Family of slain Briton urges help to find suspect

TOKYO (Reuters) - The family of a young British woman killed in Japan a year ago urged Japanese on Monday to help find the suspect in the murder.

Lindsay Hawker, a 22-year-old English teacher, was found dead in a bathtub full of sand on an apartment balcony near Tokyo in March 2007, in a high-profile case that horrified many in relatively crime-free Japan.

"Please find this man. Please help us find this man," William Hawker, the dead woman's father, told a news conference as he held a poster of the murder suspect.

Police launched a nationwide search for Tatsuya Ichihashi, who slipped away when officers arrived at the apartment to question him about Hawker, who had been reported missing.

"Someone somewhere must be hiding Ichihashi. How can he evade detection? Japan is a modern society."

Earlier this month, Japanese police issued a new poster of Ichihashi, showing him as he would look disguised as a long-haired woman or with dyed blonde hair.

The police put up on their web site (here#t_1) the poster as well as pictures of socks, shoes and a rucksack he had left behind.

Video pictures of Ichihashi walking into a cafe with Hawker and traveling in the elevator in his apartment building were shown repeatedly on television last year, but no significant leads have been reported.

"My sister Lindsay was a wonderful woman. Lindsay loved your country, Japan," Lisa Hawker said in Japanese during the same news conference. "Please don't forget what happened to her."

(Reporting by Teruaki Ueno; Editing by David Fogarty)