Body of British teacher found; man flees scene

03/28/2007

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

ICHIKAWA, Chiba Prefecture--Police are searching for a man who fled while they were searching his apartment here after discovering the body of a missing British woman in a bathtub on the balcony.

Police said Tatsuya Ichihashi, 28, was wanted in connection with the abandonment of the woman's body. While police have yet to confirm the cause of death, they were treating the case as a possible murder Tuesday night.

Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22,　 who lived in Funabashi and worked as an instructor at an English conversation school in Tokyo, had been missing for two days when her body was found Monday night.

Police were informed around 3:30 p.m. Monday by a staff member at Hawker's school in Tokyo's Edogawa Ward that she was missing.

Around 10 p.m. police searched Ichihashi's fourth-floor apartment here and discovered the body buried in sand in a bathtub on the balcony.

The police also found a bag and a card with Hawker's name on it in the apartment.
Ichihashi used to be a student at the school where Hawker taught and was acquainted with her.

He was in the apartment while police conducted their search but still he managed to escape even though officers tried to grab hold of him.

(IHT/Asahi: March 28,2007)