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A man believed to the suspect sought by police in connection with the murder of British woman Lindsay Hawker underwent cosmetic surgery on his nose at a cosmetic surgery clinic in Nagoya on Oct. 24, it was learned Wednesday.

According to police investigators, the man, believed to be Tatsuya Ichihashi, 30, also visited another cosmetic surgery clinic in Fukuoka in mid-October. Ichihashi is on a nationwide wanted list on suspicion on abandoning Hawker’s body in a bathtub on the balcony of his apartment on March 25, 2007.

The Chiba prefectural police believe Ichihashi has repeated cosmetic surgeries, moving from place to place to shake off the police.

According to the investigators, the prefectural police received a report from the Nagoya clinic on Oct. 27 saying that a man resembling Ichihashi had visited the hospital.

After analyzing photos of Ichihashi and those of the man taken before and after the surgery, the police concluded the man was Ichihashi.

The man bears almost no resemblance to the photos on wanted posters, which show Ichihashi with increased upper eyelids and a protuberant lower lip. The man in the post surgery photos has creased upper eyelids and his lower lip does not protrude. Old and new surgical scars could be seen in the pictures, the investigators said.
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