Suspect in UK woman's death eludes Japanese police

TOKYO, Aug 9 (Reuters) More than four months after the naked body of a young British woman was found in a sand-filled bathtub, Japanese police said today they had few clues to the whereabouts of a man suspected of involvement in her death.

Tatsuya Ichihashi, 28, has been sought in connection with the death of Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, an English teacher from Brandon, near Coventry, after her body was found on the balcony of his apartment in Ichikawa, east of Tokyo, on March 26.

''Although we have various information, we still don't have clear clues to his whereabouts,'' a senior police officer in Gyotoku, east of Tokyo, told Reuters, speaking on condition he not be named.

''We don't know whether he is alive or not. But we have been conducting thorough investigations to arrest him alive.'' Ichihashi had fled his apartment when police arrived to question him about the missing woman, losing his shoes and a rucksack in a chase.

Police said Ichihashi had approached Hawker outside a trainstation the previous week and asked her for English lessons.

When she did not oblige, he followed her to her apartment and asked her for a drink of water. With three colleagues present, she let him in, and while he was there, he drew her portrait and wrote down his name and phone number, they said.

Investigators have received more than 1,600 witness accounts from around Japan, including sightings of the suspect in an elevator, on a bus and working at a nightclub, the official said.

''But there has been no decisive information. We must find him and arrest him. This involves the credibility of Japan's police,'' he said. ''We want him to reflect on what he did and compensate for the crime he committed.'' REWARD Soon after the case surfaced, police released video footage of Ichihashi in a bid to make headway in Hawker's case. Hawker's father, who flew to Japan days after she was found, said that his daughter ''was not in any sort of relationship with the suspect''.

In late June, Japanese police offered up to 8,359 dollars reward for information leading to the arrest of the man.

''More and more information started to come in after the reward was advertised, and this has really been helping our investigations,'' the official said.

Another police officer said he believed the suspect was still alive.

''I don't think he is a kind of person who ventures to kill himself,'' he said. ''I think he is still living somewhere, or he has been harboured by someone. But he can't be sheltered by someone forever.'' He said the suspect could have disguised himself as a woman, adding that there had been unconfirmed information that suggested he was working at a nightclub in a Tokyo entertainment district.

''What we are worried about is that he could commit similar crimes again and again. He may already have done so,'' he said.

Japanese police have come under fire for their investigations into previous attacks on foreign women, including Briton Lucie Blackman.

A wealthy businessman accused of killing Blackman, 21, in 2000, was found not guilty of causing her death, but jailed for life in April for nine other attacks on women, one fatal.

Police found Blackman's mutilated body buried in a seaside cave near an apartment belonging to the businessman and prosecutors have appealed against his acquittal.

REUTERS GL KN1446