Tatsuya Ichihashi is pictured in this file photo released by the police March 27, 2007. The father of a young British woman whose body was found in a bathtub full of sand on an apartment balcony near Tokyo arrived in Japan on Wednesday, a British Embassy spokesman said. Ichihashi, 28, fled when police arrived to question him, losing his shoes and a rucksack he was carrying in a chase, a police spokesman said. Ichihashi's neighbours told Japanese television they had heard banging noises coming from his apartment at night.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, March 28 (Xinhuanet) -- The body of an English language teacher was found naked Monday night at the home of a Japanese student after police detectives investigating her disappearance saw part of her hand poking out of a sand-filled bathtub on the apartment's balcony.

    Police officials said Lindsay Ann Hawker, 22, had suffered severe injuries to her face and arms and police found her handbag, identification documents and clothing strewn across the apartment. They said the bathtub appeared to have been moved from the bathroom and filled with sand that was probably used for gardening.

    Detectives were hunting the resident, Tatsuya Ichihashi, 28, who fled barefoot when officers visited his apartment on Monday night.

    "There was no sign of strangulation, and no sign that the body had been stabbed, but there were signs of violent assault -- bruises on the face and in numerous places all over the body," said Superintendent Yoshihiro Sugita, Chiba Prefectural Police.

    "We have found no traces of blood and there was no sign of a physical struggle. The victim was completely naked and her clothes were around the apartment, although we don't know whether they were taken off by her or by the suspect."

    The family of Miss Hawker, 22, and her English boyfriend left anxious messages for her to contact them during the weekend. The messages were left on the Facebook social networking website she had used to record her time in Japan.

    In one, her elder sister, Lisa, wrote: "Mum has heard about an earthquake in Japan (I've told her that Japan is the most common place in the world to experience such phenomena) . . . she is vv worried that you might have been injured. . . can you call or something? It's not good fun living with the worried one xxx."

    In another her boyfriend, Ryan Garside, 21, from Durham, wrote: ¡°Get in touch you fool!. . . Where is your moral support??¡±

    Hawker, from Brandon near Coventry, arrived in Japan in October last year after graduating with a degree in biology from the University of Leeds.

    She had been recruited by the Nova language school, which operates classes in English conversation at 800 locations across Japan. It is believed she may have broken the school's strict rules against giving independent tuition and had taken on Ichihashi as a lucrative private student.

    Ichihashi had lived in the apartment since the age of 4 with his parents, both doctors, until they moved back to their home in Gifu, central Japan, a few years ago.

    Police said yesterday they were investigating the relationship between Hawker and her suspected killer, but information from her roommates suggested they did not know one another well and were only recent acquaintances. Hawker was last seen on Saturday night and was reported missing on Monday afternoon by a roommate after she failed to answer her telephone.

    Police discovered Ichihashi's name and contact details on a memo at her apartment in the city of Funabashi which she shared with an Australian and Canadian girl.

    (Agencies)

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