Looking for Lucie
By Corky Alexander, Weekender Editor
Tokyo Weekender
September 1, 2000 

Distraught father Tim Blackman seeks leads in the mysterious disappearance of his daughter  

Two months ago today, the life of a bright, attractive young British girl named Lucie Blackman changed forever. She'd only been in Japan for about six weeks and was having a bit of a fling after a brief career as a British Air flight attendant, flying from London to Russia and the Caribbean. Finding the job much more stressful and actually boring than she'd imagined ("one hotel room in one country is very much like another hotel room in another country"), she quit the airline and decided to come to Tokyo for 12 weeks or so to see what this town was all about. Then she intended to return to her home and family in England to plan for her future. She traveled on a tourist visa.

Sharing an apartment with another young English girl named Louise Phillips, Lucie met other foreign women who described a job with the possibilities of making some "easy money." It was working as gaijin hostesses at a Roppongi watering hole named Casablanca, located just above the notorious strip joint Seventh Heaven. She and Louise took the job with the blithe insouciance of youth and began work.

They had not been on the job for little more than a month when one night Louise received a message from Lucie saying that she was driving down to the shore with a client and would be back later that night. When she didn't return then, Louise was concerned but not frantic. Twenty-four hours later, she was, indeed, frantic. She called the UK Embassy and visited the Azabu Police Station with the news of Lucie's failure to appear. The police told her that no investigation could be launched until there was some evidence of foul play; many young girls disappear for a period of time with boy friends. Louise's insistence that this mysterious man was not a boy friend fell on closed ears and minds. After all, the police obviously assumed, this is a gaijin cabaret hostess and they do odd, esoteric things.

The embassy was not much more help, though sympathetic and concerned. Legally, there is not much they can do.

Then the strange phone call came: a Japanese male speaking in "broken English" told Louise that she shouldn't worry, that Lucie was undergoing training in a religious cult and was just fine. Click.

And that's the last anyone has mentioned Lucie. Apart from her father Tim and sister Sophie who flew immediately to Tokyo after learning the frightening news.

In a lengthy conversation with Tim Blackman in his Tokyo hotel, I learned of the anguish and tortuous thoughts wracking this gentle man from the Isle of Wight. "Well, I've learned an awful lot about police procedures in this country," he said with a huge sigh. "And about mass psychology, I suppose. Many people have taken me personally to task for creating such a stir in the press both in the UK and here in Japan. For some reason, a few thought I was seeking publicity for myself in raising such a ruckus.

"But, I learned that the police investigation was going absolutely nowhere. There were no leads, no information forthcoming about Lucie's possible whereabouts. It was my theory that the more noise raised in the press and on TV, the more journalists I could get interested in my daughter's plight, the more pressure would be applied to local authorities.

"I've learned that the Japanese way is for the police to be very reticent in providing information to anyone, anywhere. To be very secretive. At all times. But if the stakes are higher and if more pressure can be coming from higher levels, more might be discovered. More men put on the case. But they seem desperate not to tell me anything; that if something does come from my snooping, it might jeopardize their own investigations."

When UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was in Japan to attend the G8 summit, he made a special plea to Japan Prime Minister Yoshio Mori seeking his official aid in locating Lucie. Tim said he also received some criticism for insinuating his personal problems into an official function. "You never know where such criticism will originate," he said.

I asked if he thought the police had information about Lucie they were not divulging to him.

"Oh, God, I hope there is simply tons of things I don't know. I hope they have oceans of information they're keeping to themselves. At least that could give me hope that Lucie will be found alive. I don't mind being out of the loop. I have just to continue to believe they are doing a great job."

I asked him how he spends his days and nights in Tokyo. "Corky, I have just about run out of things to do. I've never felt so helpless. I can't speak the language. Lucie's roommate Louise returned to the UK the Thursday before I came back here for the second time. The police allowed her to leave with the proviso that she would return if summoned. Poor girl. She's frantic, too.

"I call on the Azabu police regularly, but they have nothing to tell me. The Embassy has nothing to tell me. I've got to find some way to learn something. I'm trying to get in touch with someone associated with the yakuza. I figure the organizations might have fingers into the underworld that might have a clue where my daughter is. I've heard horror stories about girls who've gone missing similar to Lucie. The end of the stories is not always happy. I've heard of girls being drugged, taken away, photographed, abused, then returned.

"I'll tell you, Corky, I would be overjoyed at this point if that would be Lucie's fate. Regardless of what's been done to her, we can make it all better once I get her home. Months or even years later, she can get over this nightmare. But I've got to find her first. I simply cannot let myself believe that she's not still alive.

"I certainly don't believe any rubbish about her joining a cult. That's just not Lucie. She's just an ordinary young lady. She was always such a sweet girl, very trusting; a regular girl."

I asked how Lucie's mother was taking the ordeal. "I don't know," Tim said glumly. "We've not spoken for six years, not since the divorce." His former wife and Sophie, just 20, live in Kent.

"I'm not the same person since this tragedy began," he said. "But I guess I'm tougher. Hard to take were some letters to editors of Japanese-language newspapers. One reader wrote that Lucie just got what was coming to her for working without proper papers in a place such as Casablanca. Another wrote that if she purposefully took such a job without a visa, she should have expected what she got. Things like that are hard to endure and I just can't imagine what sort of person would think like that.

"You know how sometimes you have a nightmare, dreaming of some terrible thing happening to you. And you know the relief you feel when you wake up, wipe the sweat off your face and think, 'Wow, I'm glad that was just a dream!' My situation is reversed. Some nights I sleep fairly well, wake up with a clear head in fine spirits. Then suddenly I remember about Lucie and realize that it is not a dream. That it's real. That I can't find her. That's a living nightmare. And it won't go away.

"Sometimes in moments of weakness you think, 'Why me?' But it's a true emotion. With all the millions and millions of people over the world, how could this happen to my little girl? You know she didn't have a tough side. And in this situation, I can't help but believing she was like a lamb being led to the slaughter."

Tim Blackman left Japan to return to his home in Ryde on the Isle of Wight Wednesday, Aug. 23, and I promised to send him copies of this edition. The date on the Page 1 flag will have special significance for him. Today, Sept. 1, is Lucie's 22^nd birthday. Sophie will replace her dad at the vigil for Lucie.

He'll be back to Tokyo. His parting words were: "I've got to find my girl. I'll just go on and on. Maybe this episode will give the Azabu police a reason to crack down on the dangerous situation in Roppongi."

Tim Blackman offers ¥1.5 million reward

In a hastily called press conference just half a day before he flew back to England, Tim Blackman, father of missing bar hostess Lucie Blackman, offered a reward of ¥1.5 million to anyone who can provide information leading to the rescue of the 22-year-old girl. Lucie's disappearance will have occurred two months ago tomorrow. Blackman left Tokyo Wednesday, Aug. 23, after his second stay in Japan seeking information about Lucie. She's 175 cm. (about 5'9"), of medium build with blonde hair and blue eyes.

The English girl telephoned her roommate the night of July 2 telling Louise Philips she was going on a drive to the shore and would return in several hours. This was the last time anyone has heard her voice, apart from her possible captors. Tim Blackman put no credence into the telephoned report that Lucie was joining a religious clan and was undergoing training. "That's not Lucie," he told Tokyo Weekender. "But I'll follow any lead."

Lucie's photo appears on September 1 edition of Weekender. If anyone has any information concerning the whereabouts of Lucie Blackman, please call 3479-0110, the Azabu Police Station. Or any police box (koban) or station near you.

Suicide linked to disappearance of Lucie

Shortly after Tim Blackman's press conference prior to his departure Wednesday, Aug. 23, the Japanese press published accounts which first appeared in the sensational weekly Shukan Hoseki which reported that a 52-year-old Japanese man was found hanged in a "suburban Tokyo" apartment. The police suspect suicide. The man was said to have killed himself Aug. 8, just three days after being questioned by police in the disappearance of Lucie Blackman.

An unidentified source close to the investigation revealed that several police posters concerning Lucie's possible abduction where found in the apartment with the body of the dead man. Police refused to comment or to speculate on a connection.

According to the news reports, the magazine did not identify the man except that he was a manager at a well-known Japanese company and was found hanged and half naked on Aug. 8 in an apartment he had rented for several years without his family's knowledge.

Since the body was reportedly found Aug. 8, it was two weeks before Tim Blackman departed Japan for England. Perhaps this is one of the "facts" being withheld from the father of the missing girl. Such a situation will surely encourage Tim to return to Tokyo to pursue this and perhaps other unreleased leads that may lead to the rescue of his daughter.

Family of murdered Briton arrives in Japan
By Elaine Lies

TOKYO, Feb 26, 2001 (Reuters) - Briton Timothy Blackman arrived in Japan on Monday to take home the remains of his daughter Lucie, whose dismembered body was found buried in a beachfront cave seven months after the bar hostess disappeared.

Police made the grim discovery of the body of the blonde former British Airways flight attendant two weeks ago in a seaside cave not far from a beach-front condominium owned by Joji Obara, a wealthy property developer whose trial for a series of rapes resumes on Tuesday.

Obara, 48, has been charged with five rapes of Japanese and foreign women and was recently arrested on a sixth charge of violence leading to death for allegedly drugging and raping an Australian woman in 1992.

He has not been charged in Lucie's disappearance. Police earlier said they planned to indict him for abandoning a corpse. 

"I suppose through the early weeks and months we held a hope that perhaps Lucie was alive somewhere," Blackman told a news conference, flanked by his two other children. "Finding her body was actually a strange relief.

"But even now we're still very busy with what we have to do. The true reality of the disaster has yet to hit us." 

Lucie's mother, Jane Blackman, flew into Tokyo on Saturday, and the family plans to take the remains back to Britain.

The 22-year-old from Sevenoaks, Kent was working in a hostess bar in Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district and vanished after saying she was going for a drive with a man on July 1.

Her body was discovered dismembered, with her head severed and encased in cement.

Blackman avoided criticising the police but said aspects of the investigation might have been different in Britain.

"Certainly from our home in England the way that information came to us seemed to be fairly haphazard," he said. "As I understood it, because we had developed an involvement with the media the police were not keen to give us information in case we took the information to the media."

PROBLEMS WITH POLICE

Commentators said Japanese police appeared to have worked particularly hard to solve Lucie's case because it was so high-profile and involved a Western woman from Britain.

Foreign hostesses from many nations work in Roppongi, where men pay as much as $200 an hour for drinks with a woman. Many girls work illegally on tourist visas, making it difficult for them to report trouble to the police.

"I've heard that Japanese police discriminate according to country, that they're more active in solving a crime if it involves a Caucasian from a country important to Japan," said social commentator Tomoko Inukai. "If it were a Southeast Asian woman, they wouldn't do very much."

Japanese media have been flooded with details of Lucie's disappearance as well as Obara's alleged activities.

According to diaries leaked to the media, Obara may have raped more than 200 women, videotaped and photographed his sexual assaults and kept detailed records of how he met and molested his victims, making him potentially one of Japan's worst serial rapists.

"About 30 years ago there was another pretty bad case, a man who claimed -- by his own count -- to have raped more than 300 women," said Hiroshi Itakura, a law professor at Tokyo's Nihon University. "But I think he was only actually charged with one or two cases and served maybe three years at most.

"This case is likely to be much, much worse."

Blackman declined to comment when asked about Obara, saying he did not want to do anything that might jeopardise the ongoing investigation and eventually bringing Lucie's killer to justice.

Obara has denied any involvement in Blackman's death, but police have continued their investigation for possible links.

Copyright 2001 Reuters Limited.  All rights reserved.  

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