Lindsay Hawker was born on December 30, 1984 in Coventry England. She was the daughter of Bill and Julia Hawker, and grew up in the nearby village of Brandon Warwickshire.
Lindsay excelled academically, attending King Henry VIII School in Coventry before pursuing a degree in biology at the University of Leeds, where she graduated with first class honors in 2006.
Her academic achievements was complemented by her warm personality and dedication to her studies.
Bill Hawker: “She was a wonderful daughter who touched the lives of everyone she met”, per Telegraph.
After completing her degree Lindsay decided to take a year off before seeking a Master’s degree. In October 2006 she moved to Japan to teach English at Nova, one of the largest private English conversation schools in the country.
Lindsay was enthusiastic about her new adventure and quickly adapted to life in Japan, sharing an apartment with two other foreign teachers in Koiwa, Tokyo.
She maintained regular contact with her family through email and phone calls, which made her sudden disappearance even more alarming for them.
Four days before her murder, Lindsay met Tatsuya Ichihashi while traveling home from work. Ichihashi approached her on the train falsely claiming that she was his English teacher.
He later chased her as she cycled home, and asked for water when she arrived at her apartment. Feeling sympathetic towards him Lindsay allowed him inside but introduced him to her flatmates for safety.
During this visit, Ichihashi sketched a picture of Lindsay and included his contact information. He expressed interest in taking English lessons from her which led them to arrange a meeting at a local café, as per The Guardian.
Her final Facebook post on March 20 stated: “Love u lots dont worry abt the gut [guy] who chased me home, its jus crazy Japan. miss u xxx”, per Sky News.
On March 24, 2007 Lindsay met Ichihashi at the café as planned.
After their meeting, they took a taxi to his apartment nearby. Hawker instructed the taxi driver to wait for her return. However after seven minutes without any sign of her coming back out the driver left.
According to the BBC, Lindsay’s body was discovered two days later on March 26 2007. It was found buried in a bathtub filled with a mixture of compost and sand on Ichihashi’s balcony. She had been bound and gagged with plastic ties and scarves.
Autopsy results revealed that she had suffered severe bruising consistent with a prolonged struggle before being smothered to death during an assault by Ichihashi.
Bill Hawker: “It was a horrific murder. There was literally not a square inch of her body that wasn’t badly bruised.”
Japanese Police Statement: “Hawker had been beaten, tied up and either suffocated or strangled.”
Ichihashi’s actions were premeditated, he attempted to conceal his crime by placing flower seeds on top of the soil mixture that covered her body. Additionally, he shaved Hawker’s head post-mortem, a detail that shocked investigators.
Following Lindsay’s disappearance and subsequent discovery of her body, Japanese police launched a nationwide manhunt for Tatsuya Ichihashi. He had fled his apartment just before police arrived to investigate.
Despite extensive media coverage and public outcry for justice, Ichihashi managed to evade capture for nearly three years by changing his appearance through plastic surgery and using false identities, per NBC News.
He was finally apprehended on November 10, 2009 at a ferry terminal in Osaka while attempting to escape to Okinawa. His capture followed tips from medical staff who became suspicious during his visits for cosmetic procedures.
Ichihashi’s trial began on July 4, 2011. During court proceedings, he admitted to raping and murdering Hawker but claimed that he did not intend to kill her.
Tatsuya Ichihashi: “I did not intend to kill her, but I am responsible for her death. I am very sorry for what I did,”. He further told the court, “I was the one who raped Lindsay. I was the one who put her through a scary experience and took her life,”, per Independent.
He stated that he acted out of fear that she would scream and alert neighbors. On July 21 2011, the Chiba District Court sentenced him to life imprisonment for his crimes.
The court noted that while many called for the death penalty due to the heinous nature of the crime, they deemed life imprisonment more appropriate because Ichihashi had no prior convictions and there remained a possibility of rehabilitation.