The Mainichi reported that Lindsay Ann Hawker's accused murderer is suspected of having had plastic surgery at a clinic in Nagoya late last month.
Tatsuya Ichihashi has been on the run ever since he managed to elude a football team's worth of police officers that cornered him at the scene of the crime (his apartment) back in March 2007.
Police apparently headed to Nagoya soon after they received the news that someone resembling Ichihashi underwent a cosmetic procedure. There is no word yet on what type of appearance-altering procedure he had done.
Update (11/5/09; 11:30 AM):
The TV news is finally running with this story, and Ichihashi's face is once again all over the place. It is pretty remarkable, however, that he was able to waltz all over the country visiting different clinics and not sounding any alarms. The Japan Times carried this more detailed story today.
Update (11/6/09; 10:55 AM):
The Japan Times posted the before and after photo of Ichihashi (above right) that police obtained from a clinic in Nagoya. It appears as though the fugitive has been hard at work remolding his facial features.
