The only suspect in the murder of a 22-year-old British woman in Japan more than two years ago is reported to have undergone plastic surgery last month, news reports have said.
Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, is wanted in connection with the killing of Lindsay Ann Hawker, an English teacher who was found dead in a sand-filled bathtub on the balcony of his apartment near Tokyo in March 2007.
Wanted-posters for Ichihashi have been plastered on walls in police and train stations across Japan, but police have failed to catch the man who is officially wanted on charges of abandoning a body.
The Asahi daily, quoting unnamed sources involved in the investigation, said that Ichihashi visited a hospital in Osaka last month for cosmetic surgery.
Police had examined photographs provided by the hospital and believe their patient was the suspect, the report said.
The wanted man failed to show for a follow-up appointment.
The Yomiuri evening paper, meanwhile, said a man believed to be Ichihashi had also visited a clinic in central Nagoya on October 24 for surgery, and that the clinic had reported the visit to police three days later.
The suspect underwent surgery on his eyelids and nose, had a mole removed from his cheek and had grown a beard and therefore "looked like a different person," said the Yomiuri, quoting an unnamed police officer.
The newspaper also said a hospital in western Fukuoka prefecture had earlier reported to police that a man who looked like Ichihashi visited on October 13 and asked for surgery to his lips, but that he had been turned down.
Police have received over 8,000 calls offering information on Ichihashi, but the reports from the hospitals have been the strongest tips so far, the Yomiuri said.
Police plan to soon publish post-surgery photographs of Ichihashi, it said.
The family of Hawker, who had been working in Japan as an English teacher, have repeatedly visited the country, most recently in March when they voiced their frustration at police for failing to catch the suspect.
Police in June raised to more than $100,000 the cash reward for information leading to the arrest of Ichihashi.
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