Killer of Lindsay Hawker “has almost certainly committed suicide”
Richard Lloyd Parry of the Times has reported that the police have come to the conclusion that Tatsuya Ichihashi, the man who murdered English teacher Lindsay Hawker, has committed suicide:
“Japan has so many mountains, and if he has gone into a remote woodland and died there, they might never find him,” a police source said. “The Chiba police are continuing their investigation, but surely they will reduce it soon. The detectives in Tokyo have concluded that Ichihashi is dead.”
Ms Hawker’s father, Bill, said that Chiba police had told him on a recent visit to Japan that they had not yet reduced the 140-strong investigation team, but planned to do so.
“They’ve replaced some of the staff with fresh faces, which encouraged me because some new ideas might make them more active,” he said yesterday. “But this thing about him being dead could be a ploy to allow them to reduce the investigation while saving face.”
Looks like the police do not believe the claims that Ichihashi was hanging out at gay bars in Kabukicho. Is the absence of clear evidence that Ichihashi is still alive enough to conclude that he must have committed suicide?
Update: The police have denied that they have any information about Ichihashi committing suicide.
Update 2: Mr. Parry has responded to the public statements made by police, referring to them as a “non-denial denial.”
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wow…what a bunch of bull#@$%. thats such a nice excuse for them to make.
“oh hes somewhere in the mountains. there’s so many of ‘em…we’ll never find him ya’know? oh sorry bout yer loss mr. hawker.” basically what the po said. im not surprised by this story but i am surprised ichihashi has eluded capture (if hes still alive…) for such a long time.
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Just goes to show you how accurate the phrase “cop out” is.
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The Japanese police did nothing about the Setagaya case,also,right?Though a whole family was murdered in their sleep and there were so mny evidences…
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It’s crazy how easy it seems to evade police… The head of the investigation should commit suicide. No way would the suspect kill himself, why would he? The mountains in Japan are not wastelands, it would be pretty damned easy to survive in them.
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As little faith as I have in the Japanese police force, they continue to find new and unexpected ways of disappointing me.
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What a sack of fucking shit.
I NEEDED to type that.
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ADMIN@ Please feel free to remove my comment.
I’m over my initial outrage and now I’m back in my general malaise of: “Same old shit… different bucket.” when presented with a J-stone Kops story.
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I believe the police are now denying this report.
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It makes me angry. What happened to the Japanese claims regarding the efficacy of their police force and how they catch such a greater percentage of criminals than “inferior” Western police?
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The police denied this report officially.Obviously again some speculations by the media.But at least it woke up some people at the top.
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Parsing the original story, it seems as though the information came from someone not involved with the Chiba police, but rather with a different force. Look at all references to police in the article:
1) First paragraph ends, “…Japanese police have concluded.”
2) And then: “…senior detectives believe that he would have been caught by now if he was alive.”
3) Then a quote from “a police source”: “The Chiba police are continuing their investigation…detectives in Tokyo have concluded that Ichihashi is dead.”
Very careful wording. It never says that the information is coming from a police source in Chiba. The source seems more familiar with the Tokyo police force’s opinion.
Perhaps a Tokyo police source is willing to say (anonymously) what the Chiba police will not. Then again, detectives have been known to put out disinformation at times. The refusal to comment on sexual assault is very, very telling. I wonder what other information they could be holding back.
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Always been suspicious of this “140-strong” investigation team number. Is it really 140 cops spending 40 hours a week each tracking down clues and leads?
Or is it that each cop at HQ (maybe to a total of 140) is signed up on a list and just promises to do something if something should turn up someday?
There’s still no real national police force equivalent to the FBI, right? Still everything is done by the local/prefectural cops. Are they only looking in Chiba and need to fill out special forms with multiple hankos to look in Tokyo? I have no idea how the J cops actually operate, except they seem to have a tendency to depend on people just turning themselves in and confessing on their own.
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140 J-stone Kops.
Working for 19 months.
Total man months = 2260
Total man years = 221 years 8 months.
More than the 3 times the combined ages of Lyndsay and her Father.
All we have to date is a picture of what the perpetrator might look like in drag (oh yes, the boys in the ‘investigation’ squad must have had a good giggle photoshopping that one… ), some security camera footage of Ichihashi messing with his hair in an elevator (not unusual for a Japanese person) and a whole bunch of publically donated ‘dead-ends’ (dead-ends, because they are simply not investigated) – all this **after** the J-stone Kops stopped him, then let him escape … barefoot.
What do the J-stone Kops on this case do all day?
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Probably eat the Japanese equivalent of donuts.
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An interview with Lindsay’s sister about the matter (Don’t know if it will work outside the UK):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7690543.stm
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Works ok in Japan
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