped immensely.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Lindsey pursued a degree in biology with education at the University of Leeds.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She graduated in two thousand and six with high honors
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[SPEAKER_00]: And although she had plans to pursue a post-Batchler degree, she decided to put those plans on hold for the time being.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to experience some real-life things first, such as living in a foreign country and working.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay chose to begin her career in Japan.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She had always been fascinated by the culture, and she wanted this to be her very first experience.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She ended up moving to Tokyo to teach English, and though this worried her parents initially, they knew this was in line with Lindsay's adventure spirit.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I get it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Having your child move halfway across the world to a place with a complete different culture and language can be very daunting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay herself may have even felt a bit scared, but her enthusiasm and excitement must have overshadowed any of her hesitations.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay's time in Japan was supposed to be an exciting new chapter in her life, a chance to explore new culture, meet new people, and make a difference through teaching.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is honestly probably the best time to do it as well.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You're young, you have no real life obligation, and you're not tied down.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You're free to explore and live your life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was excited about the opportunity, and so she embraced her new life.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She secured a job with Nova, which is a large private language school, and one of the most prestigious in Japan for English conversational classes at the time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When she arrived, Lindsay was assigned to Koiwa, a district in Tokyo.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She stayed further east, though, in the city called Chiba, where the rent was cheaper.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And she got to share a room with two other Nova teachers, with whom she became instant friends.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Things could not be more perfect.
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[SPEAKER_00]: There was so much to do in Tokyo.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was a whole new world and Lindsey was captivated.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But she still always made time to regularly speak to her parents and her boyfriend via Skype or email.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So there was never a moment when her family, back home, did not know what she was doing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay quickly adapted to her new life in Japan.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was a dedicated teacher, loved by her students for her engaging teaching style, passion, and warm personality.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She also embraced Japanese culture, learning the language, and exploring the city in her free time.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Before she knew it, six months had passed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Despite everything feeling like a dream thus far, obstacles and problems do tend to come up, when they're least expected.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And this would be the turning point for Lindsay's life in Japan.
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[SPEAKER_00]: On a seemingly normal day in March of, two thousand and seven, Lindsay had an encounter.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Awkward at first, this would be the first meeting with a person who was about to change her life forever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For the worst, though, I might add.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A Japanese man named Ichihashi Tatsuya came up to her as she was ready to leave Chiba Station.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi was a twenty-eight-year-old unemployed man, and he claimed that Lindsay was his English teacher.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But Lindsay was confused because she did not recognize this person.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As a teacher, you are probably not expected to know everything about every single student, but recognizing them would probably make sense.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As a side note, there is a thing called the cross race effect, or own race bias amongst many other names, which basically says a person is more likely to recognize the faces belonging to their own racial group.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of the whole joke about Asians all looking the same, or all white people looking the same.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While this is a thing, this was not the case for Lindsey.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Before moving on to what happened, let's understand a little bit about Ichihashi.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, who is this Ichihashi Tatsuya guy?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Born on January fifth, nineteen seventy nine in Gifu prefecture.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi was raised in a well off family.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His father, a surgeon, and his mother, a dentist.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As a child, he was known to be quiet and introverted.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to follow in his parents' footsteps and have a career in the medical field, but is consistently low test scores made that impossible.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Japan is one of those countries that rely heavily on testing and schoolwork, so lack of excellent grades, so lack of excellent grades would have made this already incredibly difficult task extra hard.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He later enrolled in Chiba University's Department of Horticulture, from where he graduated.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But despite his education, Echihashi always showed a lack of ambition.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't want to work a day job or really do much of anything.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He seemed to prefer an aimless life mostly getting by on his father's money.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This was not exactly alarming.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure everybody knows at least one person who spends their parents money lavishly, and not everyone has emissions to pursue a career.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, a job is just a job, and that's fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi, though, would get a monthly allowance of a hundred thousand Japanese yen, which is about seven hundred US dollars.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's not life-changing, but it's enough for someone who probably doesn't need that much.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A pretty tidy son to live a lavish lifestyle in Chiba, while living in a four-room apartment, all by himself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A couple of years before him at Lindsay, Ichiyashi was involved in a theft and injury case where he assaulted someone on the street.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But the matter was apparently settled out of court when his father gave the victim one million Japanese yen to make it go away.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I am not a parent, but this would probably be a good time to teach a child who also happened to be an adult, what responsibility and consequences mean.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But that did not happen.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Each issue seemed to have cleaned up his act just a little bit after that, not by getting a job or changing his ways, but by maintaining a steady year-long relationship with a girlfriend.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that makes him appear to be more like everybody else, like he's more stable, less of a loner, and capable of relationships.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was also set to have been really quite obsessed with two different things, violence, theme, manga, and working out.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He apparently spent a lot of time getting tone, running insane distances, and working on his physical appearance.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, there were some signs, but nothing that would indicate what he would do next.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Now back to Lindsay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The day was March twenty first, the thousand and seven.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay had just arrived at Chiba Station after a full workday at Nova.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was unlocking her bicycle when this rando came up behind her and oddly declared
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[SPEAKER_00]: You are my English teacher.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsey studied his face and was like, uh, no, you're not.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So she politely disengaged and began cycling home.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But the man started following her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Even as Lindsey increased her speed, he persisted yelling questions like, where are you from and where did you study?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Unable to lose him, Lindsay finally stopped outside her apartment, where the man caught up to her again.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He requested English lessons.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Suggesting they meet in a public cafe and offering generous payment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Despite the offer, Lindsay declined because of the obvious red flags and the fact that she was already busy enough.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The man appeared disappointed, but accepted her decision.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Then he asked for a glass of water, explaining that he was thirsty from chasing her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Can't really make the stuff up, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: hesitantly, she agreed, thinking it wouldn't be wise to let her housemates see this guy's face, in case he ever came around again.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She also hoped that by revealing she did not live alone, it might help to discourage any bad intentions.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This really makes me so upset because it's just another instance of a woman being polite, despite the man coming off as unhinged and creepy.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, she could have yelled at him or threatened him, but what if he escalated the situation?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Women say no, and these weirdos are like, okay, but what if I ask five more times?
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[SPEAKER_00]: The two entered the apartment, and Lindsay offered him a glass of water as promised.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi again asked for English lessons.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This time, offering thirty-five hundred yen, which was around thirty-two dollars per hour.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This would honestly be easy money for Lindsay, and, being in this awkward position, she felt like she couldn't say no.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, she agreed to meet him at a coffee shop in a few days.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Echiashi thanked her, then randomly took out a pen and scrapped a paper.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He sketched the drawing of Lindsay, adding his name in phone number, which he then handed to her before leaving.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Alarm bells, kind of rang in Lindsay's head, but she called herself with the fact that they were meeting in a public space.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She was pretty much trying to rationalize a situation and convince herself that she was just overthinking.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That maybe is just a cultural thing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the guy just really wanted English lessons or whatever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: but chasing after a woman on a bike when she already said no.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's disturbing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Aside from having her two flatmates see who Ichihashi was, Lindsey also made sure to tell her boyfriend of the situation via email.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if her boyfriend was concerned or not, but being so far away, he couldn't really do much except tell her to be careful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not long after that incident, Lindsey contacted him instead of a meeting for Saturday, March, twenty-fourth, two thousand seven.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Their first meeting for the one-on-one lesson was at a coffee shop.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Things were going fine until Ichihashi suddenly remembered that, oh, he had forgotten to bring the money to pay her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay was understandably surprised, not to mention frustrated.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Seeing this, he suggested that they go back to his place so he could retreat to cash.
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[SPEAKER_00]: His apartment apparently was not far from the cafe.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What would you have done in this situation?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I guess it might surprise you that Lindsey did agree to go to Echiashi's apartment with him to retrieve the tuition.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Despite him displaying a mountain of weird red flags.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, Lindsey was smart enough to make sure he knew she didn't live alone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure her flatmates saw this guy, and even told her boyfriend at the situation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he just gave her a sense of security.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what is this guy gonna do to me anyway?
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[SPEAKER_00]: People will know I was with him, and if anything happens to me, it's going to be him.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That may be true, but would it be enough to make sure he didn't do anything to her?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So off they want, Lindsay and Ichihashi agreed to travel together by taxi.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Arriving at his residence, Lindsay requested the taxi driver to wait, assuring him that she wouldn't be long because she had classes at Nova later that afternoon.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The driver agreed, and a two of them entered the house.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly seven minutes passed, the driver got tired of waiting and drove off.
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[SPEAKER_00]: If only he had made the effort to knock on the door, things might have been different.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because that afternoon, Lindsey did not show up for work at Nova.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, not saying it's the driver's fault for what happened, because how could he have known?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hours passed without her arriving at work and eventually, she did not return home either, which prompted her roommates to contact the police and report her as missing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But their concerns would just not take in seriously.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When Lindsay failed to appear at work on Monday as well, her employer reached out to her parents in England.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously alarmed, her parents contacted the police and Japan themselves to make another report.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It took about forty-eight hours for the police to finally take this seriously.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I do believe the police did not take it seriously, perhaps due to certain biases against foreigners living in Japan, or because she was a young person.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she went off to spend the night with a friend, maybe she met a guy, maybe she was partying.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not impossible, but when her closest friends and family start reporting her missing, it would be best to look into it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The search for her started at her home in Chiba.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Her roommates knew that she had met up with someone at a cafe, the man who chased after her and was at their apartment days earlier.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They gave the police a note and sketch each she has she made for Lindsay as well.
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[SPEAKER_00]: In no time, the police were knocking on his door.
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[SPEAKER_00]: When the officers first knocked, there was no answer at the apartment door, but there was obvious movement inside.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They apparently did not have permission to barge through the door without proper cause, so they had to get the go ahead from whoever it was that gave those out.
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[SPEAKER_00]: More police officers arrived.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and as they prepared to break down the door, Ichihashi probably sensing a shift outside, suddenly appeared in the doorway and opened it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Seeing the uniformed officers, Ichihashi made a run for it as he let them in, and in a crazy turn of events he actually managed to get away.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was barefoot.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He had a bag with him, and he did some crazy maneuvers, evaded the police, vaulting over stairwells, and things like that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: By the time the police made sense of what had happened, Ichihashi was long gone.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Inside the apartment, all of Lindsey's belongings were strewn about, and obvious sign of struggle.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Dude didn't even bother cleaning things up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't take them long to discover Lindsay's body.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What was disturbing was how they found her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Naked in the bathtub, filled with sand, soil, and some kind of chemical that was probably meant to speed up decomposition.
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[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever reason, flower seeds were also scattered, probably an attempt to disguise the bathtub as a flower bed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He spent years studying horticulture, and this is how he best managed to put it to use.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Absolute loser.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While a bathtub is usually found inside a bathroom, it appeared that Ichihashi had physically moved the bathtub out onto the balcony.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure what kind of bathtub he had, but some residences had those wooden soaking tugs, not attached to the bath and floor, or wall.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So Lindsay was stashed, unclothed, left out in the open.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The condition of her body was tragic, showing very clear signs of assault.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was obvious that she had suffered greatly in her final moments.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She had multiple bruises on her face and body, and marks around her neck, indicating that she may have been strangled.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Each she had even shaved Lindsay's head, leaving behind a haunting scene that would linger in the memories of the investigators.
20:27.699 --> 20:34.602
[SPEAKER_00]: This discovery in what should be one of the safest cities in the world cast a dark shadow over Chiba.
20:36.702 --> 20:42.824
[SPEAKER_00]: The investigation into Lindsay Hawker's murder was a complex and challenging process of spanned over two and a half years.
20:43.924 --> 20:54.307
[SPEAKER_00]: It should have been a simple open and shut case since the body was found and there was a clear suspect, but Echiashi fleeing really made things complicated for everyone.
20:55.148 --> 21:02.890
[SPEAKER_00]: He managed to evade the police at the time of the initial apartment raid, running off barefoot and leaving behind all his personal belongings.
21:04.177 --> 21:10.964
[SPEAKER_00]: This escape marked the beginning of a nationwide manhunt, with Ichihashi becoming one of Japan's most wanted criminals.
21:12.145 --> 21:24.498
[SPEAKER_00]: During the investigation, it was discovered that Ichihashi had made several trips to a nearby hardware store to purchase gardening supplies, including compost, soil, tools, seeds, etc.
21:26.192 --> 21:34.757
[SPEAKER_00]: Some items were believed to be used as the odorant for the smell and some others to increase the breakdown and decomposition of the body.
21:35.417 --> 21:43.642
[SPEAKER_00]: The police also reached out to Ichihashi's parents, hoping he had reached out to them, but they had no idea where their son had gone.
21:44.722 --> 21:49.185
[SPEAKER_00]: The police then released Ichihashi's photo and some edited versions of his photo.
21:50.125 --> 21:54.408
[SPEAKER_00]: As in, if he were to try and change his looks, he might look like this.
21:55.459 --> 21:59.201
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he tried to pass as a woman, he could look like this.
22:00.221 --> 22:00.922
[SPEAKER_00]: Very creative.
22:03.103 --> 22:06.004
[SPEAKER_00]: They even allegedly release a sound file of his voice.
22:07.025 --> 22:11.087
[SPEAKER_00]: One can change their appearance, but can they really change their voice?
22:12.167 --> 22:18.931
[SPEAKER_00]: With his wanted posters plastered all over the country, the police hope people would come to them with any tips or leads.
22:20.231 --> 22:21.612
[SPEAKER_00]: The man Hunt dragged on though.
22:22.238 --> 22:29.463
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay's parents after being told of the daughter's death made several trips to Japan to work with the police and to plead with the public.
22:30.344 --> 22:33.786
[SPEAKER_00]: Traveling can be fun, but this was not one of those trips.
22:34.667 --> 22:38.589
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay's family became more and more frustrated as Leeds led nowhere.
22:39.370 --> 22:44.473
[SPEAKER_00]: They couldn't stand the fact that the man who brutally murdered their daughter was out there as a free man.
22:45.314 --> 22:50.618
[SPEAKER_00]: Not seeing their desired results, Lindsay's parents decided to put more pressure on the police.
22:51.938 --> 23:06.468
[SPEAKER_00]: During their several trips from London to Tokyo, they made sure the police spent every waking minute on Lindsay's case, and her father even allegedly tried to recruit the Mafia, or the Yakuza, to help find the perpetrator.
23:07.789 --> 23:10.031
[SPEAKER_00]: That's here, say, though, so don't quote me on that.
23:11.071 --> 23:20.698
[SPEAKER_00]: The police followed any leads they could, such as checking out a love hotel, scouring the streets of Kabukicho, otherwise known as Tokyo's entertainment district,
23:21.965 --> 23:28.066
[SPEAKER_00]: The police had found several of Ichihashi's ex-male partners here, but none of them had seen him lately.
23:29.187 --> 23:36.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Some have supposedly come across a man bearing resemblance to Ichihashi, but the police were always one step behind.
23:37.009 --> 23:46.511
[SPEAKER_00]: Rumours also spread like wildfire, some say Ichihashi probably killed himself, and some others saying he probably fled to another country.
23:47.371 --> 23:51.412
[SPEAKER_00]: Logical assumptions, but without proof, the search continued.
23:52.312 --> 24:01.316
[SPEAKER_00]: They also increased the reward to ten million yen for any information leading to his capture, hoping to encourage more public participation.
24:02.316 --> 24:11.560
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the most significant and shocking discoveries involved the rumor about Ichiya's drastic attempts to change his appearance to avoid capture.
24:12.981 --> 24:21.306
[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi was denied surgery sometime in October of the year, but managed to get his nose changed, and another plastic surgery clinic.
24:22.167 --> 24:33.054
[SPEAKER_00]: The clinic called the police themselves, saying that a man came in not long ago to get surgery done, and while they did see the resemblance to the wanted posters, they weren't sure.
24:33.855 --> 24:39.178
[SPEAKER_00]: The surgeon even stated that Ichihashi had come in with some level of work already done on his face.
24:40.059 --> 24:42.140
[SPEAKER_00]: Some may have even been self-inflicted.
24:43.478 --> 24:47.782
[SPEAKER_00]: They passed the photo along to the police, and a few changes were of note.
24:48.503 --> 24:50.465
[SPEAKER_00]: His lower lip was cut to look thinner.
24:51.225 --> 24:56.750
[SPEAKER_00]: The mold on his face were gone, and from his last surgery, his nose was also different.
24:59.153 --> 25:05.158
[SPEAKER_00]: The latest photo was then released to the public, which led a construction company in Osaka to call the police.
25:06.219 --> 25:06.900
[SPEAKER_00]: According to them,
25:07.568 --> 25:14.076
[SPEAKER_00]: an employee named Ino-Wit, who had been with them for about a year, had collected his last paycheck and disappeared.
25:14.857 --> 25:18.681
[SPEAKER_00]: The police immediately jumped at this and went to search the streets of Lusaka.
25:19.782 --> 25:26.590
[SPEAKER_00]: On November tenth, two years and seven months after Lindsay's murder, the hunt was finally over.
25:27.906 --> 25:33.611
[SPEAKER_00]: A rather suspicious looking man was spotted trying to board the ferry from Osaka to Okinawa.
25:34.472 --> 25:42.880
[SPEAKER_00]: But was odd was the fact that it was nighttime, and yet this guy had a huge sun hat, wore sunglasses, and a face mask.
25:44.201 --> 25:51.608
[SPEAKER_00]: While this disguise could be for any number of reasons, it stood out to one of the ferry dock workers who then called the police.
25:53.435 --> 25:59.458
[SPEAKER_00]: It was likely that Ichihashi knew the police were on to him, so his next move was to get the fuck out of Osaka.
26:00.439 --> 26:04.521
[SPEAKER_00]: The police arrived before the ferry did, and moved in on the strange individual.
26:05.461 --> 26:10.024
[SPEAKER_00]: They asked him point blank if he was Ichihashi, and he replied, that's me.
26:11.004 --> 26:16.447
[SPEAKER_00]: He did not resist his arrest, and that was how Lindsay's murder was finally caught.
26:19.560 --> 26:24.966
[SPEAKER_00]: Now all that was left was to present the mountain of evidence against a man and lock him up for good.
26:26.007 --> 26:30.512
[SPEAKER_00]: The trial for Ichihashi was a significant event that drew international attention.
26:31.373 --> 26:36.278
[SPEAKER_00]: It began in July, two thousand eleven, about four years after Lindsay Hawker's death.
26:37.139 --> 26:40.943
[SPEAKER_00]: And as it went on, more and more horrifying details came to light.
26:41.981 --> 26:51.252
[SPEAKER_00]: The police believed Echihashi moved his bathtub from the bathroom to the balcony and placed Hawker's body in it sometime between Sunday night and early Monday morning.
26:52.173 --> 27:00.944
[SPEAKER_00]: Neighbors reported hearing sounds of metal being struck and something heavy being dragged during this time, which made sense with the speculation.
27:02.205 --> 27:05.667
[SPEAKER_00]: And the defense he presented was a desperate one.
27:06.367 --> 27:10.789
[SPEAKER_00]: He admitted to causing Lindsey's death, but claimed it was purely accidental.
27:11.630 --> 27:20.294
[SPEAKER_00]: Here argued that he had only intended to silence Lindsey when she was screaming during the assault, and accidentally ended up strangling her to death.
27:21.555 --> 27:31.300
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether that's true or not, it doesn't change the fact that Hihashi was trying to downplay what really happened, which was a sexual assault and murder of his teacher.
27:33.163 --> 27:39.505
[SPEAKER_00]: quote, yes I raped her, yes I agree that Lindsey died because of my actions, but I did not mean to kill her.
27:40.525 --> 27:45.907
[SPEAKER_00]: Only Lindsey and I know what really happened that day, but she can no longer speak for herself because of me.
27:46.587 --> 27:50.888
[SPEAKER_00]: It is my responsibility to tell the truth throughout the trial, unquote.
27:51.908 --> 27:54.949
[SPEAKER_00]: A highly doubt what he said was the complete truth though.
27:57.270 --> 27:59.971
[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily the prosecution presented a compelling case.
28:00.666 --> 28:13.352
[SPEAKER_00]: They pointed out the brutal nature of Lindsay's injuries and the calculated steps, Ichihashi took to hide her body, suggesting a clear intent to kill or at the very least, a scary well-thought-out plan.
28:14.352 --> 28:22.156
[SPEAKER_00]: They also mentioned the extreme nature of his efforts to avoid capture and undergoing extensive plastic surgery as evidence of his guilt.
28:23.136 --> 28:27.638
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a grueling process, and the evidence against Ichihashi was overwhelming.
28:29.117 --> 28:37.862
[SPEAKER_00]: The court heard statements from several witnesses, including the amateur and professional plastic surgeons, who unknowingly altered the face of a murder.
28:39.163 --> 28:41.584
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the end, Justice was served.
28:42.405 --> 28:45.667
[SPEAKER_00]: The court found Ichihashi guilty of both rape and murder.
28:46.467 --> 28:48.048
[SPEAKER_00]: He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
28:48.668 --> 28:52.491
[SPEAKER_00]: The judge dismissed his claims of the murder as being accidental.
28:53.571 --> 28:58.114
[SPEAKER_00]: Stating that the evidence clearly showed he had fully intended to kill Lindsay.
28:59.307 --> 29:03.888
[SPEAKER_00]: Did he really expect her to suffer through the rape and leave his apartment and not report him?
29:05.208 --> 29:11.389
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsey's family, though, had hoped for the death penalty for Hihashi, but the court did not support that.
29:12.130 --> 29:20.251
[SPEAKER_00]: The judge believed that since he was a young man, he could have a chance at rehabilitation after his sentence was over, if ever.
29:21.371 --> 29:28.633
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, Hihashi was about thirty-two at the time of the trial, and he committed a crime when he was in his late twenties.
29:29.733 --> 29:37.720
[SPEAKER_00]: They made it sound like he was a juvenile, or in his early twenties, and did they not see the lengths he went through just to avoid capture?
29:39.001 --> 29:41.263
[SPEAKER_00]: Like he would do anything to get away with murder.
29:42.702 --> 29:53.692
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also worth mentioning that most of those that have been executed were for multiple murders, being executed for killing one person is extremely rare, but not unheard of.
29:54.773 --> 30:02.540
[SPEAKER_00]: So even if the verdict wasn't what the Hawker family had hoped for, it brought some measure of justice for Lindsay and her family.
30:04.127 --> 30:11.620
[SPEAKER_00]: During this whole ordeal, Ichiashi actually wrote a book about himself because he obviously thinks very highly of himself.
30:12.442 --> 30:14.826
[SPEAKER_00]: It's called, until I was arrested.
30:15.587 --> 30:16.609
[SPEAKER_00]: Very odd move.
30:18.521 --> 30:28.143
[SPEAKER_00]: He writes about how he took extreme measures to change his appearance while evading capture for Lindsay's murder, including some shocking self-administered cosmetic procedures.
30:28.944 --> 30:36.265
[SPEAKER_00]: He tried to narrow his nose by stitching it himself, and attempted to thin his lower lip, which sounds extremely painful.
30:37.126 --> 30:42.147
[SPEAKER_00]: He completed his procedure in a public restroom, which sounds like a health violation.
30:42.167 --> 30:46.648
[SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprised and slightly disappointed, he didn't get any fatal infections.
30:48.086 --> 30:56.355
[SPEAKER_00]: To hide his scars, Ichihashi wore multiple surgical masks, which doesn't really stand out as it is quite common in Japan anyway.
30:57.236 --> 31:10.190
[SPEAKER_00]: He moved around the country from Tokyo to Aomori and then to Shikoku, where he visited temples inspired by a novel suggesting that dead could be resurrected through such pilgrimages.
31:11.420 --> 31:14.984
[SPEAKER_00]: I call BS as it feels like he's pretending to be remorseful.
31:16.185 --> 31:23.492
[SPEAKER_00]: He supposedly goes on and on about his life as a fugitive, but he never mentions his actual crime or his motives.
31:24.473 --> 31:31.120
[SPEAKER_00]: The book is more about his life on the run, almost painting himself as a hero, a murder and adventure.
31:32.040 --> 31:35.444
[SPEAKER_00]: What it was like to hide from an entire nation looking for you.
31:37.550 --> 31:46.232
[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi's book is a two hundred thirty eight page narrative and it includes his own drawings like one of him wearing a baseball cap and a surgical mask.
31:46.992 --> 31:52.914
[SPEAKER_00]: He had wooded surveillance cameras and eye contact and never reached out to family or friends while on the run.
31:53.954 --> 31:56.615
[SPEAKER_00]: After spotting a wanted poster featuring his face,
31:57.455 --> 32:01.237
[SPEAKER_00]: He removed the mold from his cheek that were visible in the image.
32:02.077 --> 32:09.721
[SPEAKER_00]: Working several construction jobs, he saved enough money for two more plastic surgeries to further change his nose shape and size.
32:10.641 --> 32:17.825
[SPEAKER_00]: Must have been tough though, trying to find someone to do work on your face, not knowing if they've seen you wanted poster or not.
32:19.260 --> 32:21.783
[SPEAKER_00]: All his attempts at changing his face though fell flat.
32:22.663 --> 32:28.449
[SPEAKER_00]: As his arrest was a direct result of his attempts to alter his identity in the clinic in Osaka.
32:29.390 --> 32:31.291
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is kind of great if you think about it.
32:31.952 --> 32:37.297
[SPEAKER_00]: The staff of the clinic became suspicious of the more scars on this cheek and contacted the police.
32:38.298 --> 32:39.980
[SPEAKER_00]: This development made headlines.
32:40.520 --> 32:45.003
[SPEAKER_00]: and upon seeing the news on TV, Echiashi panicked and got a haircut.
32:45.983 --> 32:55.349
[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about buying a disguise kit with party props like a comical beard, sideburns and a mustache, which of course did not work.
32:56.330 --> 32:59.211
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so ridiculous, I literally cannot make this up.
33:01.033 --> 33:07.697
[SPEAKER_00]: Not sure if anyone wants to read his book, but it supposedly gives readers all the details of this two and a half year run from the police.
33:08.661 --> 33:15.830
[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably biased though, and if you really want to read it, I can't stop you, but I have no idea where the royalties will go to.
33:16.871 --> 33:23.499
[SPEAKER_00]: He did attend to a seek forgiveness for his actions by offering all royalties from his book to Lindsay's family.
33:24.220 --> 33:29.904
[SPEAKER_00]: But her family's like, hell no, we are not taking money from you at the expense of her loved one.
33:30.885 --> 33:33.707
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as they were concerned, this was blood money.
33:34.388 --> 33:35.508
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsey's blood at that.
33:36.229 --> 33:38.791
[SPEAKER_00]: No amount would change the fact or make it right.
33:39.832 --> 33:48.218
[SPEAKER_00]: Because this case is so insane and like I initially said, like a plot out of a movie, this case was of course made into a movie.
33:49.525 --> 33:54.892
[SPEAKER_00]: I am Ichihashi, journal of a murder, was filmed and released in twenty thirteen.
33:55.994 --> 34:02.302
[SPEAKER_00]: I have not seen this, but apparently it's mostly based on his gross book about his life on the run.
34:03.183 --> 34:08.350
[SPEAKER_00]: The guy playing Ichihashi, Dean Fujioka, also self-directed the film.
34:10.525 --> 34:11.665
[SPEAKER_00]: So, there you have it.
34:12.265 --> 34:20.427
[SPEAKER_00]: The case of a man who thought he could get away with murder, only to eventually be hunted down and locked behind bars, hopefully forever.
34:21.647 --> 34:28.728
[SPEAKER_00]: While Ishihashi's story is kind of fascinating, the real victim here and the one worth remembering is Lindsay Hawker.
34:29.528 --> 34:37.510
[SPEAKER_00]: She should be honored as a young woman that she was, a curious, intelligent young mind who wanted to teach as much as she wanted to learn.
34:38.330 --> 34:44.880
[SPEAKER_00]: She traveled to Japan, left her comfort zone to experience something totally new, and that's very admirable.
34:45.821 --> 34:53.012
[SPEAKER_00]: It's extremely unfortunate that her life had to end so quickly, and I cannot even imagine how she was feeling during her last moments.
34:54.015 --> 34:57.999
[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, I sincerely hope the Hawker family is doing better.
34:59.120 --> 35:08.288
[SPEAKER_00]: As there is never real closure when violence like this intrudes into your life, stay safe out their friends and thank you for tuning in.
35:09.289 --> 35:09.950
[SPEAKER_00]: Till next time.
00:00.693 --> 00:06.172
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jessica, and you're listening to the Asian Madness podcast.
00:47.020 --> 00:50.421
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi all, welcome back to the Asian Madness podcast.
00:51.362 --> 01:04.788
[SPEAKER_00]: Happy to have you here and cannot say I'm excited to talk about another horrible case because let's not forget these are real people who had real lives, dreams, likes and dislikes and ambitions.
01:05.812 --> 01:12.595
[SPEAKER_00]: I am always trying to be aware of how these scripts come off because the last thing I want to do is be disrespectful.
01:14.576 --> 01:20.159
[SPEAKER_00]: I do hope you're all staying safe and happy because life can get crazy and extremely stressful.
01:21.080 --> 01:26.042
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, I came across today's case via this nice little search tool called Google.
01:26.643 --> 01:27.343
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty handy.
01:28.364 --> 01:32.426
[SPEAKER_00]: So in recent years, I feel like the whole travel thing has gone completely nuts.
01:33.147 --> 01:34.487
[SPEAKER_00]: In a good way, mostly.
01:35.408 --> 01:48.055
[SPEAKER_00]: People are furiously traveling nowadays, and sometimes not just traveling, but moving to new countries to work, take gap years to study, or just to do the whole wanderlust thing.
01:49.256 --> 01:58.539
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is great, because despite having the internet, seeing something on an Instagram post is not the same as experiencing it in real life.
02:00.500 --> 02:06.526
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, not everyone thinks about traveling or even wants to travel, which, again, is totally fine.
02:07.206 --> 02:10.849
[SPEAKER_00]: There are so many hobbies out there, we should do whatever that makes us happy.
02:11.670 --> 02:15.794
[SPEAKER_00]: Today's case, though, reminds me of two different cases I've covered previously.
02:16.715 --> 02:19.898
[SPEAKER_00]: And all involved British women traveling internationally.
02:20.738 --> 02:24.241
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lauren Patterson case and the Lucy Blackman case.
02:25.182 --> 02:26.703
[SPEAKER_00]: You will see why in a bit.
02:27.544 --> 02:37.850
[SPEAKER_00]: What's also kind of eerie is that all three cases involve a victim with a name that starts with L. Warren, Lucy, and today, Lindsay.
02:38.791 --> 02:47.136
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the case of twenty-two-year-old Lindsay Hawker, a promising young woman whose life was taken away all too soon as it tends to be the case.
02:48.382 --> 02:49.423
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did Lindsay go?
02:50.043 --> 02:50.843
[SPEAKER_00]: Who took her life?
02:51.344 --> 02:52.044
[SPEAKER_00]: And why?
02:52.064 --> 02:54.605
[SPEAKER_00]: Hope you're paying attention.
02:55.086 --> 02:57.627
[SPEAKER_00]: Because this case kind of plays out like a movie.
02:58.628 --> 02:59.128
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's begin.
03:00.980 --> 03:05.283
[SPEAKER_00]: Starting off, allow me to introduce to you a city called Coventry, England.
03:06.143 --> 03:10.186
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a metropolitan burrow located in the heart of the West Midlands.
03:11.146 --> 03:14.068
[SPEAKER_00]: And on the map, it's almost right in the center of England.
03:15.009 --> 03:21.452
[SPEAKER_00]: It's home to the iconic Coventry Cathedral, or Saint Michael's Cathedral, which was founded in the Middle Ages.
03:22.653 --> 03:29.938
[SPEAKER_00]: It is regarded as a symbol of resilience because it stands next to the ruins of an old cathedral destroyed during the Second World War.
03:31.198 --> 03:34.502
[SPEAKER_00]: The symbolic town was also the home of Lindsay and Hocker.
03:35.262 --> 03:44.931
[SPEAKER_00]: She was born on December thirty of nineteen eighty-four to Bill and Julia Hocker, originally hailing from the village of Brandon in the county of Warwickshire.
03:46.273 --> 03:49.055
[SPEAKER_00]: She had two younger sisters, Louise and Lisa.
03:50.156 --> 03:55.821
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay was known for her boundless enthusiasm and her curiosity for other cultures and traditions.
03:56.861 --> 04:02.626
[SPEAKER_00]: with a sunny personality and curious mind like hers, being a teacher key naturally to her.
04:03.526 --> 04:08.610
[SPEAKER_00]: Her passion for learning and her natural aptitude for languages also helped immensely.
04:09.551 --> 04:14.435
[SPEAKER_00]: So Lindsey pursued a degree in biology with education at the University of Leeds.
04:15.215 --> 04:18.278
[SPEAKER_00]: She graduated in two thousand and six with high honors
04:18.967 --> 04:25.630
[SPEAKER_00]: And although she had plans to pursue a post-Batchler degree, she decided to put those plans on hold for the time being.
04:26.471 --> 04:32.594
[SPEAKER_00]: She wanted to experience some real-life things first, such as living in a foreign country and working.
04:35.100 --> 04:37.441
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay chose to begin her career in Japan.
04:38.282 --> 04:43.305
[SPEAKER_00]: She had always been fascinated by the culture, and she wanted this to be her very first experience.
04:44.285 --> 04:53.070
[SPEAKER_00]: She ended up moving to Tokyo to teach English, and though this worried her parents initially, they knew this was in line with Lindsay's adventure spirit.
04:54.010 --> 04:54.391
[SPEAKER_00]: I get it.
04:54.831 --> 05:01.875
[SPEAKER_00]: Having your child move halfway across the world to a place with a complete different culture and language can be very daunting.
05:02.842 --> 05:10.551
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay herself may have even felt a bit scared, but her enthusiasm and excitement must have overshadowed any of her hesitations.
05:11.672 --> 05:21.463
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay's time in Japan was supposed to be an exciting new chapter in her life, a chance to explore new culture, meet new people, and make a difference through teaching.
05:22.586 --> 05:25.208
[SPEAKER_00]: This is honestly probably the best time to do it as well.
05:25.828 --> 05:30.492
[SPEAKER_00]: You're young, you have no real life obligation, and you're not tied down.
05:31.212 --> 05:33.194
[SPEAKER_00]: You're free to explore and live your life.
05:34.274 --> 05:38.117
[SPEAKER_00]: She was excited about the opportunity, and so she embraced her new life.
05:38.878 --> 05:48.785
[SPEAKER_00]: She secured a job with Nova, which is a large private language school, and one of the most prestigious in Japan for English conversational classes at the time.
05:50.393 --> 05:54.637
[SPEAKER_00]: When she arrived, Lindsay was assigned to Koiwa, a district in Tokyo.
05:55.598 --> 06:00.402
[SPEAKER_00]: She stayed further east, though, in the city called Chiba, where the rent was cheaper.
06:01.123 --> 06:06.168
[SPEAKER_00]: And she got to share a room with two other Nova teachers, with whom she became instant friends.
06:07.470 --> 06:09.011
[SPEAKER_00]: Things could not be more perfect.
06:09.732 --> 06:11.333
[SPEAKER_00]: There was so much to do in Tokyo.
06:11.874 --> 06:14.936
[SPEAKER_00]: It was a whole new world and Lindsey was captivated.
06:15.737 --> 06:21.482
[SPEAKER_00]: But she still always made time to regularly speak to her parents and her boyfriend via Skype or email.
06:22.423 --> 06:27.347
[SPEAKER_00]: So there was never a moment when her family, back home, did not know what she was doing.
06:28.480 --> 06:30.822
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay quickly adapted to her new life in Japan.
06:31.623 --> 06:39.310
[SPEAKER_00]: She was a dedicated teacher, loved by her students for her engaging teaching style, passion, and warm personality.
06:40.231 --> 06:46.176
[SPEAKER_00]: She also embraced Japanese culture, learning the language, and exploring the city in her free time.
06:47.177 --> 06:49.699
[SPEAKER_00]: Before she knew it, six months had passed.
06:50.480 --> 06:57.763
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite everything feeling like a dream thus far, obstacles and problems do tend to come up, when they're least expected.
06:59.003 --> 07:02.305
[SPEAKER_00]: And this would be the turning point for Lindsay's life in Japan.
07:03.925 --> 07:09.348
[SPEAKER_00]: On a seemingly normal day in March of, two thousand and seven, Lindsay had an encounter.
07:10.248 --> 07:15.350
[SPEAKER_00]: Awkward at first, this would be the first meeting with a person who was about to change her life forever.
07:16.132 --> 07:17.993
[SPEAKER_00]: For the worst, though, I might add.
07:19.133 --> 07:24.914
[SPEAKER_00]: A Japanese man named Ichihashi Tatsuya came up to her as she was ready to leave Chiba Station.
07:25.975 --> 07:32.877
[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi was a twenty-eight-year-old unemployed man, and he claimed that Lindsay was his English teacher.
07:33.537 --> 07:37.258
[SPEAKER_00]: But Lindsay was confused because she did not recognize this person.
07:38.358 --> 07:46.961
[SPEAKER_00]: As a teacher, you are probably not expected to know everything about every single student, but recognizing them would probably make sense.
07:48.242 --> 08:01.847
[SPEAKER_00]: As a side note, there is a thing called the cross race effect, or own race bias amongst many other names, which basically says a person is more likely to recognize the faces belonging to their own racial group.
08:03.050 --> 08:08.900
[SPEAKER_00]: This is kind of the whole joke about Asians all looking the same, or all white people looking the same.
08:09.902 --> 08:13.448
[SPEAKER_00]: While this is a thing, this was not the case for Lindsey.
08:15.346 --> 08:19.828
[SPEAKER_00]: Before moving on to what happened, let's understand a little bit about Ichihashi.
08:20.468 --> 08:23.469
[SPEAKER_00]: So, who is this Ichihashi Tatsuya guy?
08:24.510 --> 08:28.831
[SPEAKER_00]: Born on January fifth, nineteen seventy nine in Gifu prefecture.
08:29.652 --> 08:32.093
[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi was raised in a well off family.
08:33.073 --> 08:35.674
[SPEAKER_00]: His father, a surgeon, and his mother, a dentist.
08:36.815 --> 08:39.816
[SPEAKER_00]: As a child, he was known to be quiet and introverted.
08:41.373 --> 08:49.898
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted to follow in his parents' footsteps and have a career in the medical field, but is consistently low test scores made that impossible.
08:50.839 --> 09:02.887
[SPEAKER_00]: Japan is one of those countries that rely heavily on testing and schoolwork, so lack of excellent grades, so lack of excellent grades would have made this already incredibly difficult task extra hard.
09:03.987 --> 09:09.553
[SPEAKER_00]: He later enrolled in Chiba University's Department of Horticulture, from where he graduated.
09:10.494 --> 09:15.158
[SPEAKER_00]: But despite his education, Echihashi always showed a lack of ambition.
09:15.859 --> 09:19.682
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't want to work a day job or really do much of anything.
09:20.883 --> 09:25.307
[SPEAKER_00]: He seemed to prefer an aimless life mostly getting by on his father's money.
09:26.467 --> 09:28.508
[SPEAKER_00]: This was not exactly alarming.
09:29.008 --> 09:37.052
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure everybody knows at least one person who spends their parents money lavishly, and not everyone has emissions to pursue a career.
09:37.792 --> 09:41.034
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, a job is just a job, and that's fine.
09:42.474 --> 09:49.238
[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi, though, would get a monthly allowance of a hundred thousand Japanese yen, which is about seven hundred US dollars.
09:50.300 --> 09:54.842
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not life-changing, but it's enough for someone who probably doesn't need that much.
09:55.862 --> 10:03.045
[SPEAKER_00]: A pretty tidy son to live a lavish lifestyle in Chiba, while living in a four-room apartment, all by himself.
10:04.958 --> 10:12.647
[SPEAKER_00]: A couple of years before him at Lindsay, Ichiyashi was involved in a theft and injury case where he assaulted someone on the street.
10:13.448 --> 10:20.978
[SPEAKER_00]: But the matter was apparently settled out of court when his father gave the victim one million Japanese yen to make it go away.
10:22.291 --> 10:32.019
[SPEAKER_00]: I am not a parent, but this would probably be a good time to teach a child who also happened to be an adult, what responsibility and consequences mean.
10:33.120 --> 10:34.160
[SPEAKER_00]: But that did not happen.
10:34.180 --> 10:46.450
[SPEAKER_00]: Each issue seemed to have cleaned up his act just a little bit after that, not by getting a job or changing his ways, but by maintaining a steady year-long relationship with a girlfriend.
10:47.858 --> 10:48.459
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
10:49.020 --> 10:58.737
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that makes him appear to be more like everybody else, like he's more stable, less of a loner, and capable of relationships.
11:00.339 --> 11:07.843
[SPEAKER_00]: He was also set to have been really quite obsessed with two different things, violence, theme, manga, and working out.
11:08.824 --> 11:15.548
[SPEAKER_00]: He apparently spent a lot of time getting tone, running insane distances, and working on his physical appearance.
11:16.689 --> 11:21.932
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, there were some signs, but nothing that would indicate what he would do next.
11:23.947 --> 11:24.888
[SPEAKER_00]: Now back to Lindsay.
11:25.529 --> 11:28.251
[SPEAKER_00]: The day was March twenty first, the thousand and seven.
11:28.972 --> 11:33.197
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay had just arrived at Chiba Station after a full workday at Nova.
11:33.977 --> 11:39.223
[SPEAKER_00]: She was unlocking her bicycle when this rando came up behind her and oddly declared
11:39.923 --> 11:41.244
[SPEAKER_00]: You are my English teacher.
11:42.064 --> 11:45.625
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsey studied his face and was like, uh, no, you're not.
11:46.185 --> 11:48.866
[SPEAKER_00]: So she politely disengaged and began cycling home.
11:49.866 --> 11:52.287
[SPEAKER_00]: But the man started following her.
11:52.927 --> 12:01.110
[SPEAKER_00]: Even as Lindsey increased her speed, he persisted yelling questions like, where are you from and where did you study?
12:02.110 --> 12:07.972
[SPEAKER_00]: Unable to lose him, Lindsay finally stopped outside her apartment, where the man caught up to her again.
12:08.772 --> 12:10.393
[SPEAKER_00]: He requested English lessons.
12:11.433 --> 12:15.735
[SPEAKER_00]: Suggesting they meet in a public cafe and offering generous payment.
12:16.535 --> 12:22.437
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite the offer, Lindsay declined because of the obvious red flags and the fact that she was already busy enough.
12:23.445 --> 12:26.886
[SPEAKER_00]: The man appeared disappointed, but accepted her decision.
12:27.986 --> 12:33.207
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he asked for a glass of water, explaining that he was thirsty from chasing her.
12:34.488 --> 12:36.128
[SPEAKER_00]: Can't really make the stuff up, right?
12:37.348 --> 12:45.290
[SPEAKER_00]: hesitantly, she agreed, thinking it wouldn't be wise to let her housemates see this guy's face, in case he ever came around again.
12:46.210 --> 12:52.312
[SPEAKER_00]: She also hoped that by revealing she did not live alone, it might help to discourage any bad intentions.
12:53.520 --> 13:01.805
[SPEAKER_00]: This really makes me so upset because it's just another instance of a woman being polite, despite the man coming off as unhinged and creepy.
13:02.665 --> 13:08.408
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, she could have yelled at him or threatened him, but what if he escalated the situation?
13:09.469 --> 13:15.372
[SPEAKER_00]: Women say no, and these weirdos are like, okay, but what if I ask five more times?
13:17.260 --> 13:21.942
[SPEAKER_00]: The two entered the apartment, and Lindsay offered him a glass of water as promised.
13:22.722 --> 13:25.243
[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi again asked for English lessons.
13:25.823 --> 13:31.285
[SPEAKER_00]: This time, offering thirty-five hundred yen, which was around thirty-two dollars per hour.
13:32.326 --> 13:39.668
[SPEAKER_00]: This would honestly be easy money for Lindsay, and, being in this awkward position, she felt like she couldn't say no.
13:40.549 --> 13:43.710
[SPEAKER_00]: So, she agreed to meet him at a coffee shop in a few days.
13:45.143 --> 13:48.906
[SPEAKER_00]: Echiashi thanked her, then randomly took out a pen and scrapped a paper.
13:49.607 --> 13:55.913
[SPEAKER_00]: He sketched the drawing of Lindsay, adding his name in phone number, which he then handed to her before leaving.
13:57.114 --> 14:03.580
[SPEAKER_00]: Alarm bells, kind of rang in Lindsay's head, but she called herself with the fact that they were meeting in a public space.
14:04.479 --> 14:10.385
[SPEAKER_00]: She was pretty much trying to rationalize a situation and convince herself that she was just overthinking.
14:10.966 --> 14:13.288
[SPEAKER_00]: That maybe is just a cultural thing.
14:13.849 --> 14:17.232
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe the guy just really wanted English lessons or whatever.
14:18.448 --> 14:21.631
[SPEAKER_00]: but chasing after a woman on a bike when she already said no.
14:22.652 --> 14:23.613
[SPEAKER_00]: That's disturbing.
14:24.694 --> 14:32.862
[SPEAKER_00]: Aside from having her two flatmates see who Ichihashi was, Lindsey also made sure to tell her boyfriend of the situation via email.
14:33.903 --> 14:41.631
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if her boyfriend was concerned or not, but being so far away, he couldn't really do much except tell her to be careful.
14:43.379 --> 14:50.683
[SPEAKER_00]: Not long after that incident, Lindsey contacted him instead of a meeting for Saturday, March, twenty-fourth, two thousand seven.
14:51.583 --> 14:54.725
[SPEAKER_00]: Their first meeting for the one-on-one lesson was at a coffee shop.
14:55.485 --> 15:02.329
[SPEAKER_00]: Things were going fine until Ichihashi suddenly remembered that, oh, he had forgotten to bring the money to pay her.
15:03.963 --> 15:07.545
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay was understandably surprised, not to mention frustrated.
15:08.306 --> 15:13.509
[SPEAKER_00]: Seeing this, he suggested that they go back to his place so he could retreat to cash.
15:14.910 --> 15:18.012
[SPEAKER_00]: His apartment apparently was not far from the cafe.
15:18.973 --> 15:20.594
[SPEAKER_00]: What would you have done in this situation?
15:21.851 --> 15:28.115
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess it might surprise you that Lindsey did agree to go to Echiashi's apartment with him to retrieve the tuition.
15:28.715 --> 15:31.437
[SPEAKER_00]: Despite him displaying a mountain of weird red flags.
15:32.458 --> 15:36.060
[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, Lindsey was smart enough to make sure he knew she didn't live alone.
15:36.781 --> 15:41.344
[SPEAKER_00]: Make sure her flatmates saw this guy, and even told her boyfriend at the situation.
15:42.104 --> 15:44.426
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he just gave her a sense of security.
15:44.926 --> 15:47.828
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what is this guy gonna do to me anyway?
15:48.368 --> 15:52.912
[SPEAKER_00]: People will know I was with him, and if anything happens to me, it's going to be him.
15:54.633 --> 15:59.237
[SPEAKER_00]: That may be true, but would it be enough to make sure he didn't do anything to her?
16:01.138 --> 16:05.702
[SPEAKER_00]: So off they want, Lindsay and Ichihashi agreed to travel together by taxi.
16:06.623 --> 16:15.430
[SPEAKER_00]: Arriving at his residence, Lindsay requested the taxi driver to wait, assuring him that she wouldn't be long because she had classes at Nova later that afternoon.
16:16.222 --> 16:18.943
[SPEAKER_00]: The driver agreed, and a two of them entered the house.
16:20.044 --> 16:24.445
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly seven minutes passed, the driver got tired of waiting and drove off.
16:25.606 --> 16:29.847
[SPEAKER_00]: If only he had made the effort to knock on the door, things might have been different.
16:30.608 --> 16:34.569
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that afternoon, Lindsey did not show up for work at Nova.
16:35.730 --> 16:40.852
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, not saying it's the driver's fault for what happened, because how could he have known?
16:41.802 --> 16:51.650
[SPEAKER_00]: Hours passed without her arriving at work and eventually, she did not return home either, which prompted her roommates to contact the police and report her as missing.
16:52.551 --> 16:54.973
[SPEAKER_00]: But their concerns would just not take in seriously.
16:56.073 --> 17:01.598
[SPEAKER_00]: When Lindsay failed to appear at work on Monday as well, her employer reached out to her parents in England.
17:02.659 --> 17:07.983
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously alarmed, her parents contacted the police and Japan themselves to make another report.
17:09.449 --> 17:13.072
[SPEAKER_00]: It took about forty-eight hours for the police to finally take this seriously.
17:14.332 --> 17:23.039
[SPEAKER_00]: I do believe the police did not take it seriously, perhaps due to certain biases against foreigners living in Japan, or because she was a young person.
17:23.839 --> 17:29.483
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she went off to spend the night with a friend, maybe she met a guy, maybe she was partying.
17:30.364 --> 17:37.889
[SPEAKER_00]: Not impossible, but when her closest friends and family start reporting her missing, it would be best to look into it.
17:39.517 --> 17:41.718
[SPEAKER_00]: The search for her started at her home in Chiba.
17:42.338 --> 17:49.581
[SPEAKER_00]: Her roommates knew that she had met up with someone at a cafe, the man who chased after her and was at their apartment days earlier.
17:50.782 --> 17:54.523
[SPEAKER_00]: They gave the police a note and sketch each she has she made for Lindsay as well.
17:55.324 --> 17:57.985
[SPEAKER_00]: In no time, the police were knocking on his door.
18:00.270 --> 18:06.676
[SPEAKER_00]: When the officers first knocked, there was no answer at the apartment door, but there was obvious movement inside.
18:07.417 --> 18:15.765
[SPEAKER_00]: They apparently did not have permission to barge through the door without proper cause, so they had to get the go ahead from whoever it was that gave those out.
18:16.706 --> 18:18.108
[SPEAKER_00]: More police officers arrived.
18:18.973 --> 18:27.659
[SPEAKER_00]: and as they prepared to break down the door, Ichihashi probably sensing a shift outside, suddenly appeared in the doorway and opened it.
18:28.519 --> 18:38.186
[SPEAKER_00]: Seeing the uniformed officers, Ichihashi made a run for it as he let them in, and in a crazy turn of events he actually managed to get away.
18:39.446 --> 18:40.227
[SPEAKER_00]: He was barefoot.
18:40.757 --> 18:48.599
[SPEAKER_00]: He had a bag with him, and he did some crazy maneuvers, evaded the police, vaulting over stairwells, and things like that.
18:49.659 --> 18:54.240
[SPEAKER_00]: By the time the police made sense of what had happened, Ichihashi was long gone.
18:55.260 --> 19:00.981
[SPEAKER_00]: Inside the apartment, all of Lindsey's belongings were strewn about, and obvious sign of struggle.
19:02.022 --> 19:03.982
[SPEAKER_00]: Dude didn't even bother cleaning things up.
19:05.212 --> 19:07.553
[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't take them long to discover Lindsay's body.
19:08.613 --> 19:11.114
[SPEAKER_00]: What was disturbing was how they found her.
19:11.755 --> 19:19.938
[SPEAKER_00]: Naked in the bathtub, filled with sand, soil, and some kind of chemical that was probably meant to speed up decomposition.
19:21.419 --> 19:28.862
[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever reason, flower seeds were also scattered, probably an attempt to disguise the bathtub as a flower bed.
19:30.217 --> 19:35.802
[SPEAKER_00]: He spent years studying horticulture, and this is how he best managed to put it to use.
19:36.562 --> 19:37.423
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolute loser.
19:39.445 --> 19:46.711
[SPEAKER_00]: While a bathtub is usually found inside a bathroom, it appeared that Ichihashi had physically moved the bathtub out onto the balcony.
19:47.737 --> 19:56.086
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure what kind of bathtub he had, but some residences had those wooden soaking tugs, not attached to the bath and floor, or wall.
19:57.087 --> 20:00.671
[SPEAKER_00]: So Lindsay was stashed, unclothed, left out in the open.
20:01.351 --> 20:05.576
[SPEAKER_00]: The condition of her body was tragic, showing very clear signs of assault.
20:06.971 --> 20:10.212
[SPEAKER_00]: It was obvious that she had suffered greatly in her final moments.
20:11.153 --> 20:17.615
[SPEAKER_00]: She had multiple bruises on her face and body, and marks around her neck, indicating that she may have been strangled.
20:18.616 --> 20:25.778
[SPEAKER_00]: Each she had even shaved Lindsay's head, leaving behind a haunting scene that would linger in the memories of the investigators.
20:27.699 --> 20:34.602
[SPEAKER_00]: This discovery in what should be one of the safest cities in the world cast a dark shadow over Chiba.
20:36.702 --> 20:42.824
[SPEAKER_00]: The investigation into Lindsay Hawker's murder was a complex and challenging process of spanned over two and a half years.
20:43.924 --> 20:54.307
[SPEAKER_00]: It should have been a simple open and shut case since the body was found and there was a clear suspect, but Echiashi fleeing really made things complicated for everyone.
20:55.148 --> 21:02.890
[SPEAKER_00]: He managed to evade the police at the time of the initial apartment raid, running off barefoot and leaving behind all his personal belongings.
21:04.177 --> 21:10.964
[SPEAKER_00]: This escape marked the beginning of a nationwide manhunt, with Ichihashi becoming one of Japan's most wanted criminals.
21:12.145 --> 21:24.498
[SPEAKER_00]: During the investigation, it was discovered that Ichihashi had made several trips to a nearby hardware store to purchase gardening supplies, including compost, soil, tools, seeds, etc.
21:26.192 --> 21:34.757
[SPEAKER_00]: Some items were believed to be used as the odorant for the smell and some others to increase the breakdown and decomposition of the body.
21:35.417 --> 21:43.642
[SPEAKER_00]: The police also reached out to Ichihashi's parents, hoping he had reached out to them, but they had no idea where their son had gone.
21:44.722 --> 21:49.185
[SPEAKER_00]: The police then released Ichihashi's photo and some edited versions of his photo.
21:50.125 --> 21:54.408
[SPEAKER_00]: As in, if he were to try and change his looks, he might look like this.
21:55.459 --> 21:59.201
[SPEAKER_00]: And if he tried to pass as a woman, he could look like this.
22:00.221 --> 22:00.922
[SPEAKER_00]: Very creative.
22:03.103 --> 22:06.004
[SPEAKER_00]: They even allegedly release a sound file of his voice.
22:07.025 --> 22:11.087
[SPEAKER_00]: One can change their appearance, but can they really change their voice?
22:12.167 --> 22:18.931
[SPEAKER_00]: With his wanted posters plastered all over the country, the police hope people would come to them with any tips or leads.
22:20.231 --> 22:21.612
[SPEAKER_00]: The man Hunt dragged on though.
22:22.238 --> 22:29.463
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay's parents after being told of the daughter's death made several trips to Japan to work with the police and to plead with the public.
22:30.344 --> 22:33.786
[SPEAKER_00]: Traveling can be fun, but this was not one of those trips.
22:34.667 --> 22:38.589
[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsay's family became more and more frustrated as Leeds led nowhere.
22:39.370 --> 22:44.473
[SPEAKER_00]: They couldn't stand the fact that the man who brutally murdered their daughter was out there as a free man.
22:45.314 --> 22:50.618
[SPEAKER_00]: Not seeing their desired results, Lindsay's parents decided to put more pressure on the police.
22:51.938 --> 23:06.468
[SPEAKER_00]: During their several trips from London to Tokyo, they made sure the police spent every waking minute on Lindsay's case, and her father even allegedly tried to recruit the Mafia, or the Yakuza, to help find the perpetrator.
23:07.789 --> 23:10.031
[SPEAKER_00]: That's here, say, though, so don't quote me on that.
23:11.071 --> 23:20.698
[SPEAKER_00]: The police followed any leads they could, such as checking out a love hotel, scouring the streets of Kabukicho, otherwise known as Tokyo's entertainment district,
23:21.965 --> 23:28.066
[SPEAKER_00]: The police had found several of Ichihashi's ex-male partners here, but none of them had seen him lately.
23:29.187 --> 23:36.088
[SPEAKER_00]: Some have supposedly come across a man bearing resemblance to Ichihashi, but the police were always one step behind.
23:37.009 --> 23:46.511
[SPEAKER_00]: Rumours also spread like wildfire, some say Ichihashi probably killed himself, and some others saying he probably fled to another country.
23:47.371 --> 23:51.412
[SPEAKER_00]: Logical assumptions, but without proof, the search continued.
23:52.312 --> 24:01.316
[SPEAKER_00]: They also increased the reward to ten million yen for any information leading to his capture, hoping to encourage more public participation.
24:02.316 --> 24:11.560
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the most significant and shocking discoveries involved the rumor about Ichiya's drastic attempts to change his appearance to avoid capture.
24:12.981 --> 24:21.306
[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi was denied surgery sometime in October of the year, but managed to get his nose changed, and another plastic surgery clinic.
24:22.167 --> 24:33.054
[SPEAKER_00]: The clinic called the police themselves, saying that a man came in not long ago to get surgery done, and while they did see the resemblance to the wanted posters, they weren't sure.
24:33.855 --> 24:39.178
[SPEAKER_00]: The surgeon even stated that Ichihashi had come in with some level of work already done on his face.
24:40.059 --> 24:42.140
[SPEAKER_00]: Some may have even been self-inflicted.
24:43.478 --> 24:47.782
[SPEAKER_00]: They passed the photo along to the police, and a few changes were of note.
24:48.503 --> 24:50.465
[SPEAKER_00]: His lower lip was cut to look thinner.
24:51.225 --> 24:56.750
[SPEAKER_00]: The mold on his face were gone, and from his last surgery, his nose was also different.
24:59.153 --> 25:05.158
[SPEAKER_00]: The latest photo was then released to the public, which led a construction company in Osaka to call the police.
25:06.219 --> 25:06.900
[SPEAKER_00]: According to them,
25:07.568 --> 25:14.076
[SPEAKER_00]: an employee named Ino-Wit, who had been with them for about a year, had collected his last paycheck and disappeared.
25:14.857 --> 25:18.681
[SPEAKER_00]: The police immediately jumped at this and went to search the streets of Lusaka.
25:19.782 --> 25:26.590
[SPEAKER_00]: On November tenth, two years and seven months after Lindsay's murder, the hunt was finally over.
25:27.906 --> 25:33.611
[SPEAKER_00]: A rather suspicious looking man was spotted trying to board the ferry from Osaka to Okinawa.
25:34.472 --> 25:42.880
[SPEAKER_00]: But was odd was the fact that it was nighttime, and yet this guy had a huge sun hat, wore sunglasses, and a face mask.
25:44.201 --> 25:51.608
[SPEAKER_00]: While this disguise could be for any number of reasons, it stood out to one of the ferry dock workers who then called the police.
25:53.435 --> 25:59.458
[SPEAKER_00]: It was likely that Ichihashi knew the police were on to him, so his next move was to get the fuck out of Osaka.
26:00.439 --> 26:04.521
[SPEAKER_00]: The police arrived before the ferry did, and moved in on the strange individual.
26:05.461 --> 26:10.024
[SPEAKER_00]: They asked him point blank if he was Ichihashi, and he replied, that's me.
26:11.004 --> 26:16.447
[SPEAKER_00]: He did not resist his arrest, and that was how Lindsay's murder was finally caught.
26:19.560 --> 26:24.966
[SPEAKER_00]: Now all that was left was to present the mountain of evidence against a man and lock him up for good.
26:26.007 --> 26:30.512
[SPEAKER_00]: The trial for Ichihashi was a significant event that drew international attention.
26:31.373 --> 26:36.278
[SPEAKER_00]: It began in July, two thousand eleven, about four years after Lindsay Hawker's death.
26:37.139 --> 26:40.943
[SPEAKER_00]: And as it went on, more and more horrifying details came to light.
26:41.981 --> 26:51.252
[SPEAKER_00]: The police believed Echihashi moved his bathtub from the bathroom to the balcony and placed Hawker's body in it sometime between Sunday night and early Monday morning.
26:52.173 --> 27:00.944
[SPEAKER_00]: Neighbors reported hearing sounds of metal being struck and something heavy being dragged during this time, which made sense with the speculation.
27:02.205 --> 27:05.667
[SPEAKER_00]: And the defense he presented was a desperate one.
27:06.367 --> 27:10.789
[SPEAKER_00]: He admitted to causing Lindsey's death, but claimed it was purely accidental.
27:11.630 --> 27:20.294
[SPEAKER_00]: Here argued that he had only intended to silence Lindsey when she was screaming during the assault, and accidentally ended up strangling her to death.
27:21.555 --> 27:31.300
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether that's true or not, it doesn't change the fact that Hihashi was trying to downplay what really happened, which was a sexual assault and murder of his teacher.
27:33.163 --> 27:39.505
[SPEAKER_00]: quote, yes I raped her, yes I agree that Lindsey died because of my actions, but I did not mean to kill her.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Only Lindsey and I know what really happened that day, but she can no longer speak for herself because of me.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It is my responsibility to tell the truth throughout the trial, unquote.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A highly doubt what he said was the complete truth though.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Luckily the prosecution presented a compelling case.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They pointed out the brutal nature of Lindsay's injuries and the calculated steps, Ichihashi took to hide her body, suggesting a clear intent to kill or at the very least, a scary well-thought-out plan.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They also mentioned the extreme nature of his efforts to avoid capture and undergoing extensive plastic surgery as evidence of his guilt.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It was a grueling process, and the evidence against Ichihashi was overwhelming.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The court heard statements from several witnesses, including the amateur and professional plastic surgeons, who unknowingly altered the face of a murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And in the end, Justice was served.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The court found Ichihashi guilty of both rape and murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The judge dismissed his claims of the murder as being accidental.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Stating that the evidence clearly showed he had fully intended to kill Lindsay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Did he really expect her to suffer through the rape and leave his apartment and not report him?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsey's family, though, had hoped for the death penalty for Hihashi, but the court did not support that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The judge believed that since he was a young man, he could have a chance at rehabilitation after his sentence was over, if ever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, Hihashi was about thirty-two at the time of the trial, and he committed a crime when he was in his late twenties.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They made it sound like he was a juvenile, or in his early twenties, and did they not see the lengths he went through just to avoid capture?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Like he would do anything to get away with murder.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's also worth mentioning that most of those that have been executed were for multiple murders, being executed for killing one person is extremely rare, but not unheard of.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So even if the verdict wasn't what the Hawker family had hoped for, it brought some measure of justice for Lindsay and her family.
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[SPEAKER_00]: During this whole ordeal, Ichiashi actually wrote a book about himself because he obviously thinks very highly of himself.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's called, until I was arrested.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Very odd move.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He writes about how he took extreme measures to change his appearance while evading capture for Lindsay's murder, including some shocking self-administered cosmetic procedures.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He tried to narrow his nose by stitching it himself, and attempted to thin his lower lip, which sounds extremely painful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He completed his procedure in a public restroom, which sounds like a health violation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Unsurprised and slightly disappointed, he didn't get any fatal infections.
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[SPEAKER_00]: To hide his scars, Ichihashi wore multiple surgical masks, which doesn't really stand out as it is quite common in Japan anyway.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He moved around the country from Tokyo to Aomori and then to Shikoku, where he visited temples inspired by a novel suggesting that dead could be resurrected through such pilgrimages.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I call BS as it feels like he's pretending to be remorseful.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He supposedly goes on and on about his life as a fugitive, but he never mentions his actual crime or his motives.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The book is more about his life on the run, almost painting himself as a hero, a murder and adventure.
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[SPEAKER_00]: What it was like to hide from an entire nation looking for you.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Ichihashi's book is a two hundred thirty eight page narrative and it includes his own drawings like one of him wearing a baseball cap and a surgical mask.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He had wooded surveillance cameras and eye contact and never reached out to family or friends while on the run.
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[SPEAKER_00]: After spotting a wanted poster featuring his face,
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[SPEAKER_00]: He removed the mold from his cheek that were visible in the image.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Working several construction jobs, he saved enough money for two more plastic surgeries to further change his nose shape and size.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Must have been tough though, trying to find someone to do work on your face, not knowing if they've seen you wanted poster or not.
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[SPEAKER_00]: All his attempts at changing his face though fell flat.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As his arrest was a direct result of his attempts to alter his identity in the clinic in Osaka.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Which is kind of great if you think about it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The staff of the clinic became suspicious of the more scars on this cheek and contacted the police.
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[SPEAKER_00]: This development made headlines.
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[SPEAKER_00]: and upon seeing the news on TV, Echiashi panicked and got a haircut.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about buying a disguise kit with party props like a comical beard, sideburns and a mustache, which of course did not work.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's so ridiculous, I literally cannot make this up.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Not sure if anyone wants to read his book, but it supposedly gives readers all the details of this two and a half year run from the police.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably biased though, and if you really want to read it, I can't stop you, but I have no idea where the royalties will go to.
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[SPEAKER_00]: He did attend to a seek forgiveness for his actions by offering all royalties from his book to Lindsay's family.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But her family's like, hell no, we are not taking money from you at the expense of her loved one.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As far as they were concerned, this was blood money.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Lindsey's blood at that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: No amount would change the fact or make it right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Because this case is so insane and like I initially said, like a plot out of a movie, this case was of course made into a movie.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I am Ichihashi, journal of a murder, was filmed and released in twenty thirteen.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I have not seen this, but apparently it's mostly based on his gross book about his life on the run.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The guy playing Ichihashi, Dean Fujioka, also self-directed the film.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, there you have it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: The case of a man who thought he could get away with murder, only to eventually be hunted down and locked behind bars, hopefully forever.
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[SPEAKER_00]: While Ishihashi's story is kind of fascinating, the real victim here and the one worth remembering is Lindsay Hawker.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She should be honored as a young woman that she was, a curious, intelligent young mind who wanted to teach as much as she wanted to learn.
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[SPEAKER_00]: She traveled to Japan, left her comfort zone to experience something totally new, and that's very admirable.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's extremely unfortunate that her life had to end so quickly, and I cannot even imagine how she was feeling during her last moments.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Either way, I sincerely hope the Hawker family is doing better.
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[SPEAKER_00]: As there is never real closure when violence like this intrudes into your life, stay safe out their friends and thank you for tuning in.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Till next time.
