Ichihashi rhinoplasty ran amok?

CHIBA (Kyodo) Police on Thursday released a new photo of Tatsuya Ichihashi, the suspect in the slaying of a British woman in 2007, that was taken last month at a Nagoya clinic before he underwent cosmetic surgery there but after he apparently had had at least one face-lift elsewhere.

Interim face: Photos show murder suspect Tatsuya Ichihashi (left) after he went on the run in 2007 and when he visited a Nagoya clinic for apparently more cosmetic surgery last month. KYODO PHOTO

Several facial features have apparently changed — he now has double-fold eyelids, a higher nose and thin lips. Two moles that had been on his left cheek have disappeared as well, according to police.

Ichihashi, 30, is wanted in connection with the murder of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, an English teacher.

In another development Thursday, investigative sources said Ichihashi had attempted to undergo cosmetic surgery in Fukuoka Prefecture in mid-October before his Oct. 24 face-lift in Nagoya.

The man who appeared at the clinic in Fukuoka Prefecture used the same alias as that used at the Nagoya facility, the sources said, without revealing the alias.

Ichihashi has been on the run since fleeing police on March 26, 2007, at his apartment in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, where Hawker's body was found in a sand-filled bathtub on the veranda.

The National Police Agency raised the reward for information leading to Ichihashi's arrest from ¥1 million to ¥10 million in June.

Earlier reports alleged he also had plastic surgery in Osaka.