This week, the Chiba prefectural police department has put up a video of Tatsuya Ichihashi, the suspected murderer of the 22-year-old British girl, Lindsay Ann Hawker, who was killed last year. The video will be available for free viewing on the Internet from noon today.
The 18-minute video includes a physical description of the 29-year-old suspect, and shows how he might appear with different hairstyles. Information about his personality based on profiling is also covered by the video, as well as his escape route from police.
This comes a week before the one year anniversary of her death.
The Japanese police force has faced international criticism for not doing more to find the murderer and skeptics may view the video as a publicity management stunt; the police know that the world’s media and attention will be on this case again. By uploading this video a week before, the full media storm hits the police next Wednesday, the police are able to show that they are still taking measures to catch the suspect. Justification for such cynicism of their motives is fuelled by content of the video that even tries to show how the suspect might look if disguised as a woman. It might as well show how he might look if wearing a balaclava.
A press conference held by the British embassy on behalf of the Hawker family is schedule to take place next Wednesday. J@pan Inc will be going and a follow-up blog regarding how the Japanese media, Japanese police and foreign press deal with the event.
To view the video, visit: www.police-ch.jp
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