Ichihashi seen with new face in Nagoya

CHIBA — Fugitive Tatsuya Ichihashi, wanted in connection with the murder of a British woman in 2007, apparently underwent a face-lift last month in Nagoya and may have had other other cosmetic surgeries performed to alter his looks, investigative sources said Wednesday, adding police plan to soon release postoperative photo images.

Tatsuya Ichihashi

Ichihashi, 30, allegedly murdered Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, who worked as an English-language teacher at a Nova language school, and left her naked corpse in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of his flat in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture.

Ichihashi's eyelids and thick lower lip, as well as two vertical beauty marks on his left cheek, apparently don't appear in recent images of him after plastic surgery, the sources said.

Ichihashi has been at large for 2 1/2 years, and this could be the first break in the case.

Chiba investigators have gone to Aichi to examine the first detailed information on the suspect since he went on the run in March 2007.

The Yomiuri Shimbun's online edition reported Wednesday that Ichihashi may have had cosmetic surgery on his nose at a Nagoya clinic on Oct. 24, and also dropped by a cosmetic surgery clinic in Fukuoka Prefecture in mid-October. Chiba police suspect Ichihashi underwent plastic surgery several times, the report said.

The Asahi Shimbun said in its Wednesday morning edition that Chiba police concluded that Ichihashi had visited a hospital in Osaka, after analyzing the image of a man taken from a video camera and judging from the position of the eyes and other facial features, as well as his height. The Sankei Shimbun also reported he had had surgery in Osaka.

The acting head of the 1st Investigative Division of the Chiba Prefectural Police declined to confirm the media reports. He said investigators are dispatched whenever credible information about unsolved crimes is received, but was not able to comment on individual cases. An Osaka Prefectural Police spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny the contents of the reports.

It is not clear whether the security footage in Osaka showed the man before or after an operation. In the video, he was wearing a black knit cap and had a beard, the Asahi said.

He made an appointment for a postsurgery evaluation at the hospital for Oct. 31 but failed to show up and hasn't appeared there since.

On March 26, 2007, Ichihashi fled barefoot from police who went to his apartment to question him after Hawker's school reported her missing. Her roommates said Ichihashi had stalked her and even visited her apartment.

Hawker's family has visited Japan several times to spur the hunt for Ichihashi, while the National Police Agency raised the reward for information leading to his arrest from ¥1 million to ¥10 million in June this year.

Police usually offer rewards of ¥1 million to ¥3 million for information leading to the arrest of suspects in serious crimes such as murder, kidnapping, rape and arson. The NPA said it raised Ichihashi's bounty because of the widespread media coverage.