In March 2007, the disappearance of Lindsay Ann Hawker, a 22-year-old British teacher, led police to Tatsuya Ichihashi’s apartment in Ichikawa, Japan.
There they found the young woman’s body hidden in a bathtub filled with sand on the balcony, but the suspect managed to escape. For more than two years he lived under false identities, obsessed with erasing any trace of his appearance. He used needles, thread, scissors, and blades to reshape his face on his own: he narrowed his nose, cut off part of his lips, and tore off moles from his face so as not to be recognized.
Covered in scars and hidden behind masks, he tried to become another person until he was identified and captured in Osaka in November 2009. He is currently serving a life sentence for his macabre crime.
