Casefile True Crime - Case 107: Lucie Blackman & Carita Ridgway

Episode Date: February 23, 2019

In early 2001, 21-year old Lucie Blackman left her job as a flight attendant for British Airways in search of new adventures. She embarked on a working holiday to Japan, where she secured a job as a hostess at Club Casablanca in Tokyo’s bustling Roppongi district. Lucie struggled with the transition, writing in her diary: “I’m not coping well here. I can’t pull myself out of this hole I’ve fallen into… I just want to disappear.” --- Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Episode researched and written by Catherine Seccombe Episode edited by Elsha McGill For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-107-lucie-blackman-carita-ridgway

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. In early 2000, 21-year-old Lucy Blackman and her long-time best friend Louise Phillips devised a plan to spend a few months living and working in Japan. The pair had lived seemingly parallel lives, with both working in an investment bank before commencing work as flight attendants for UK airline British Airways.

Lucy's previous nine-to-five corporate job in London had left her bored and her expensive spending habits had led her into debt. She craved a life of adventure where she could travel internationally and experience different cultures, but couldn't afford to travel in style and the concept of backpacking held no appeal. In 1998, Lucy's impressive customer service on short-haul flights led to a promotion to the Intercontinental Circuit. Not only did her new role take her to exotic and glamorous destinations, she also received

a healthy pay increase, with bonuses for longer flights and generous daily meal allowances. Despite these perks, the initial appeal of her jet-setting career quickly faded. Lucy soon found the job tiring and monotonous as her days became a blur of in-flight meals and generic hotel rooms. Her health began to decline as she was constantly jet-lagged and she had fallen further into debt by spending more money than she was earning. Her best friend Louise Phillips was equally disenfranchised and both women craved a new adventure.

Louise's older sister Emma had previously been on a working holiday to Japan where she was employed as a hostess. Although Lucy wasn't clear exactly what Emma's Japanese job had entailed, she knew it involved bars, waitressing and the potential to earn a lot of money. She became convinced hostessing presented a great opportunity to pay off her debts while seeing more of the world and decided to leave her job at British Airways to pursue the idea Lucy's family and friends were confused about her sudden decision to head overseas and by what exactly she planned to do in Japan.

Lucy's mother Jane had a particularly ominous feeling about the trip and even considered hiding Lucy's passport to prevent her daughter from leaving. Before she departed, Jane snuck a Guardian Angel card and healing crystals into Lucy's luggage for protection. Lucy was seemingly unfazed by the concerns of those close to her. In early 2000, she and Louise obtained 90-day tourist visas and departed for Japan, arriving in Tokyo on May 4. Neither spoke Japanese and they were quickly overwhelmed by the enormity of the foreign

city. Prior to their arrival, Lucy and Louise had arranged accommodation through Louise's sister Emma, who was no longer living in Tokyo, but had booked a room for the girls through a friend. The room was in a Gaijin house, inexpensive hostel-style accommodation rented to foreigners, known for being cramped, dirty and unsanitary, with a constantly rotating roster of inhabitants. Sasaki House, the place Lucy and Louise were staying, was no exception. They quickly nicknamed their undesirable home away from home, the Shit House, and tried

to beautify their small, dingy room. It wasn't long before Lucy and Louise headed straight to the world-famous party capital of Roppongi, a district popular with tourists and backpackers. The thriving entertainment district featured many social haunts and hangouts, with organized the Japanese crime syndicates the Yakuza, known to have a large presence in the area. Although efforts to clean up Roppongi's sleazy reputation were underway, when Lucy and Louise arrived, it was still very much a melting pot of sordid bars, nightclubs, strip clubs, massage parlours, and brothels.

Within a few days of their arrival, a Japanese man approached the young women on the street and told them he could help them find jobs as hostesses. He introduced them to the manager of a hostess bar called Club Casablanca, where both Lucy and Louise were hired on the spot. Club Casablanca was an older, slightly run-down club, with nine other foreign hostesses working at the bar. The concept of what exactly hostessing entails is complex, but stems from the gaseous of the 17th century, highly skilled women trained in the arts of dancing, music, costume, conversation,

and ceremonial tea service. The day hostessing isn't quite as sophisticated, but like the gaseous before them, a hostess's job is to entertain. Young women, many of whom are foreigners working illegally on tourist visas, are paid to smile while providing male clients with company, flattery, and often karaoke, while serving them drinks and snacks at over-inflated prices. Hostess bars are hugely common in Japan and are a popular way for the white-collar male workforce to entertain clients and relax.

In the sleazier clubs of Roppongi, the hostessing service can also include stripping and sex acts, but this wasn't on the menu at Club Casablanca. There, the hostessers were expected to appear available for the clientele, but would lose their jobs if they ever crossed the line into providing sexual services. Regardless, the nature of the job meant conversation with intoxicated clientele often turned intimate and was degrading to the hostess' One former hostess described the work at Club Casablanca as follows. You say what the men want to hear and you be what they want you to be.

Sometimes you have to play psychologist. Other times men come in and totally just want to get drunk and party and want a girl to join them. Earning decent money was based on a hostess' ability to gain as many regulars as possible, in turn earning more money for the club owners. When clientele return to the club and exclusively request to see a certain woman, they pay extra for the privilege, resulting in a bonus for the hostess. Hostess can secure an extra bonus by organising a private dinner date with customers, known

as Doe Hands. Although foreign visitors are not legally entitled to work on a tourist visa, it was known that Japanese authorities typically turned a blind eye to the act, something club managers often used as a bargaining chip for exploitation in terms of shifts and wages. As Lucien de la Huiz learned the ins and outs of the job, it quickly became clear that any hostess who didn't start accruing personal requests from regulars or arranging multiple Doe Hand dates per month would lose her job. Within her first two weeks at Club Casablanca, Luci gained a doting regular named Ken who

visited her most days, but the pressure to gain more private requests than Doe Hand weighed on her heavily and exacerbated her insecurities. She constantly compared herself to Luiz, who she felt was getting far more attention from clients and adjusting better to their increasingly hectic social life outside of work. Most nights after finishing at Casablanca, Luci and Luiz would descend into Roppongi's nightlife, dancing and drinking with other expats and travellers until the early hours. The cycle of working, partying and sleeping before doing it all again the next night began

to exhaust Luci. The working holiday to pay off her debts wasn't coming together at all like she had planned, and the pressure to earn more at the club through bonuses was starting to become overwhelming. On May 26, 2000, after three weeks in Japan, Luci confessed her feelings in her diary, writing, I'm not coping well here, I can't pull myself out of this hole I've fallen into. I feel so ugly and fat and invisible in there, I constantly hate myself. I'm so fucking up to my neck in debt and so badly need to do well.

But I'm a crap hostess. I'm so exhausted with feeling this shit and feeling so lonely. I sometimes really can't be bothered to wait and find out what happens. I just want to disappear. By the start of July, after two months in Japan, Luci was finally starting to feel more at ease with her new foreign life. She had recently began dating a young US Navy Marine stationed in Tokyo named Scott, and her spirits lifted as she began to fall head over heels.

The improvement in her mood seemed to have a positive impact on her hostessing as she gained more regular clients at Club Casablanca and secured several more Dohan dates. She seemed to be in a far better place and was starting to become more comfortable. On the afternoon of Saturday, July 1, Luci received a call on the shared payphone at Sasaki House where her and Louise were still living. The call was from a customer she had a prearranged Dohan lunch date with, who was calling to advise he was running late and would ring back when he was ready to meet her at the train station.

A short while later, he called again to advise he was now 10 minutes away. Luci didn't mention the man's name or say where they were going for their date, but she was excited because the customer had promised to give her a mobile phone. She and Louise both had the night off from work, so they made a plan to meet up after Lucy's date later that evening. After making her way to send a guy a station to meet her date, Lucy called Louise from her unnamed customer's mobile phone at 5pm to let her know they were travelling to the seaside.

She assured Louise she would still be home in time for their night out as planned. Just after 7pm, Louise received a second phone call from Lucy, advising she would be home within the hour. She was in good spirits, as this time she was calling from her new mobile phone gifted by her date, along with a bottle of champagne. Lucy then called her boyfriend Scott, but when there was no answer, she let the message advising she would meet up with him the following day. Two hours went by, and Lucy still hadn't returned home, causing Louise to become increasingly

worried. She went to Club Casablanca to report her concerns to co-workers, but they suggested that Lucy had simply decided to stay the night with her customer. Louise felt strongly that her friend would never do such a thing, so she had a Japanese speaking co-worker call around to some of the bigger hospitals in the area to check if anyone matching Louise's description had been admitted, but there had been no sign of her. Before going to sleep, Louise spent the night wandering around Roppongi, visiting the clubs and bars that she and Lucy frequented to ask if anyone had seen her friend.

No one had. Anxious about their illegal working status, Louise hesitated about going to the police, despite growing more and more panicked. Lucy didn't return home or make contact during the remainder of the weekend. By the morning of Monday, July 3, Louise, who was so stressed she had barely slept, finally filed a missing person report with the Azabu police station in Roppongi. She didn't mention that Lucy had been working as a hostess and was attending a dohand date, instead saying she had simply gone out on a day trip with a Japanese man she had met.

The police didn't seem overly concerned about the missing Westerner. After all, Lucy was an independent adult who may have decided to continue travelling and had simply failed to notify anyone. Dishartened by the lack of action, Louise then went to the British Embassy in Tokyo and admitted the whole truth, telling the Vice Consul about Lucy's illegal hostessing work and the fact she had gone to meet a customer on the day she was last seen. The Embassy official was alarmed that the club would encourage such outings. The Vice Consul called Azabu police station to advise the Embassy was extremely concerned

about Lucy's well-being, but despite telling police they feared Lucy had been abducted, the police still didn't seem overly concerned. At approximately 5.30pm that afternoon, Louise received a phone call on her mobile phone from an unknown man with a strong Japanese accent and a good command of English. The caller, who identified himself as Akira Takagi, said he was calling on behalf of Lucy. He told Louise that the traffic had been bad on the night Lucy went missing, so she decided to take the train home instead of accepting a ride with her date. At the train station, she met a guru and on the spur of the moment decided to join his

cult, the newly risen religion in the city of Chiba. Bewildered, Louise asked to speak to Lucy, but Akira said she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to talk to anyone, although she might want to talk later in the week. He hung up abruptly, but called back moments later, explaining that Lucy had started a new life and wouldn't be coming back. He said she was now paying her debts back in a better way and wanted her friends to know she was okay. Akira then asked Louise for her address in Japan as he needed to send some of Lucy's

belongings back. Louise evaded this request and in a bid to gain more information, asked if she too could join the cult. She pleaded to speak to Lucy, but Akira rendered the call, stating, I'm sorry, I just had to let you know that you won't be seeing her again. Goodbye. Terrified, Louise returned to the British Embassy where she was advised to go back to the police station and admit the whole truth about what Lucy had been doing when she vanished.

Later that same night, a teary and distressed Louise finally worked up the courage to call Lucy's family in England to advise them of her disappearance. Lucy's mother, Jane Stier, had been preparing a care package to send to Japan, containing some of her daughter's favorite sweets and cosmetics when she answered the call. As she began to absorb the bizarre news that Lucy was missing and had allegedly joined a Japanese cult, a group of Lucy's friends and her two younger siblings, sister Sophie and brother Rupert, gathered at Jane's home to offer their support and figure out what to do next.

Louise's father, Tim Blackman, who had not spoken to his ex-wife since their divorce several years earlier, was also notified. Those close to Lucy were certain the story that she had joined a cult was a complete fabrication. They feared she had met with foul play. Lucy's 20-year-old sister Sophie and ex-boyfriend Jamie decided to fly to Tokyo immediately to begin searching for her. Louise's mother, Jane, didn't want to leave her teenage son Rupert alone in the UK, so she made the tough decision to stay at home.

On July 4, three days since Lucy had failed to return from her Dohan date, Sophie and Jamie departed for Tokyo, where they spent a week paying multiple visits to the British Embassy and to the Asabu police station in Roppongi. None of the visits proved helpful, as the police treated their concerns with the same indifference they had shown Louise. Faced with the inaction of local police, Sophie spoke with her father Tim Blackman in the UK and discussed going public with Lucy's story and enlisting the help of the media to gain interest and help for her disappearance.

Although they all held concerns that going public may have an adverse impact and cause Lucy's abductor to panic and harm or kill her. In the end, the decision was made for them, as back in London, Louise's sister Emma Phillips had already taken the story to British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. With the media now notified, Lucy's disappearance was quickly plastered throughout UK papers. Despite the public attention, Tokyo police continued to show little interest in pursuing an investigation. Frustrated, the Blackman family decided to embrace the media attention towards fullest,

in the hopes their efforts would compel someone with information to come forward. On July 12, 11 days into Lucy's disappearance, her father Tim Blackman made the overseas journey to join the search and raise media awareness. The next day, Tim and his daughter Sophie held their first press conference at the British Embassy in Tokyo, imploring anyone who had seen Lucy to contact police. Reports that Lucy suddenly abandoned her life to join a cult seemed unlikely to her family, as she had never demonstrated much interest in religion. They also rejected claims she may have run away to escape her credit card debt, describing

the amount of money she owed as manageable. During a subsequent press conference, Tim issued a passionate plea to Lucy's abductor to release his daughter. We are all starting to feel very desperate and upset that Lucy is kept somewhere in difficult conditions where she will be extremely upset herself. I therefore, as her father, beg of them humbly to please just release her to us again. I just can't begin to describe to this person or these people the devastating sorrow we have been through and how we are being torn apart by Lucy being held away from us.

After this emotional display, media interest in the story intensified, and British reporters arrived to Japan in droves to interview Tim and Sophie, the father and daughter appearing on multiple TV shows in both the UK and Japan. With the increased media attention putting pressure on the police to act, the Tokyo Metropolitan police upgraded Lucy's disappearance to a criminal investigation. While out to dinner one night, Tim and Sophie Blackman were approached by a wealthy British expat named Hugh Shakeshaft, who recognised them from their many media appearances as he had been following Lucy's disappearance closely.

Hugh generously donated a £100,000 reward for information and offered the Blackman's the use of his business officers in Roppongi as their operational base. Tim and Sophie used this opportunity to set up the Lucy Blackman hotline, where people who were hesitant about going to the police could call in with information. Offers of assistance poured in from the UK, with the Virgin Atlantic airline conglomerate financing the advertisement of the hotline number. Police found out Sir Richard Branson also offered financial assistance in the search. The hotline, which was stuffed by expats, began operation 21 days into the search for Lucy.

Calls came flooding in, with many witnesses reporting seeing the missing 21-year-old, but they had simply mistaken other blonde Western women for Lucy. The answering machine for the hotline also reported many bizarre messages, including laughter, strange rants and incoherent mumbling. Police interviewed Lucy's US Marine boyfriend Scott as a person of interest, but he had been aboard a naval ship on the day of her disappearance. Lucy's regular customer at Club Casablanca, Cannes, was also interviewed, but he too was eliminated as a suspect.

In July 21 and 23, the 26th annual G8 summit was held on the Japanese island of Okinawa, where world leaders from eight different countries, including the United Kingdom and Japan, came together to discuss a range of global issues. Prior to the G8 summit, British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to meet with Tim Blackman to discuss Lucy's disappearance and gain an understanding of the issues the family were facing in their efforts to find her. This conversation prompted Tony Blair to discuss the case directly with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, which propelled the Tokyo Metropolitan Police into further action.

A large number of detectives were assigned to the case, and 30,000 missing person posters featuring a photograph of Lucy sitting on a sofa wearing a black dress were distributed throughout Japan. The poster used bilingual text in both Japanese and English to describe the 21-year-old, and urged anyone who had seen Lucy or had any information to contact their nearest police station. A police spokesperson told the media, quote, We are involved in a very difficult investigation since we have yet to obtain a single tip that

has led us to a major breakthrough. Tim and Sophie, with assistance from generous volunteers, walked the streets of Tokyo handing out the missing person flyers, urging passers-by to come forward with any information. On August 1, one month after Lucy's disappearance, Tokyo police received a typed letter allegedly written by the missing 21-year-old. The letter insisted she was fine, urging her family not to worry and to return to England where she would call them later. However, it appeared that whoever wrote the letter was not a native English speaker, as

it was filled with all kinds of linguistic and grammatical errors, with police promptly dismissing it as a hoax. On August 4, an exhausted Tim Blackman returned home to the United Kingdom, leaving Sophie in Japan to continue the search for her sister. Despite police increasing their efforts, they continued to leave Lucy's family in the dark about any progress in the investigation. Soon after Tim arrived home, he received a startling phone call from a British man named Mike Hills who lived in Holland and claimed to have contacts in the Japanese underworld.

Mike said these figures had a vested interest in finding Lucy, as the resulting police pressure was impacting arms dealers and other Yakuza members from effectively conducting their unlawful business. To ensure their dealings resumed to normal, these gang members were willing to try and find Lucy, but their assistance came with a price. Tim arranged to meet with Mike Hills, but before the meeting, Mike called back with the news that one of his contacts had discovered Lucy was alive. She had been kidnapped and sold by a group involved in the trafficking of foreign women.

This contact could find Lucy and buy her back for the price of $50,000. Tim was deeply unsure about Mike's claim, but was willing to take any chance to find his daughter. The two men met, and Mike explained that Tim would have to make an on-the-spot payment of $12,500 to secure the deal. He would then need to travel to Japan to hand over an additional $25,000, followed by a final payment of $12,500 to be paid once Lucy was safely returned. Tim paid the $12,500 in cash as instructed, and quickly made his way back to Japan.

Upon his arrival, Mike's story took a turn. Lucy was no longer in Japan, but had been smuggled out on a ship and was on her way to Hong Kong. The ship could be intercepted, but it would require an additional payment of $10,000. Desperate to save Lucy, Tim handed over the money. Following this transaction, Mike's story constantly changed. He continued to ask for more money, despite seeming to be no closer to retrieving Lucy. Eventually, the calls from Mike Hills stopped entirely, and Tim was unable to contact him,

leading to the stark realization that the vulnerable father had been conned. Tim reported his experience to police, who discovered Mike Hills had an extensive criminal history for deception and theft, having also scammed another English family whose son had gone missing in South America. For his lies to both families, Mike Hills was later charged with obtaining property by deception and sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Of the scam, Tim Blackman later said, It produced a huge strain on our family.

It was a terrible, terrible thing that he perpetrated on us. He is absolutely evil. He was preying on our family's misfortune, and you cannot get more evil than that. Throughout August, Tim and Sophie Blackman continued to travel back and forth between Japan and the UK, manning the hotline and spending time in the hostess bars of Roppongi, seeking any information that might lead them to Lucy. The dark side of Japan's hostessing industry soon came to light, as they heard many harrowing stories of foreign hostesses who had gone missing or experienced violence at the hands of customers.

Three years prior to Lucy's disappearance, 27-year-old Canadian hostess Tiffany Fordham disappeared after she was last seen with a customer in the elevator of a Roppongi nightclub. She was never seen again, with police conducting no efforts to find her. Other foreign hostesses reported incidents where customers had taken advantage of them during do-hand dates, with reports of drink spiking, violence and rape. As most hostesses were working illegally, a majority of these incidents were not reported to police, and to the ones that were, were rarely taken seriously. September 1 marked two months since Lucy Blackman left for her do-hand date and had

never returned. Back in the UK, her mother Jane and younger brother Rupert released 1,000 balloons over the cricket ground of Lucy's hometown to commemorate her 22nd birthday. As the month wore on, Lucy's family became increasingly despondent. They boosted the reward money for information in an attempt to generate new leads. But all this did was increase the number of false sightings placed to the hotline. Despite all their efforts, nobody seemed to have any information about Lucy's last movements or her whereabouts.

Tensions began to rise between the Blackmans and Tokyo police, who insisted technical difficulties and complicated laws regarding the disclosure of private information was stopping them from obtaining phone records from the caller who rang Louise on July 3, advising that Lucy had spontaneously joined a cult. They eventually said they were obtaining a court order to gain access to the records, but advised Lucy's family to be patient as it would take some time. In late September, Lucy's mother Jane travelled to Tokyo and gave a press conference in which she implored Lucy's captor to release her daughter and to beg anyone with information

to come forward, stating, It's the worst nightmare and it never goes away. I feel as if my heart has been ripped out. As a family, we will never give up looking for Lucy and we will never take a no for an answer. By early October, Lucy's family were overwhelmed with all kinds of challenges. The makeshift operations centre at the offices provided by Hugh Shadeshaft had fallen apart, as Hugh felt Tim Blackman had abused his hospitality by disrespecting his staff, ordering expensive

dinners on his tab and constantly inviting members of the media into the office for interviews, despite specifically being asked not to. The relationship between Lucy's parents was also under strain and their visits to Japan were strategically timed to avoid one another. This discord between the divorced couple spilled out during media interviews, putting increased stress on the family. Having spent tens of thousands of pounds flying back and forth between Japan and the United Kingdom, they were also burdened with financial pressure.

Exhausted and tired of feeling like the Tokyo police were intentionally shutting them out, Lucy's mother, father and sister felt they had hit a brick wall in their efforts. Reluctantly, they each departed Japan and returned home. But unbeknownst to the family, their heavy media presence had actually paid off. Two witnesses had come forward to police offering information. One of the witnesses who came forward was an American woman who had been working as a hostess in Roppongi in 1997. As part of her duties, she agreed to visit a customer named Koji at the Zushi Marina

apartment complex in the seaside town of Zushi, located an hour's train ride from Tokyo. After taking a sip of a drink Koji offered to her, the woman blacked out and awoke sick on the couch many hours later wearing nothing but her underwear, with no memory of anything that had happened. Koji explained there had been a gas leak which had caused her to lose consciousness, but the woman suspected she had been drugged. She reported the incident to the Azabu police station with help from her employer, providing a description of Koji's appearance, the location of his apartment and his mobile phone number.

But her report was met with indifference. She later described her ordeal in Richard Lloyd Perry's book, People Who Eat Darkness. Quote, The officers showed no interest whatsoever to help or take any further action. They said they could not investigate my incident because of a lack of evidence. I was made to feel as if I were a nuisance and to wasting police time. Three years later, the woman was still living in Tokyo when she heard about Lucy Blackman's disappearance.

Reminded of her ordeal in sushi years earlier, she immediately returned to the Azabu police station to report concerns that the same man who attacked her could be the customer Lucy had visited on the day she vanished. The American woman wasn't the only former hostess who provided police with information. In 1995, a Scottish expat went on a series of extravagant Dohan dates with a wealthy customer who called himself a Yuji Honda. One night, Yuji took his hostess to his seaside apartment where he asked her to drink a rare wine.

More than 12 hours later, she awoke in his apartment with no memory of what had happened. She decided not to report the incident to police, but held on to Yuji's mobile phone number just in case. Five years later, when this woman heard about Lucy Blackman's disappearance, she travelled from her home in Osaka to the Azabu police station to report her concerns that the man she knew as Yuji Honda could be involved. Although she felt her statement was met with disinterest, several other hostesses also came forward to report similar experiences, ensuring police could no longer ignore the similarities

between witness accounts. Police were also finally granted warrants to access telephone records and were able to trace two calls, the one made by Lucy's customer to the Sasaki House payphone on the morning of her disappearance, and the call Lucy placed to her friend Louise from her customer's mobile phone on the afternoon she vanished. Both calls were traced to a mobile phone that had been purchased using a fake name. Further analysis of the phone records determined both calls were made from the Zushi Marina apartment complex.

The same location the American former hostess had identified as the building where she was drugged back in 1997 by a man she identified as Koji. Several other hostesses also identified the Zushi Marina as the location they were drugged and stripped naked, but none were able to remember the exact building or apartment number the incidents occurred. Police searched the criminal records of all apartment owners within the complex, looking for anyone who had a history of sexual offences. They made a startling discovery.

Forty-eight-year-old Joji Abara was a wealthy property developer and a business owner who had been arrested in 1998 for attempting to videotape unsuspecting women in public toilets. He pled guilty to the crime and was issued with a small fine. When police showed Joji's mugshot to the hostesses who had come forward claiming to have been drugged and assaulted, they unanimously identified Joji Abara as their attacker. Police obtained CCTV footage that revealed a luxury vehicle registered to Joji Abara had travelled to Tokyo on the day Lucy Blackman went missing. Police now felt confident they had identified their prime suspect, but needed concrete evidence

before they could make an arrest. Further investigation into Abara revealed he also owned a property in the Blue Sea apartment complex on the Mura Peninsula, a rugged coastline approximately 32 kilometres from Zushi. Five days after Lucy's disappearance, the apartment manager of the Blue Sea Building had phoned police to report one of his residents had been making unusual sounds in his apartment. Local police visited the apartment and found a shirtless Joji Abara dirty and covered in sweat with concrete residue on his hands.

He allowed the officers to enter his home, where they noticed chunks of cement was strewn about, along with a tool resembling a garden hoe and a sack containing a large item. Abara refused to let the officers inspect the rest of his apartment and as they had no warrant to proceed with a search, they left the property. At the time, Lucy Blackman's disappearance hadn't even made the news, so attending officers had no reason to be overly suspicious of Abara. But now that he had become their prime suspect in Lucy's abduction, this bizarre incident became highly suspicious.

Records revealed that Abara had recently purchased the boat, which stood out to investigators as unusual considering he had never owned one before and had no prior history of boating. Although there still wasn't enough evidence to arrest him in relation to Lucy Blackman's disappearance, investigators became increasingly nervous that he may use this new boat to dispose of evidence. On October 12th, police placed Joji Abara under arrest for five charges of rape for the reported assaults on other hostesses, intending to build their case against him for Lucy's abduction once he was in custody.

With Abara now under arrest, search warrants were granted for his many properties throughout Japan. At his largest property, a decaying, neglected mansion in the Denon Chofu district of southern Tokyo, police were confronted with a rubbish strewn yard containing several disused luxury cars, including a Maserati, a classic early 1960s Aston Martin, and a Bentley. The house held decades of accumulated clutter, broken televisions, old car batteries, and dust-covered furniture. A large freezer contained the frozen body of a dead dog, which Abara later explained had

been his favorite pet. He had frozen the body in the hopes that technological advancements would one day allow the dog to be restored to life or cloned. Included in piles of evidence seized from Abara's Denon Chofu mansion and other properties were piles of diaries, notebooks, documents, videotapes, rolls of film, audio cassettes, and photographs. The diaries and audio recordings dated all the way back to Abara's teenage years, outlining in meticulous detail his sexual fetishes, fantasies, and experiences in what he referred

to as conquest play. Abara's records revealed a prolific sexual predator. His method of assaulting women was always the same. He would pick up a hostess, or occasionally a woman who advertised in lonely hearts classified ads, and would then covertly administer some sort of tranquilizer within her food or drink. If the woman had concerns about the strange taste, he would explain the drink was rare or the food contained special herbs. Once the woman was rendered unconscious, he proceeded to rape her.

In one diary entry, Abara admitted he had no sexual interest in women who were conscious. His diaries detailed the various drugs he used to render women unconscious, along with a rating of their effectiveness. A dozen different types of drugs were recovered from his properties, including chloroform, sleeping pills, barbiturates, rehypnole, and a GHB. Joji Abara's prolific history as a violent sex offender was further evident within a large collection of videotapes dating back to the 1980s, many of which featured a woman 's name written along the spine.

The tapes were recorded using a tripod-mounted camera, with bright lights capturing the full extent of Abara's depraved attacks. Off camera, a television monitor displayed the assault so Abara could watch it as it was happening, while another played a pornographic film. On camera, a naked Abara wore a mask that matched that worn by the fictional character Zorro, a strip of black fabric with holes cut for the eyes, pulled across the upper face, and tied at the back of the head. He would carry his unconscious victim to bed before subjecting them to repeated acts of

sexual assault, with many attacks lasting upwards of 12 hours. In the event that a woman stirred or awoke during an assault, Abara would administer a chemical-soaked rag over their mouth to once again render them unconscious. When the woman awoke after the attack, feeling disoriented and sick, often vomiting and unable to stand, Abara would provide a vague explanation for how they came to pass out, including that there had been a gas leak, or that the woman drank too much alcohol. The exact number of videotapes recovered by police is uncertain, with reports ranging from 200 to 1,000.

With the recorded names and videotape footage, police identified both the American and Scottish women who had come forward during the Lucy Blackman investigation, and they were also able to chase many of the other survivors. Many of the women refused to cooperate with the investigation, preferring to forget their ordeal. However, several were willing to proceed with pressing charges. Despite uncovering a long list of women who had been violated by Georgie Abara, investigators were unable to find anything in his diaries or videotapes to confirm Lucy Blackman was

one of his victims. But they did find strands of long blonde hairs in the bathroom of Abara's sushi marina apartment. They were tested for DNA and came back with a match. The DNA sequence matched hairs taken from Lucy's Tokyo apartment and samples that had been provided by her family. Several rolls of film found on Abara's property were later developed and also provided concrete evidence that Lucy had entered his apartment. There, amongst the images, were two photographs of Lucy, smiling as she posed on the balcony

of his sushi marina apartment. Furthermore, the phone Lucy had used to call Louise Phillips on the day she went missing was also recovered, providing another direct link between Lucy and the accused. Receipts from multiple stores revealed that on July 4, just three days after Lucy vanished, Abara had purchased several suspicious items that would assist with the disposal of a body, including cement, large camping tarps, gloves, a shovel, an axe, and a chainsaw. Police now felt confident that Lucy had been drugged, assaulted, and subsequently murdered by Abara, but without locating her body, all they could prove was that the two had met.

In November 2000, one month after his initial arrest, Abara's lawyer issued a statement in which he denied any knowledge of Lucy Blackman's disappearance. He also insisted the assaults captured on video were consensual acts of conquest play, which each of the women had entered into voluntarily in exchange for money. Abara said he believed police had set him up, ending the statement with, I hope they catch the real criminal soon. In the United Kingdom, Lucy's family were provided with no information other than the fact that an arrest had been made.

They had to source information about Abara's predatory history and his many survivors from media reports rather than police. Lucy's father expressed his frustration in an email addressed to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, reproduced in Richard Lloyd Perry's book, People Who Eat Darkness. Tim wrote, I am very upset and traumatised that the police do not give a single consideration to how the family feels as victims, and it is disgraceful and inhumane that you do not provide any news or information to the family to help them cope with this terrible and tragic event.

Tim blamed the fear of being deported for young hostesses not reporting crimes committed against them during their work duties, and questioned why the reports about Joji Abara from other hostesses had not been investigated in the past, quote. This makes the police guilty of the disappearance of Lucy, and when the next girl is abducted and raped or murdered, the police and the immigration department will be guilty of that crime too. As reports of Abara's disturbing crimes spread across the world, there was another family that had a strong reaction to the news.

In 1992, the family of 21-year-old Australian Corita Ridgway were left devastated when she died under mysterious circumstances while working in Tokyo. Corita, a model, waitress, and aspiring actor who had many friends, had moved to Tokyo in December of 1991 to join her sister Samantha for a working holiday, hoping to save some money for the acting classes she was attending back home in Sydney. She had also recently gotten engaged to her boyfriend Robert, and was eager to put some financial savings towards their life together. Having spent the last few years travelling to Nepal, Mexico, and the United States, Corita

was a worldly and confident traveller. In Japan, she intended to find a job teaching English, but when that plan wasn't immediately successful, she responded to a job ad in the newspaper for hostessing work at Club Ayakoji in the upmarket Ginza district, known for its exclusive restaurants and designer stores. Hostessing at Club Ayakoji involved the same task that Lucy Blackman had undertaken at Club Casablanca, chatting with customers whilst fetching their drinks and lighting their cigarettes. Although Corita didn't enjoy the work, she was making good money, and didn't expect to be doing it for long before she could return home with her savings.

On the night of Friday, February 14, 1992, Corita, along with several other Club Ayakoji hostesses, accepted an invitation from a customer to dine externally on a group douhan at a nearby restaurant. Corita's sister Samantha had spent that weekend out of town. When she returned to their share house on Sunday morning, another housemate informed Samantha that her sister wasn't at home. Someone had phoned the house and left a vague voice message saying Corita had gone away for the weekend with friends.

By Monday morning, Corita still hadn't returned home, and Samantha was becoming increasingly worried. She then received a phone call from the local hospital, explaining her sister had been admitted with severe food poisoning. A Japanese man calling himself Akira Nishida had dropped Corita off that morning, providing hospital staff with Samantha's phone number. According to Nishida, who left abruptly without providing any identification, Corita had developed food poisoning after eating bad shellfish.

Corita was non-responsive and slipping in and out of consciousness. She was diagnosed with acute liver failure, and by the time her mother Annette, father Nigel, and fiance Robert reached Japan, she was near unresponsive. Samantha attempted to communicate with her sister, but all Corita could manage was holding out her hand, wanting it to be held. The doctors were at a loss to explain how the 21-year-old had become so ill so quickly. They performed an expensive blood-washing liver procedure, but with no success. The toxins in Corita's body soon overwhelmed her system, turning her skin yellow.

Corita fell into a coma and was placed on life support, as her devastated family stood by and watched on helplessly. As Corita lay unresponsive in hospital, her sister Samantha received several calls from Akira Nishida, who provided the same story about Corita falling ill after eating shellfish. He refused to provide his phone number or address, so Samantha reported the phone calls to the police and urged them to investigate the caller. Two detectives eventually interviewed Samantha, who described her interaction with law enforcement as threatening and hostile, and felt no effort was made to find Akira Nishida.

In the hope that better facilities might improve her chances of survival, Corita was transferred to the Tokyo Women's University Hospital in Shinjuku, but pronounced brain dead shortly after her arrival. On Saturday, February 29, just three days before her 22nd birthday, Corita's family made the difficult decision to switch off her life support, with doctors ruling Hepatitis E as the cause of her death. Corita's body was dressed in a pink kimono and covered in flowers, before being taken to a Buddhist shrine in the hospital's basement, where the intensive care staff lit incense

sticks in her honour. Corita was cremated two days later. Traumatised from Corita's unexpected death, the Ridgway family made no request to have an autopsy conducted prior to the cremation. However, the small sample of her liver had been taken whilst the doctors were attempting to save her life, and was still retained on file by the hospital. Shortly after her sister's death, Samantha Ridgway was once again contacted by the man identifying himself as Akira Nishida.

When he learned that Corita had passed away, he insisted on meeting with her parents to offer his condolences and explain the events of their daughter's final weekend. Annette and Nigel Ridgway met Nishida in a hotel near the Tokyo airport. He was immaculately dressed, although sweating profusely, as he explained he had brought Corita back to his house after dinner as she had fallen ill from eating oysters. Her condition soon deteriorated, and he called a doctor to administer an injection for the nausea. When the injection didn't work, he drove her to hospital.

Annette and Nigel noted Nishida seemed desperate to convince them he had tried to care for their daughter. He expressed his intense affection for her, saying he loved Corita and had wanted to spend much more time with her. He presented Annette and Nigel with a diamond ring and gold necklace that he had planned to give to Corita for her birthday, and insisted on paying for her funeral, transferring the funds to Samantha's Japanese bank account. After this bizarre meeting, Corita's parents and fiancé Robert flew back to Australia

with Corita's ashes. There was no further investigation into her death. Then, nine years later, as reports of Joji Abara's crimes made their way into the Australian media, the Ridgways noticed chilling similarities to the circumstances of Corita's death. And when they saw a picture of Joji Abara, they immediately recognized him as the man who had introduced himself as Akira Nishida. Following this revelation, Corita's former fiancé Robert immediately contacted the Australian Embassy in Tokyo, who alerted police.

As it turned out, the Japanese authorities had already made the connection between Corita Ridgway and Joji Abara. Amongst piles of paperwork seized from Abara's sushi marina apartment was a receipt for Corita's hospital admission. Additionally, one of the videotapes from Abara's extensive collection featured an unconscious Corita as she was raped by Abara, during which he dosed her with a liquid soaked rag to ensure she remained unconscious. He detailed the assault in one of his diary entries, writing beside Corita's name,

Too Much Chloroform. The piece of Corita's liver that had been removed by doctors prior to her death in 1992 was recovered and tested. The sample was found to contain traces of chloroform, a highly volatile organic compound intended to be used for anesthetic purposes. Corita had been administered in excessive doses to drug poisons the liver and can lead to death. Although the presence of chloroform had not been tested or detected by doctors when Corita

was still alive, there was now no doubt that her death was due to chloroform poisoning. The funds that Samantha Ridgway had received to help pay for her sister's funeral were traced and led directly back to Joji Abara. In January 2001, Corita's mother Annette Ridgway travelled to Tokyo and formally identified Abara as Akira Nishida, the man she and her husband had met with following Corita's death. Abara admitted to posing as Akira Nishida and confessed to being with Corita the night she was hospitalized, though stuck by his story that he had tried to help her after she became ill, dropping her at the hospital out of genuine concern.

With the evidence indisputably linking Abara to Corita Ridgway's death, formal charges were laid against him for her murder. In January 2001, an intensive search for Lucy Blackman's body commenced throughout Abara's numerous properties. When the search proved fruitless, police concentrated on the beaches, caves and coastline around Abara's Blue Sea apartment building on the Mura Peninsula, where police had been called to investigate strange noises in the days following Lucy's disappearance. The area had already been searched following Abara's initial arrest, but this time the

search was much more extensive, employing the use of sniffer dogs and ground-penetrating radar. Only 180 metres from the Blue Sea apartment building was an isolated cliff hidden from view of the nearby houses. A portion of the cliff had eroded and collapsed, creating a small cave that could barely be seen to pass this by. On the morning of February 9, 2001, police discovered the cave and found an old rusted bathtub within, partially buried face down in the sand.

They dug it up and turned it over, finding a plastic bag buried in the sand underneath. There was no mistaking what the bag contained, human body parts. The dismembered body appeared to have been cut with a chainsaw, the skull then encased in cement. The exhumation took several hours, during which time the media learned of the discovery and quickly gathered at the scene. Police constructed a makeshift marquee around the cave entrance. The camera crews hovered above the shoreline in helicopters, and photographers boarded

fishermen's boats to get the best angles of the scene from the water. Lucy's family in the UK were not notified by Japanese police that a search was underway or that a body had been found, only learning of the discovery as it was broadcast on television. A post-mortem examination of the body compared the victim's teeth against Lucy's dental records, revealing a match. Seven months since she was last seen alive, Lucy Blackman had finally been found. The deterioration of her remains was so extensive that no cause of death could be officially determined.

After Lucy's remains were discovered, her family travelled back to Japan to bring her home. On March 19, 2001, almost a year since she first departed for Japan, a funeral was held for Lucy Blackman at St Nicholas Church in her hometown of Chiselhurst. More than 260 friends and family members attended the service, with a large media presence gathering outside. Inside the church, incense burnt alongside a framed photograph of a smiling Lucy, a gift from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Japanese ambassador in London had flowers delivered to the service to express their condolences. Many mourners were moved to tears during a touching performance of the ballads wind beneath my wings and I will always love you. Reverend Charles Walker told the congregation, Lucy was a glorious girl who could light up a room with her presence, her vitality, sense of life and fun, her laughing face, her warm heart and concern for others. He read from a letter sent by a Japanese family who had lost their daughter while she was

travelling in Europe. They had been praying that Lucy would be found alive and well, and stated, We are so ashamed of ourselves as a nation. Outside the church, Lucy's mother Jane Stier told a journalist, I am pained by the thought of what happened to Lucy before she was killed. She was a tragic victim of a perverted psychopath and I cannot get the terrible thought of how she may have suffered out of my mind. As a mother, I hope her death was painless and that she would have felt no fear.

On April 6, 2001, whilst in custody for the other allegations against him, Joji Obara was formally arrested for Lucy Blackman's murder. His trial commenced three months later on July 4, 2001, where the public got their first inside into the accused. Obara was born to Korean immigrants in the Japanese city of Osaka in 1952. Although his parents were poor when they arrived in Japan, his father gradually built a fortune investing in taxis, car parks, poker machines and property, ensuring Obara lived a privileged life.

He attended an exclusive prep school in Tokyo before moving on to the prestigious K.O. University, where his father purchased him the Denon Chofu mansion and hired a maid to take care of him while he completed his studies. When Obara was 17 years old, his father died in Hong Kong during an overseas business trip, which many speculated was at the hands of the Yakuza, with whom he was said to have business dealings. His vast fortune was passed on to his children and widow, and Obara became incredibly wealthy. After receiving his inheritance, Obara travelled internationally for several years before obtaining

degrees in politics and law. He lived lavishly in Tokyo and also purchased multiple properties all over the country, which increased in value during Japan's bubble economy of the mid-1980s, leading him to form an investment company and purchase several property development businesses. He frequently drove his luxury cars to high-end hostess clubs, where he spent large sums of money to secure the company of Western hostesses, who served as a status symbol. It was during this time that he established his sexually predatory behaviour and began keeping records of the women he assaulted.

When the economic bubble burst and the Japanese economy collapsed in the early 1990s, Obara's investment company folded and many of his assets were decimated. He was pursued by multiple creditors and reportedly used one of his companies as a front for Yakuza money laundering operations to stay afloat financially. By 1999, Obara was being sued for unpaid loans, yet he still owned multiple companies and several residential properties. This allowed him to continue his lavish lifestyle where he frequently spent large amounts of time and money at hostess bars, living a mostly nocturnal existence cruising back and

forth between his coastal and central Tokyo apartments. Obara had an apparent dislike for his own physical appearance. He reportedly underwent extensive cosmetic eye surgery to make his eyes appear more westernised and wore shoe lifts to disguise his five-foot, five-inch height. He also took regular doses of human growth hormones, large quantities of which were found on his properties during police searches following his arrest. He avoided cameras his whole life, refusing to be photographed wherever possible. Very few photos existed of Obara where he was not intentionally looking away from the

camera or wearing sunglasses. And in his police mugshot, he kept his eyes cast to the ground. As Obara's trial commenced, he faced charges for abduction, eight cases of rape, and rape resulting in death for Lucy Blackman and Corita Ridgway. In the Japanese legal system, the charge of rape resulting in death is similar to manslaughter in that it doesn't carry the full weight of a murder charge. Obara's parents are also invited to respond to the charges against them with a statement as opposed to a simple plea of guilty or not guilty.

In Obara's statement, he denied being responsible for the death of either woman, alleging he and Corita Ridgway had engaged in consensual sexual relations and that he had tried to save her by dropping her at the hospital after she became ill. He alleged Lucy Blackman had invited herself to his apartment, where she had tried to pursue him. They drank alcohol and watched television together, but didn't engage in any conquest play, nor did he administer her any drugs without her knowledge. According to Obara, Lucy left his apartment the next morning, alive and well.

In the indictment for Lucy's death, the prosecution put forward that on Saturday, July 1, 2000, Obara had invited Lucy to his sushi marina apartment, where he provided her with a drink laced with sleeping pills before using chloroform to render her unconscious. He then raped her, and at some point during or after the assault, she passed away due to a fatal overdose of the drugs he had administered. Two days later, Obara called Louise Phillips and provided a fictional story about Lucy joining a cult to halt an investigation into her disappearance and deflect any suspicion from himself. On Tuesday, July 4, he went to a hardware store to purchase a variety of materials,

including hammers, cutters, sleeping bags, tents, a shovel, a chainsaw, cement, and a chemical agent that speeds up the setting process of cement. The next day, he drove to his Blue Sea apartment on the Mura Peninsula, where he dismembered Lucy's body with a chainsaw, covered her head in cement, put her limbs into plastic bags, and buried her remains in the cave, covering them with the bathtub. A neighbour had seen him on the beach carrying a shovel, while a tent uncovered from the cave matched the one Obara had purchased. The marks on Lucy's bones were found to be consistent with the same type of chainsaw

he had bought. Despite the overwhelming amount of circumstantial evidence against him, in the Japanese justice system, everything must be proven through concrete evidence before a connection can be drawn between one event and the next. For example, just because Obara purchased a particular-making model of a chainsaw that matched the marks found on Lucy's body, it doesn't prove without doubt that he was the one who killed her. Due to the deteriorated condition of Lucy's remains and the fact that no evidence was

found of her being sexually assaulted amongst Obara's possessions, no one questionable physical link was established to prove without doubt that Obara murdered Lucy. In a situation where the accused denies any wrongdoing, Japanese criminal trials can be exhaustive. In 2001, Japan was not using a jury system, and the court hearings did not run over a continuous period. Instead, Joji Obara's trial was overseen by a panel of judges over a series of monthly hearings that continued for several years, with the trial held up further when Obara's

initial legal team resigned after the first year. As the prosecution strived to prove every aspect of the indictment, the defense exploited the lack of physical evidence. They argued that not a single trace of Lucy's blood had been found anywhere at Obara's apartments, rendering the notion that he had dismembered her body with a chainsaw as highly unlikely. When Obara eventually took the stand for Lucy's death, he outraged her family by alleging she had willingly consumed a large amount of recreational drugs and alcohol, leading to

an overdose. He claimed he had contacted a distant acquaintance, who had since passed away, to take Lucy to the hospital, and he didn't know what happened to her after that. He explained he purchased the chainsaw and other tools used for dismemberment with the intention to dispose of the body of his beloved pet dog, the one police had found frozen inside his Denon Chofu mansion. A few days after Lucy's overdose, he spent the night walking around looking for a place to dispose of his dog's body, but was bitten extensively by bugs, forcing him to cancel

his plans. Hospital records confirmed he did indeed seek medical treatment for bug bites. For the charges relating to Corita Ridgway, Obara's defense maintained the conquest play between their client and the deceased had been consensual. They argued that the video where Corita was unconscious had been filmed months prior to her death during an established consensual relationship. On the night of her death, they engaged in consensual sex before Corita fell ill, and Obara did everything he could to ensure she received medical care.

The trial dragged on for several years, during which Obara turned his cell into a makeshift illegal office. He had a team of 10 lawyers working for him in relation to the criminal trial and further litigation involving debts owed to creditors across his various companies. During this time, Obara was declared bankrupt, with debts exceeding 23.8 billion yen, the equivalent to approximately 200 million Australian dollars. The only visitors Obara received during his incarceration were his mother and his lawyers. He was well behaved, with one guard commenting,

My impression is that he is totally sane. There's nothing crazy about him except the way he treats women. He's very, very clever, but very selfish, totally convinced that he is right, and he never listens to the opinions of other people. He is a very lonely person. When Lucy's father, Tim Blackman, saw Obara in court for the first time, he too was struck by Obara's sense of loneliness, later commenting, I see somebody who is the same age as me, who has, by his actions, produced the most

terrible situation for himself by doing something so heinous to somebody else's life. And in a very strange way, there's a pathos that neutralises the more natural anger. I feel sorry for him. In April 2006, as Obara's trial entered its fifth year, Lucy's mother Jane, father Tim and Carita Ridgway's mother Annette provided evidence similar to a victim impact statement. They each expressed the emotional suffering and life-changing trauma caused by the deaths of their daughters, with Tim Blackman telling the court of the devastating effects Lucy's death had on her sister Sophie, who had since attempted self-harm.

Obara, who had studiously attended every hearing beforehand to take comprehensive notes, refused to leave his cell on the days when the families were speaking, wedging himself into a small crevice so he could not be physically removed by the guards. As the trial continued, Lucy's parents were contacted individually by an associate of Obara's who wanted to discuss the possibility of an atonement payment. Based on the Japanese honour system, this kind of payment is offered following a wrongdoing to avoid dishonour being brought upon the wrongdoer's family. It typically occurs when the party offering the payment admits guilt.

However, in this case, Obara was admitting no guilt or responsibility for Lucy's death, but offered the financial compensation as an expression of his condolences. Whilst Lucy's mother Jane turned the payment down, unbeknownst to her, her ex-husband accepted. 100 million yen, approximately 1.2 million Australian dollars in today's currency, would be paid to Tim Blackman on the condition he signed a document written in poorly phrased English, which called into question the cause of Lucy's death as alleged by the prosecution. Thinking the risk of jeopardising the case was negligible, Tim recognised the money would benefit his family and be vital in the ongoing running of the Lucy Blackman Trust, a not-for-profit

organisation he had established to help young people be more aware of their safety when travelling overseas. He accepted the payment and signed the document, stating, to me it was just a meaningless piece of paper. Lucy's body was so decomposed, none of us knew the cause of death for certain. After signing it, Tim wrote a letter to the prosecution, categorically stating he believed Obara was guilty of all charges and that accepting the money in no way signified any forgiveness towards the accused.

Corita Ridgway's family were also offered a similar payment, but turned it down. Sophie Blackman supported her father's decision to accept the money, stating, Dad used that money to pay back his family who gave us thousands of pounds so that we could afford to fly back and forth to Japan over the last seven years. He has also put a lot of it into the Lucy Blackman Trust, which we set up in memory of Lucy. During this emotionally exhausting period of public scrutiny, Joji Obara's trial, which had now been in the courts for six years, finally drew to a conclusion.

On April 24, 2007, a crowd gathered in the public gallery of the Tokyo District Court has judged Satomu Tochigi delivered the unanimous verdict reached by himself and the two other judges presiding over the case. For the rape leading to death of Corita Ridgway and to the rapes of eight other women, Judge Tochigi declared Joji Obara guilty and imposed a life sentence, telling him, quote, He treated these women as sexual objects to satisfy your last. One opinion might be that these women were careless, but I believe that they could not anticipate your deviant behaviour.

You repeated the same routine over eight years, treating their lives and their bodies carelessly. It is rooted in your self-centered attitude. You have trampled on the dignity of women. Judge Tochigi then shocked the courtroom by announcing Obara was acquitted of the charges relating to Lucy Blackman's death, citing a lack of evidence linking him to Lucy's murder and the disposal of her body. Judge Tochigi said while it was clear that Lucy had been with Obara prior to her death, the prosecution had not been able to prove without doubt that he was responsible.

Judge Tochigi made particular reference to the lack of evidence around the circumstances in which her body had been moved from the site of her death to the cave where she was buried. For these reasons, the court was unable to fully discount the possibility that someone else was involved. They made it clear the document signed by Tim Blackman for the condolence payment had nothing to do with the acquittal. Lucy's family was devastated by the verdict.

In a subsequent press conference, Tim Blackman said, I'm afraid to say the lack of justice for us today has been the failure of the prosecution team to develop the case adequately. There is nothing that will change that Lucy is dead, but in many respects Lucy has been robbed of her justice. We believe our family deserves to get proper justice for Lucy and that prosecutors should strongly consider an appeal. Lucy's mother, Jane Stee, said, I'm heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken.

I just can't believe this verdict. My worst fears have come true. The Ridgway family stated they found comfort in Obara's life sentence, as it ensured he would no longer be able to harm innocent people. Both the defense and the prosecution appealed the verdict, with the defense maintaining Obara's innocence on all charges, and to the prosecution seeking another opportunity to convict him for Lucy Blackman's death. After the appeal hearing in 2008, presiding judge Hiroshi Cardano ruled that Joji Obara

was guilty of kidnapping Lucy with the intention of drugging and raping her, before dismembering her body at his sushi marina apartment. However, due to the lack of physical evidence, he upheld the finding of the original trial that declared Obara not guilty for causing Lucy's death. Judge Cardano, quote, the court recognizes that the defendant is responsible for damaging and abandoning the body. His action was ruthless, and did not even give the slightest consideration to her dignity. The court believes the defendant kidnapped her with the intention of drugging and raping

her, but the court could not prove he made her pass out by using chloroform, or that he carried out his intentions. Judge Cardano upheld Obara's life sentence, and ruled out the possibility of any further appeals. While the ruling didn't provide Lucy's family with the outcome they hoped for, Tim Blackman told the press that Obara is now starting a life sentence for his terrible crimes against the women over many decades, and that it was Lucy who finally brought him to justice. Lucy's a satisfactory overall result, and I feel justice has finally been served.

Lucy's travel companion and best friend, Louise Phillips, struggled in the years following Lucy's death, tormented by guilt. In an interview with journalist Richard Boyd-Parrie for his book People Who Eat Darkness, she described the crushing weight of Lucy's death as ever present, quote, I felt guilty on my wedding day, so guilty that I was getting married and she wasn't. I felt guilty for being happy, guilty for getting older. It seemed like it was my fault that I was here, and she wasn't. In 2011, Carita Ridgway's mother, Renette, broke her decades-long silence about the

death of her daughter in an interview with Australian magazine, Women's Weekly. During the interview, Renette candidly spoke of her fear that Obara would allude justice, calling the convicted killer a beast with a human face. Renette thinks about her daughter often, quote, I try to be happy, I know Carita would want that, I miss her smile, so I cling to that and try to be as happy as I can, but it's not easy. Carita had her life stretching out before her, and then it just stopped. I lost my daughter and everything we'd ever share with her.

I'll never know the grandchildren she might have had. Her future disappeared because one man wanted to satisfy some weird sexual urge. There's no closure, not for me. I won't have closure until that man is dead, but even then, I'm not sure that will help. Nothing can bring Carita back. In the end, that's all you're left with, that immeasurable loss. The Lucy Blackman Trust is still in operation today, providing support to British nationals in crisis overseas.

The organisation helps those dealing with death, abduction, sexual assault, incidents of serious crime and missing person cases, and has assisted thousands of families facing international law deals. Tim Blackman is currently in the process of raising funds for a project titled Lucy's Retreat, which aims to provide a safe, peaceful setting for the families of missing people abroad to take respite and to receive support. The retreat will offer therapy, logistical problem-solving, live link-ups between courtrooms in the UK and around the world, satellite news channels, and feature a memorial garden

where visitors are invited to create a peace in memory of their loved ones that can be revisited over time. In August of 2018, as what would have been Lucy's 40th birthday approached, Tim Blackman reflected on what his daughter's life might have been like if she was still alive. He is convinced his bubbly and ambitious daughter would have built a successful career for herself and be raising a family of her own. Tim Blackman quote, Every day you think about what she'd be doing now, whether she would be married, whether

I'd have grandchildren by her. It leaves a constant chasm of emptiness when you lose someone young like that. You hear this word closure, but it just doesn't exist in these sorts of cases. The notion that you just shut the door on that part of your life just doesn't happen. As a father, you don't want to put that burden down.