September 30, 2025 • 69 mins
In today's episode, Rachel and Heather delve into the tragic true crime story of Lucie Blackman, a young British woman who went missing while working as a hostess in Tokyo, Japan. The hosts provide an in-depth look at Lucie's disappearance, the police investigation, and the pursuit of justice against serial predator Joji Obara. This episode also covers the emotional toll on Lucie's family, their relentless pursuit for answers, and the discovery of Obara's horrifying crimes involving multiple women. Viewer discretion is advised as the content includes discussions of sexual assault, murder, and dismemberment.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/like-mother-like-murder--6210055/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/like-mother-like-murder--6210055/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to Like Mother Like Murder. I am Rachel and
I'm Heather. We bring you the good, the badass, and
the crime.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is Like Mother Like Murder. Hello and welcome back
to Like Mother Like Murder, your favorite true crime mom cast.
I'm Rachel and I am Heather, and each week we
(00:44):
bring you mom related true crimes from missing mom's, two
murdered moms, mom's who murder, murder survivors, and much more.
I don't think I've ever messed up on that intro,
and that's the first time that, you know, there's a
first time for everything in this. You know, words are hard,
words are hard.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
And I think the reason is, like we've recorded this
is probably our like fifth time recording this week because y'all,
we've been like rocking and rolling once we kind of
came down from our crime con crash, but we have
we've been like working on other.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Projects cases that haunt us.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
The newest and the you should be here Podcasters give
Back series is going to come out very soon, so
we have been working on our cases for that, so
look out for that.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
So we've been working on those. We've been working on
some other projects, but.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
We so we're finally, you know, getting back around to
our one and true, our our true love here like Mother,
Like Murder, and so I think that you know, I.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Was stumbling a little bit, but it felt good to say.
I was gonna say, it's okay. You're allowed to stumble
right there, because you're right. We have been doing so
many other things that I feel like you haven't said
that line and White some time. Exactly, I'm out of practical.
We're we need to get back into the recording for
(02:13):
Like Mother Like Murder. They need it, they need us,
We need it actually as well. I know. But Heather's right,
we have so many other things going on that we
definitely encourage you guys to check out. So cases that
haunt us are only you should be here. Podcast Missing
in Hushtown Season two will be coming out next month.
That is crazy. If you have not listened to the
(02:35):
entire first season on Jennifer and Adriana Wicks, please go
and do that. Voices against Philocide, That's something I've been
working on a lot as well, So go and check
that out. That is a very very important podcast that
Hope Putin does. So there's just so much. But I
also wanted to say that if you guys are new here,
we're just happy to have you. And if you've been
(02:57):
here for a while, dude, hey Frans, Hey, hey girl,
Hey Eather. And I've just had a full on, like
vent seession before we got on because it was very
necessary and I don't want to go into the whole thing,
but all I will say is to all of you
parents out there, anyone who has school aged children, good luck.
(03:23):
Power to you all of those things, because the more
days off, the more vacations that are about to be
coming around, and like you know them, being home is hard,
and just power to you.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Are our hearts and are any will we have left?
We are sending all of those vibes to you because
we understand the struggle. It's funny because I was.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Like, should we we be recording this as a dead serial,
but not really, because this is lariously, this is exactly
the life. It's so funny because I was gonna say too,
for all of those who have been with us for
a while, if you have not yet become a Patreon
subscriber or we do also have our Apple subscription available.
(04:11):
All options are less than five dollars, but that is
where you can check out bonus content like dead serious
but not really where we just gab about a lot
of these things like the struggle of parenting life and
when your kid has.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
A random Tuesday off, whah do you do? And when
you're on a call with your boss's boss and your
child decides perfect time to come in to your video
conference and say, hey, who's that on? Who's up on
the video? And yeah, just the fun the fun of that.
(04:46):
Uh And and the other thing.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
That we also recorded recently was a part one of
our Crime Con recap, which which was so much fun.
We did talk about it a little bit on our
last episod Zoe, but there's a lot more detail that
we get into, fun stories about Rachel locking you out
of the room. And so that's all available on Patreon
(05:16):
or the Apple subscription either one, and so you guys
can always check out that for ad free listening and
bonus content.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So, yeah, one other thing that we don't shout out
enough and we need to do better at this, so
Heather hold me accountable. But we also do a missing
person segment on Weird Java in the line that is
a Sunday morning show that David from down the rabbit
Hole and Kevin from Where the Weird Ones Are. They
bring bi weekly on YouTube every not every bi weekly
(05:47):
on Sundays, and so if you guys have not checked
that out, we encourage you guys to go do that too.
We are there each and every week except for the
one week that I completely lost my brain and did
not submit a video. But if we bring a missing
person segment to that too, so go and check that out. Okay,
we are done, Heather. I have a crazy, crazy case
for you today. Hi. Are you ready? I am so
(06:09):
ready to hear this because the name sounds super familiar
and you gave me a little hint that this has
a documentary on Netflix. Yes, but I don't know, so
I let's hear this. Let's let's let's hear it. Yeah.
So before I get into today's case, I need to
(06:30):
give a very serious trigger warning. This is a true
crime podcast, so I feel like as a listener you
should already kind of be aware that the conversations that
could take place, you know, could be heavy and hard
and triggering. But specifically today we're talking about sexual assault, murder,
and dismemberment. This case is dark, it's heavy, and it's heartbreaking,
(06:56):
so please listen with care. Of course, all of my
sources will be in the show notes for you to
go and check out and look into things yourself. But
I wanted to add that I also watched, like Heather said,
the documentary that is on Netflix right now, and that
was kind of the beginning of me diving into this case,
and so that will be sourced in the show notes
(07:17):
as well. All right, Heather, imagine this. You're young, you're
(07:47):
full of life, and you decide to spend a year
abroad just to see the world, have an adventure. You
end up picking Tokyo, Japan, but while you're there, you disappear,
just vanish. This is exactly what happened to Lucy Blackman.
(08:08):
Her family immediately flew across the world to try to
find her, and they're met with pushback when they're told
that pretty much because Lucy was not a Japanese national,
they may not even do a police investigation on her.
What that's bull. It is bull, and they do do
(08:30):
an investigation. So let me tell you, but could you
imagine as a parent going across and they have this
very The more sources that you look into and things
that you watch or listen on this. You know, everyone
has their protocols in what they do, and what it
seems like in Tokyo, Japan is they're always going to
(08:51):
do what's best for theirs first before anyone else. And
because Lucy was from she she's from England, which I'll
get into, it was as if, well she ran away,
we're not going to look into this. It's not something
we're going to look into. Wow, yeah, sure, you know
(09:14):
that's just so Okay, go on, Okay, I'll go on
because my opinions on this is not only I said
go on, and then I'm like, no, wait stop. So
this is the thing because I understand that.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Whatever you may have your protocols, but a crime happened
in your country, on your soil. It doesn't matter that
whoever it happened against, or even maybe whoever perpetrated it,
maybe even the criminal and the victim are both not
you know, from your country.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It doesn't matter. It happened on your soil. What do
you want?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Do you want someone from English to come over into
your jurisdiction and and and.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Try to solve the crime. No, that's the last thing.
It's not someone there. Don't you want to protect your people,
protect people because what if it That's exactly Part A
is if this was something criminal, it could happen next
to someone who is from Japan. Second is, if all
(10:26):
of a sudden, people from your country or people who
visit your country just start freaking disappearing, that's not going
to be good for your tourism for anyone who wants
to come. And I understand. So the thing is Japan
and in terms of you know, how they make money,
there's a lot of products that it's not like. It's
(10:47):
not like it's Hawaii who relies on tourism as a
big part of how they make money. Now, I'm sure
tourism in Japan is a very lucrative, you know way
of them, you know, their income.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
However, if people just start disappearing and they get a
reputation for not investigating those disappearances, that's not going to
be good for y'all. And that's just not like a
good that's not cool, like have some basic human decency.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Right, Well, I'm gonna tell you right off the bat
so that everyone else can stay with us on this.
It does not stay that way. They got sation, They
they do what needs to be done. How long did
they decide? How long did it take before they're like, okay,
I don't know exactly how long. But the whole, the
whole thing in my head in the beginning is could
(11:38):
you imagine your child going missing in another country to
be met with that sort of a response, Right, I know.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I can imagine my child going missing in this country
being met with that kind of respect.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Rh's it's it's horrific. And we hear it all the
time that you know, your thoughts are they ran away,
They're they're doing their own thing whatever.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I mean, yeah, we need that there save we abstantly
in America right for our own and our own citizens.
So right, yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
But it did not stay that way. I don't know
how gone, because I mean the other thing that I'll
get into is this family is like, oh, you're not
gonna investigate, watch me investigate. So that kind of stuff.
But we're gonna go back a little bit. So. Lucy
was just twenty one years old when she left Seven Oaks,
which is a town in Kent, England, in two thousand
(12:30):
to go to Tokyo. She was tall, blonde, bubbly. People
described her as the type of person who made everyone
feel special. Before heading to Tokyo for what should have
been this new adventure, she was a flight attendant for
British Airways, and although it's believed that she loved the
travel aspect, it's said that she was fed up and
(12:54):
over the large amount of like debt that she was
in from the life that she was living, and so
she was going to Tokyo to kind of like start
anew and just try something different. And so when she
went to Tokyo, she was on a ninety day visa
and she started a job as a hostess in Tokyo's
(13:20):
row Pongi district. Okay, Now, I want to pause here
because the word hostess can sound misleading, and the way
that it's explained in the Netflix documentary, which is called
Missing the Lucy Blackman Case, is how I want to
refer to it here. Because they had a journalist and
an author who wrote on hostesses in the area, there's
(13:45):
really no direct equivalent in the US. It wasn't sex work,
it's not stripping. Hostessing was more like being paid to
poor drinks, chat and keep clients company. And according to
the information that I found on these hostess clubs in Tokyo,
specifically in the Ropongi district. They have a no touching
(14:07):
policy and anyone who initiated any sort of sexual contact
or conversations or advances whatsoever at the hostesses were removed immediately. Yeah,
Lucy described her job to her sister one time, stating
that it was like a platonic companionship where they just
(14:28):
talked work or sports, and that it was like being
an air hostess with the without the altitude. So she
was making good money, she was enjoying what she was doing,
and she said that she was just pretending like she
was listening to these people.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, it's basically like it's I can see this too,
and her making specifically like decent money because she's you
said she was tall and land and I'm assuming she's white, yes,
And so for her to go to Japan and she's like,
(15:09):
that's probably something that like they don't like, she's gonna
stand out. So if there's someone who you know, wants
to have a conversation and experience with someone that doesn't
have you know, that has a different background that doesn't
it's not gonna have the same conversation as you.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So she she probably was making decent money, and and
I do know that that is a more common thing.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
To have.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
It's basically like, yeah, it's like almost like a it's
like a platonic date.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
But yeah, yeah, well, and and I mean in this area,
I don't I don't have this in my scripts, but
in this area it's it's very touristy and there are
a lot of people like Lucy that are from like
a Western that were there. And so this was more
(16:03):
common in the hostess field, like right, But sometimes these
hostesses did what was called dohan and that was just
a little different than their typical hostess nights. But it
was when they would actually leave, they would go out
to dinner with their client and then bring them back
to the club. And that was what Lucy was doing
(16:27):
the night that she vanished. So question question were a
lot of the client's local client client towel or like
a mix. From what I understood, there was a mix,
(16:47):
but they do talk about that there was a lot
of locals that are there and regulars. So Lucy worked
at the Casa Blanca club in the Ropogi district and
it was very fast paced. It was a very high
pressure work environment too. She had a diary that she
kept that shows that at some point during her time there,
(17:10):
her self esteem had struggled because she felt that she
wasn't doing as well as the other women that she
worked with. On July one, two thousand, Lucy told her
roommate that she was going to meet a client for
a Dohan dinner. She promised that she would call her later.
They had plans to go out that evening. That call
(17:32):
never came, and she never came back. This roommate and
friend was named Louise Phillips. She was very concerned when
Lucy did not return, but she was even more concerned
when she received a phone call from a random man
saying that Lucy had joined a cult and would never
(17:56):
be seen again. What yeah, yeah, that's so creepy question. Ye,
Lucy was her roommate's name. Sorry, no, her name is Lucy.
Her friend's name is Louise. Louise was her roommate's name.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Was Louise also a hostess?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yes? Okay, okay, so like she and I think that
she may have traveled there with her. I don't know
if they knew each other for a long time before,
but from my understanding, it seemed that these two kind
of did go together and that's okay, but like they
like they so she knew like what like like she
knew like what was regular, like what would have been
(18:43):
out of ordinary, and she knew like what Lucy's like
normal activities would have been, and like she's she okay,
good and she she and she a call from a
random stranger saying like that's obviously out of the ordinary,
right And and this cult they said that she was
(19:04):
doing this based on the fact that she wanted to
pay she had she was so far in debt supposedly
that she ended up running off to this religious cult
and was never going to return to like escape her debt. Yeah, okay, yeah, no, no,
none of it makes sense, but it does come back around.
(19:26):
So Louise ended up contacting Lucy's family, who, like I mentioned,
flew to Tokyo immediately, and she contacted the police as well.
This moment for any parent or family member is such
a whirlwind, because all you want to do is find
your loved one, but not for this family specifically. Not
(19:47):
only are you on this search and trying to find Lucy,
you're in unknown territory as well. There's this moment in
the Netflix documentary that gave me ch bills and infuriated
me at the same time. Her father, his name is Tim,
and we'll talk about him and other family as well.
(20:10):
But Tim was hanging posters in Tokyo when a police
officer went up to him and told him to stop,
that he wasn't allowed to do that, and this father,
he just was like, pretty much like what the heck?
But they show videos of this happening, but he just
held his hands out in front of him and said,
you can arrest me because I'm not taking them down.
(20:32):
So that to me, you know, I couldn't imagine going
there and being met with that sort of a response.
But he was not gonna just sit around and wait
for answers. He was in us posting or anything. Yeah, Yeah,
and he did. He pushed the police, and he spoke
(20:53):
with media, and he did all of these things that
I think made them realize that he wasn't going anywhere, yeah,
and that you can either join me in the search
for my daughter or we're gonna have a problem. Tokyo
police started looking into the case, but they struggled. The
(21:15):
nightlife district in this area was massive and foreign women
often got overlooked. It was time to start doing anything
and everything that they could and talking to everybody. They
ended up questioning someone early on that would frequent the clubs.
(21:36):
He had an alibi that checked out, so that one
was pretty much done as quickly as they thought he
could have been a suspect. Police and investigators are doing
their things, and they're doing, you know, stuff on their
own and asking questions to the officers stuff like that.
But Lucy's family is doing their own thing as well,
(22:00):
so they end up holding press conferences, they set up
a tip line, and they even offered a half million
yen reward, which I should have looked up to see
how much exactly that is here because I don't know
that answer. But with all of those things still nothing.
One thing that I want to add here for dynamic
(22:22):
purposes and understanding is the documentary features Lucy's father, Tim
a Lot. Her mother's name is Jane Steer, and Jane
and Tim at the time of Lucy's disappearance, they were
not together. They had gotten a divorce a couple years
before this. And so even though you know, the investigation
(22:45):
had Lucy in the forefront and it was clear that
she was in the center of their minds and everything
you could still tell. And they do talk about how
contentious it was for them and how much of a
struggle it was for them to to be there with
kind of differing opinions or views on things. So this
(23:06):
isn't about them. And I don't want to go into
all of the stuff because there is a lot. But
the other thing I do want to add is that
Lucy she had two siblings, so and they were both
Jane and Tim's children as well, and this was hard
on all of them. It was hard on the children,
it was hard on the parents. So this case goes
(23:28):
beyond what happened, as most do. But the toll that
it took on this family searching for their loved ones
and loved one, but the toll it takes on families
searching for their loved one and going through the hardest
time of their lives is such a hard thing to
think about. And my heart just goes out to you know,
(23:48):
her siblings and her parents. As I mentioned at the beginning,
there was a little pushback from longment there, but throughout
the time there was said to be more than one
hundred and fifty detectives that started working on Lucy's case
(24:10):
as they got deeper into this investigation, and the reason
is because the more that the more time that passed,
women started coming forward. Other hostesses in the Ropongi district
who have had negative experiences on the job came forward.
(24:32):
So they really needed like all hands on deck, nass point.
Oh man. These women would explain that they would go
to dinner with a man, have a drink, and then nothing,
hours missing from their memory. Oh my god, axt day
they would wake up soar, disoriented and sometimes burning with pain.
(24:57):
Would this be the same and they would be describing
the same man?
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
And so you know, it seemed at this point with
these women coming forward, there was something extremely sinister going on,
more so than what they originally had brushed off as
maybe a runaway. And the next thought was that whoever
took Lucy had likely done this before. As women came forward,
(25:24):
one woman in particular named Monica remembered being taken to
a seaside resort that had palm trees, and the detectives
immediately knew of a place that was a resort that
had palm trees right outside of Tokyo, and it was
called Zushi Marina, a luxury resort right outside of Tokyo.
(25:48):
They ended up asking Monica to go with them to
see if there was anything that she could remember. They
took her back there and when she saw it, she
knew this was the place. Ye I'm so sorry. I
know to do something like that, right, And I don't know,
(26:10):
I don't know the time frame of because these people
start to come out when they're they're hearing of other
women who went through similar stories. So people are coming
out and it's over years, right, years and almost decades
because I will or a decade that I will, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Bey, But like they're starting to compile these reports.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
And that's why it's just because you said this.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Was two thousand, this was an issue, yes, So it's
just like you're starting to like imagine if I mean
we're starting, you know, they were starting.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
To get into the digital age. But imagine if like,
you know.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
You could have keyword searched like the same things that
these these women had maybe hopefully been reporting. But it's
just like imagine, you know, how how much easier it
could have been. But at the same time, like a
shout out to all these women for coming forward because
that in and of itself is just a very brave.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Thing to do.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Be Monica like for being like, yeah, I will go
back to the scene of an incredibly traumatic experience for
me in order to make sure that this doesn't happen,
you know, to anyone else, and hopefully to also bring
justice because at this point there's probably you know, we
(27:29):
know that there are other women who who have experienced
something similar, and there's potentially women who haven't come forward
and or cannot because like you know, people like Lucy so,
oh my god, that's heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It is heartbreaking, it is. And I know earlier before
you set all of that, I was talking about I
don't know the timeframe. It doesn't matter the time frame, right,
could be ten years, twenty years, thirty years, and that's
still going to be as it's traumatic, right. Pretty much,
the only thing that was able to be confirmed was
(28:11):
that it was at that resort. She couldn't give any
other information. I mean, that was information enough, but she
didn't know the exact room number, she didn't know exactly
what building. She just was the resort. Correct. Monica and
the detective end up going to get food and while
(28:33):
they were there, the detective had a picture of Lucy
and held it up to the waitress asking if they
had ever seen this girl, and the waitress said yes,
and somehow was able to confirm And I'm not too
clear exactly the time frame on when they were there.
You haven't been able to figure out exactly the timeframe
(28:55):
of when they went there, but this waitress was able
to confirm that Lucy was there at that restaurant on
July first with a man. Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah, shout out to these servers who are just able
to be like, oh, yeah, that person was here, like
during my shift, Like that's awest and who.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Knows, maybe maybe this server sees this person all the time,
come in there with him with whoever. It seems like,
you know, he's from that area or knows something.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
So it's like, oh, yeah, that's my regular and he
brought this girl in on this date.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
But like, that's so crazy. Always be aware, always pay attention,
and even if he's not maybe that was the first time,
but you just felt something was off, you know, and
so you remembered her face rust did the gut, Yeah, exactly.
So with this information of a man who could be
drugging and taking advantage of women, the knowledge of Lucy
(29:55):
being missing, and everything else they've done on their investigation.
They had asked people that Lucy worked with at the
clubs to do sketches of people that they saw Lucy
with in the recent days before her disappearance, and the
investigators obtain a residency list of the Zushi Maranera resort
(30:19):
Marinera Marina. Sorry, everybody, you know, when I was when
I was writing this in my head, I said Marinera
so many times that I was like, I'm not going
to make that mistake. Zushi Marina resort, and they, you know,
they start to weed people off of that list. So
(30:40):
in time, with all of the information that they've gathered
and that they've came across, a forty eight year old
Japanese man who spoke very well English, seemed to have
a lot of money, frequented the hostess clubs, and had
a resort at the Zushi Marina was found and his
(31:03):
name was Joji Obara. Obarra was wealthy, but he was
described as a loaner by others that lived at his residencies.
And I said residencies plural, because Obara had inherited money
from his father and owned multiple properties. While they were
(31:26):
looking into him and trying to find more information on him,
they found that he had a past arrest for dressing
as a woman to sneak into the women's restroom and
record them. So because of this arrest, they had a
mug shot and they asked you know this agency to
(31:48):
send them the mug shot. They printed it out, they
added it to a lineup of numerous other photos, and
they asked the women who came forward to point out
who they believe was their assaulter, pointing directly without hesitation,
to Joji Obara's photo, which is an amazing thing to
(32:09):
be able to do, especially after having been traumatized and
in the same like and having been drugged like during
it as well. That's just I mean, oh my gosh.
Investigators came up with a plan and they went to
his Zushi Marina resort home and arrested him. When police
(32:35):
searched his homes, all of them, Heather, they made one
of the most horrifying discoveries that makes me sick to
my stomach. He had over four hundred videotapes in his
possession of unconscious women being assaulted by him. What a
(33:00):
fucking disgusting, psychopathic piece of shit inhuman Yeah, pile of shit.
Oh my god, he's been doing this for years. Out.
(33:21):
I don't have any more words, No, I know, but
that's why I was quiet, letting you get all of
that out, because it's important to hear how awful he is.
So my god, and not a single one of them
showed Lucy No. But I mean, at this point the
pattern was undeniable, right, and so even though they didn't
(33:46):
have Lucy who who was the start of this investigation? Hey,
they had enough to you know, arrest it, I mean
their stuff and get this, which it's it's not surprising
to me because he's a complete, disgusting and vile human being.
But Obara claims that everything was consensual and he said
the well agreed and they were paid for it.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah, while talking unconscious and drug do you absolute fucking
get trash?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah? So, I mean, if it's so sorry for you guys,
if you're drugged you can't give consent? So weird? How
many times does that need to be? Like, like people
need to I don't understand why how is that still?
Speaker 3 (34:30):
How do we still need to talk about this? Why
is this still something that needs to be.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Okay, it doesn't get any better from here, so bear
with me. I'm gonna move the mic a little further
away because I know, we get I feel like everyone's
getting riled up, and they're probably screaming right along.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Get angry specifically though, and we get rude comments because
they talk about me yelling a lot.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
So I'm just gonna move my micael all if they're
not yelling right now now we have a whole different situation.
Like I mentioned, none of these videos showed Lucy, but
they still have to look into every single one of
them because no matter what, they had a serious problem
on their hands. And you know, it's people's job, probably many,
(35:22):
multiple of these one hundred and fifty detectives to watch
every single one of these videos. In one of the videos,
they see a girl who her hands start to shake
during his attack. She's unconscious, but her hands start noticeably shaking.
(35:43):
This is actually a side effect or a response to
chloroform toxicity. And the name exactly of what happened is
called and I know I'm gonna butcher this, so bear
with me, but it's called fulminent hepatitis, which leads to
hepatic insephilopaphy, and I listen to them say this over
(36:06):
and over in the documentary to try to get in
in my head, and it's really hard. But ultimately what
it's described as is flapping tremors. So this woman they're
able to eventually identify her name was Karita, and she
had actually passed away. I do want to take a
moment to talk about Karita right here before we continue
(36:29):
with Lucy's story. So Karita and her sister Sam, they
love to travel, and they decided they wanted to travel
to Tokyo, Japan, and Sam, her sister, had gotten a
job as an English teacher, and Karita she was there
(36:49):
and she wasn't able to find a job right away,
so she ended up working temporarily as a hostess. One night,
after a date with a client, she returned to her
apartment feeling violently ill. She ended up being taken to
the hospital with the thought that maybe she had food
(37:09):
poisoning or something going on. Medical staff continued to try
to help her and see really what was going on,
but she had ultimately started having organ failure. After a
week of her being in the hospital, she was taken
off of life support. Oh my god, this happy, healthy,
(37:34):
adventurous twenty one year old girl, and all of a sudden,
this happens, right, and they never end up doing an
autopsy or anything because they just believed that it was
either this food poisoning or something just natural flaws kind
of something right, because they didn't have any other like
(37:54):
she reason had underlying thing, just some random thing that
happened her, like, nothing criminal that would have required an autopsy. Yeah.
So then fast forward, after all of this comes out
about Joji o'bara and him having Karita on his films,
they had actually saved a part of her organ and
(38:16):
they had tested and shining for a form on the sample,
so they were able to arrest him for abduction and
ultimately manslaughter. Good Karita. Good. We'll talk more about her
a little bit later, but back to finding Lucy right now.
(38:39):
So Joji Obara was one of the criminal fools that
kept keepsakes and memorabilia and receipts of everything, which ultimately
ends up being helpful in cases when you can make
connections and then create, you know, a timeline based off
(38:59):
of the ruth, the receipts, and the things that are found.
And at this time, Obara has said that, you know,
he knew who Lucy was, but of course he had
nothing to do with her disappearance. Coure. But they're able
to put a timeline together. And if you guys do
go and watch this documentary or if you go into
(39:20):
our sources, there's certain articles that have pictures laid out
of the tables and tables of items that they have
of little notepads and receipts and just things that he
had in his numerous houses. So they put this timeline
together and they were able to see that. On July first,
(39:41):
Obara met Lucy around three pm and they headed to
Zushi Marina. On the way to Zushi, they stopped in
eight at a restaurant in Hiyama. At five pm, they
go to Obara's apartment, and this is when Lucy is
no longer able to be tracked and ultimately is never
(40:04):
seen alive again. On the third, Obara goes back to Tokyo.
On the fourth, he goes on a shopping spree. On
the fifth, he goes to another apartment building that he
owns at the Blue Sea. Aarbarasubo July sixth, a resident
(40:26):
at that apartment at the Blue Sea Aberasubo filed a
complaint about noise coming from Obarro's residency there, and going
back to the receipts during that shopping spree on the fourth,
they can see that he bought a chainsaw, cement and
(40:46):
a portable tent.
Speaker 6 (40:47):
Oh my god, this guy is absolutely just.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
The worst of the worst. And I didn't say this earlier,
but the more that we talk about him being trash,
I just want to like double down on it. In
this moment, Karita, she had that happen in nineteen ninety two.
Oh my god, that was eight years before Lucy went missing. Okay,
(41:26):
so it's that many years. And I mean we already
said four hundred, over four hundred videos of women, and
so you know that this is something that was just
continually happening, I'm sure over a decade. So they have
(41:46):
all of this, they have this, you know, circumstantial evidence,
and they're able to create a scenario scenario of what
they believed happen, but they don't have anything concrete at
this point. And so with this circumstantial evidence and nobody
it's hard to try to convict somebody of a crime.
(42:09):
Get a warrant, get to that apartment, building. There's still
gotta be some kind of a forensic evidence. Well, they
have been searching these homes because he was arrested already,
So he's already he's already arrested by the time that
they find these things. No, I mean get a warrant
for that apartment building where someone heard the noise. Oh,
(42:31):
they're in there. They're in there for sure. So they
don't find anything in the home other than all those
items that they've confiscated. Okay, like I mentioned, like all
of those items, Well, go back and run some more tests.
There's no way that this asshole.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
He's stupid enough to keep his receipts, he's stupid enough
to fuck something up.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah, I'm not done here. Okay, So I'm just mad.
I know, I you can be mad. I'm mad. It's ridiculous.
And so they do that. They search and they search
and they search in that area, that specific location, the
Blue Sea ARBORISTUBO is right off of the coast, and
(43:15):
so they have ground teams, they have dive teams. And
on February ninth, two thousand and one, two hundred and
twenty three, days after Lucy had initially went missing, Oh
my god, they were out searching again in another area
off the coast, and one of the investigator his name
(43:35):
is no Zoe. No Zoe, he went into this small cave.
So there was like a few little areas off the
side of the coasts that look like little mini caves,
and he said that this case was kind of riddled
with trash, as if every time that the water would
come up, it would leave something on the grounds. And
(43:56):
when he went into this cave, he said it was
weird because he saw a aft tub that was actually upside down.
So when this officer Nozoe flipped it over, he said
that he immediately saw a large amount of bugs crawling
around and he could tell that they were carnivorous bugs, so,
(44:18):
oh my god. He started digging until his shovel made
contact with what seemed at the time like a burlap sack,
and that when he opened it he saw a human foot.
After they were able to dig around the entire area
and take the entire it was not a burlap sack.
(44:43):
I don't know if it was the tent yeah that
he had bought mixed with the cement, but her body
was ultimately dismembered into eight pieces and encased in concrete,
buried in this cave. So her body was recovered and
(45:06):
her family was notified. I'm going to read a quote
from her mother, Jane Steer quote, I love Lucy so
much for the wonderful and beautiful person she was. When
Lucy's killer is convicted, justice demands that he spends the
rest of his natural life in prison contemplating the enormity
(45:27):
of his crimes. End quote. Now they have Lucy, and again,
like I mentioned, they have some circumstantial stuff that shows
what happened mm hmm, but ultimately nothing that directly they
say directly links to him. So Obara was charged with abduction,
(45:50):
rape resulting in death, and dismembering of Lucy's body. Plus
in the same trial, he was charged with rape leading
to deaf in Karita Ridgeway's death. During this trial, Joji
o'barro was found guilty on his charges against Karita Ridgeway
and was sentenced to life in prison, and shockingly, he
(46:14):
was found not guilty on Lucy's charges. I don't reason,
gohd no, just go ahead, okay, I mean okay, sorry,
I said go ahead. I understand that it's circumstantial because
they can't directly say like his fingerprints were found on
(46:38):
the concrete or on the whatever, but like they have
the receipts to the.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Material that was used that they could potentially, I'm guessing,
be able to identify as the same material that was
later found with Lucy.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
So that should be enough.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
They have a witnessing that they heard, you know, the
commotion at his where he was, and then they are
able to find her remains in the vicinity of that area.
So and they have the pattern of his fucking behavior.
And I don't know if they're able to do any
(47:17):
kind of toxic coology. I mean, I understand that she
was dismembered, but I mean I don't know if there's
any kind of toxicology that they're able to do on
her where they can say, yes, there was some you
know in her remains, they were able to find some
kind of the chloroform or whatever, But like, I mean.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
What the fuck? Yeah? No, and and what they what
what I found that they based off like basis off
of was they said, lack of direct evidence and saying
that they didn't have enough forensic evidence, like you're saying, right,
but just because they don't have that we've we've seen
that you don't need that and you have every other
thing it's in. It's infuriating, so real quick. I want
(47:58):
to explain the time a little bit too, because this
was years after the fact. This family had to wait
years missing in two thousand and then later that year
he was arrested in connection as you know, a possible
suspect find all of those videos and all of that
linking him to Karita Ridgeway. And so when he was
(48:21):
charged with hers, that was in two thousand and seven.
It was two thousand and seven. Are you fucking kidding me?
That they had to deal with the fact that, you know,
deep down they knew, everyone knew, so to wait for
that to then be slapped in the face with you know,
(48:44):
and they her father makes a statement saying that justice
was served that day for Karita and that they're not
giving up because they will not be done, you know.
And Obarro was back in court the following year because
the family did not give up, and in December of
(49:05):
two thousand and eight, thankfully, he was found guilty and
charged on all counts of abduction, dismemberment, and the disposal
of Lucy Blackman's body and he was given an irreversible
life sentence. How did they do How did did they
find more evidence?
Speaker 3 (49:24):
How did they I mean I'm not familiar obviously with
Japanese court system, but like, do they not have double jeopardy?
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Did they have a change in forensic evidence? Like how
did that happen? I don't know, okay it because it
could be totally different in Japan, Like you know, here
you can't be charged with the same crime unless there's
you know, like or maybe like there was some kind
of appeal or there was a different court system or something.
But thank god, Yeah, I should have done better at
(49:54):
looking at that time. No, it might be totally I
want to know those answers too, and it might be different.
But I mean, we're talking about this, I should have
that information. But it's like I hear not guilty in
one second and guilty in the next, you know, like
that that I don't understand how you even said not
guilty when you had all of that stuff. Because the
other thing is like they had the evidence that his
(50:15):
phone his phone number was linked to that call that
was made to Louise saying, oh my god, I forgot
about it. They had all they had that information, they
had his writing on something like with her, So there
was so many things I had totally forgot about the
call Rachel. Obviously he should have been guilty from the beginning.
(50:37):
I mean, how are you not guilty based on the
fact that you found her cemented? It's so ready he's
remembered in Semounting and he had a chance on Cement
like it. It made no sense. And it just shows
you know, why this family and I'm sure not only
the family, I'm so I'm sure so many investigators who
so deep into this for so many years. Exactly I know,
(51:03):
we're not found fucking who found her under a bathtub
in a cave. He's gone to visit her family in
England and it made me cry like a baby. So
I'm crying. No. Yeah, to this day, some of Lucy's
family still visits the cave where her body was found,
(51:24):
and they've turned it into a memorial, a tribute to
her life. How do people like that exist in the world?
I do not know. And for him an deck and
that escalation and well, and that's the thing is, that's
the thing.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Is this guy you know that probably and that the
minute that he had that arrest for.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
Going and videotaping women in a bathroom.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
He should have been on a list of men to
be watched, like and I know, like you know, World Ride,
it's not like we have the resources, but like you
knew from that point on, I'm sorry he could be
a danger dangerous individual because that is the type of
behavior that escalates period point blank. Like statistically speaking, that
(52:21):
man is going to be dangerous to women for the
rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah, for sure. I want to talk about something else
really quickly too. So because after all of this, a
trust was started by Tim Blackman, and there's a lot
of other conversation. Like I said, I don't really want
to talk about the other stuff that goes along with
(52:48):
the family and contentiousness and stuff like that. But ultimately
that trust ended up like disbanding in twenty twenty and
the money was put into the LBT Global Charity, which
is a foundation that helps British victims of serious crimes overseas.
(53:09):
So that's such a beautiful thing to that that kind
of stuff happens. It helps families, this charity, it helps
families in their times of need during missing persons cases
as well as murders or manslaughter cases, and it provides assistance, fundraising, support,
(53:30):
and so much more to these families who may not
know what to do because oh yeah, you're not just
knowledgeable in how to find your missing loved one or something.
Jazz right, So that link will be in the show
notes and put on our social media for you guys
to check out as well. But that is the story
of Lucy Blackman and cared A Ridgeway as well, and
(53:55):
so many others that are you know, not named in
this but for hundred videos, I want to say that
there was eight women who either I don't know if
they directly went after him as well or if they
were able to get you know, their names and charge
him somewhat with responsibility for them too. But it's just
(54:19):
horrific that these kind of things happen, that you can
cross paths with such a predator and a family who
was not going to give up, who was going to
fight tooth and nail four answers, even when first of
all they have pushed back in the beginning, and then
second of all, there's a you know, not guilty verdict
(54:40):
and they're like, no, that's not happening.
Speaker 3 (54:42):
So and it's like, just imagine and I'm sure like eventually,
I mean, who knows, eventually, maybe the police would have
you know, gotten to it or you know something. But
imagine if the family hadn't have come, hadn't have pushed,
hadn't have you know, fought for their child, Imagine how
many more victim there could have been, you.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
Know, in that time. And it's just like.
Speaker 4 (55:07):
I just.
Speaker 2 (55:09):
Like, I mean, you say, this is a fucking predator.
It's a fucking and the worst of the worst. Oh
my god, it's not I mean, it's never it's horrible
when we talk about someone who does this to one person,
I know, and sad. The sad thing is is is
(55:31):
I mean he's been you know, convicted of the death
of two, being responsible for the death of two, and
you know there's you know, like you said, there may
have been eight other women who you know, put their
names down and you know, made him responsible as well.
But there could be more deaths related to him over
(55:52):
the years that.
Speaker 3 (55:55):
May not may go unnamed and just may never know.
And that is just so sad and scary.
Speaker 4 (56:03):
And I mean, oh my gosh, that is absolutely horrifying
and terrifying and just so important to like unders like
such an important.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Thank god that she had Louise was the roommate's name, right, yes, yeah,
thank god she had Louise. Thank god she had a
family behind her.
Speaker 3 (56:30):
And thank god that eventually when the the you know,
investigators did you know start working on it, that they
were like okay, like because I mean, that seems like
a very long drawn out investigation that resulted in a
lot of dead ends and they had to keep trying
to find ways to you know, enlive in that case.
And thank god for all those women who decided to
(56:54):
step up and be in a very vulnerable place and
tell their when I mean a lot of them, it's
not like they probably could very much tell a lot.
I woke up and something just very did not sit
right with me, and I don't have a lot of
details to share with you, but I need to tell
you that something's not okay.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
And you know, a lot of them are in a.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
Very vulnerable ways because how many times has a woman
walked in and told somebody that and they just brushed
her off? And how many women probably walked in and
told them that and was brushed off. So thankfully somebody
finally listened to these women. But thankfully those women were
strong and brave enough to fucking come forward with their story.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
See, but you also have to listen to women when
they tell you this because this should have been handled this,
I mean, and a lot of them could point him out.
So if you would have handled this the first time.
And I don't know one hundred percent whether they went
or not, but that is the thing. It's too often
we see that something was said and then they either
(57:58):
what got a slap on the and released immediately or
the women were turned around, turned away, started completely. Well,
and you said that it was like nineteen ninety two, right,
was that for Karita? For Karita was the death? So
imagine how many women probably came in around that time
or even before, because we know what it was like.
What it's fucking still like for.
Speaker 3 (58:21):
Women, especially who you know and not and it should
not be this way, but like, oh well they're in that.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Line of business, so whatever. And I think that's why
in the beginning I wanted to stress exactly how this
was explained as well, and just because something is explained
a certain way doesn't mean that that's exactly thing. And
you know that there's people in all fields.
Speaker 3 (58:43):
They're all gonna stay out whatever, and who I mean,
even if she was let's say, like luc was a stripper,
was a sexa and do you think that this means
that she's allowed to be murdered sexually assaulted. And so
that's the crazy thing is that there was probably so
many women who probably came forward and tried to tell
their story about this motherfucker beforehand, and they probably were
(59:05):
turned away. And that's also just fucking heartbreaking because then
how many fucking victims, hundreds hundreds of fucking victims came
in between that time probably died definitely, I mean definitely died,
but like also not just the two that we have
the names for, And that's.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Just so fucking tragic to think about. I wish that
all of the all of the survivors and then all
of the families.
Speaker 7 (59:36):
Just I.
Speaker 2 (59:37):
Wish them peace and just a lot of healing because
to have to have been involved and have to have
crossed paths with a monster, yeah, a literal monster, like
(01:00:00):
a completely inhuman thing like that, I just that's absolutely
horrific and just a lot of you know, and I
just hope that guy rots right, and I hope he
gets I hope he's tortured somehow, I get I don't.
(01:00:23):
I hope he is literally tortured every single day for
what he's inflicted on the people that he's crossed path with,
because he deserves hell. He deserves hell, and trying to
think in my head. Her sister said something at one
point about you know, as soon as and the way
(01:00:46):
that she said it was beautiful. I wish I would
have wrote this down, but you know, because she says, like,
if it was him, because at this point there's still
you know, in the unknown but probably knowing. But she's like,
if it was him, I hope he never gets to
see sunlight and ends uptaking his last breath, something along
those lines, like immediately type thing. I don't know, but
(01:01:09):
I do. I highly recommend you watching this documentary. It's
I don't like documentaries very much. I didn't plan on
watching that. When I sat down, I think I was
gonna watch Workaholics. I should have no, but this was important.
(01:01:32):
There's so much more on a few other aspects that
I didn't really touch on, but it's horrible and he's
locked up and you know, good Reddence. I think there
was a point you were you were talking about and
I don't know if I brushed over it, or you know,
(01:01:53):
we lost connections somehow or something. But you were talking
about her roommate and her knowing her routine and knowing
what she did and how important that was. And you know,
whenever I start to write a script, this is just
(01:02:14):
like a side note for everyone listening right now. Whenever
I start to write a script, I think about what
can I do in an educational way to try to
help people in the future, right, Like if you're traveling,
how can you travel more safely? Or if you do
this or that, And it's like, she did everything right.
(01:02:36):
She did everything right. She told her her roommate where
she was going. There's so much that you know. And
in no means am I This isn't a victim blame
type thing or whatever, but it's just the fact that
it's like, when you look back, it's like, no, she
did all of that, but there are freaking monsters among us,
and it's disgusting, and you you the only thing that
(01:02:59):
I go back to is the fact that if this
would have been put to an end when it started
before it could have escalated, that's the only way to
make the change that needs to be made so yeah,
I don't know, it's just sucks. Yeah, freakin sucks, Like
I said, that guy should have been And that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
It's like, we know, like what's that movie Minority Report
or something with palm cruise where you can see the
person gmitting the crime before it happens and then they.
Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Arrest the gump.
Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
So it says like I understand that that's not like,
that's not realistic, Like we can't actually start doing it,
but as soon as somewhat like but like, just statistically speaking,
if an individual is ever arrested caught doing a crime
like that, odds are.
Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
This individual is likely going to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
The recidivism right for this type of crime and the
likelihood that it will escalate into more serious violent.
Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
Crimes is is incredibly like that is look at the
look at the And I always go back to to
something that one of my forensic psych professor said, the
the the highest predictor of past or of future behavior
is past behavior.
Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
And I'm not saying people can't change. I'm not saying
that certain therapies don't work. I'm not saying that people
can't work on themselves. But there are certain people that
are just wired like this guy is a fucking monster, clearly,
and he doesn't deserve, like the sister said, he does
(01:04:42):
not deserve to ever see sunshine again. So and he
he from day one exactly like you said. He never
should have been given the chance.
Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
So it is. It is just hard I and my
heart just is really with all of the brave women
and who had to go not only you know, went
through what they went through, but especially living with that
(01:05:12):
every day and knowing they crossed paths with someone who
was just that horrific. It's just yeah, you know that,
just in and of itself, it is just very scary.
So yes, it is. Oh my gosh, Rachel wows a,
wowsa a wowsa. All Right, next week, I promise it
won't be this heavy. Look Heather last the week before
(01:05:35):
the week prior, She's like, look, I'm gonna bring this
fun one because Rachel just likes to hit us in
our feelings. Twenty four to seven, we are going like
in terms of like the heavy hitting this, we just
went like from a literal one to like a ten.
We're taking y'all on a roller coaster here. I'll you know,
(01:05:55):
we never know what we're doing. This is the thing,
you guys, We do not plan these out.
Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
We do not, And you know the truth is, we
don't even like really plan them from our for ourselves
because there are literally hours before we might change our
minds on which story we want to like for ourselves personally,
we might change our mind on which story we want
to do, and we definitely don't tell each other which
(01:06:20):
ones do, which is so crazy because we've been doing
this now for three years. We're up, we're pushing like
three hundred something episodes and we have yet to like
do one that we were are like. It's absolutely bonkers,
and but we're taking you on a roller coaster, so
just buckle up because who knows what's coming next week.
(01:06:41):
But thank you guys for coming along. This is just
how dynamic we are as a pair.
Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
True.
Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
This is what you get when you come to like
Mother like Murder. You get all the highs and the lows,
very true, along with the tears and the cussing, yeah,
and the.
Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
All of it. And this one, well, I and not
get very sad and I rate simultaneously for real, And
I need to take a video of you just shaking
your fist at the screen. Yeah, all right, that is
going to be the place we use on Instagram this weekend.
(01:07:20):
We will talk to you guys next week. You guys,
I don't even like I always feel like I have
something that I want to say at the end of
these But the only thing that I want to say
is beware of monsters and always speak up. And if
someone's not listening to you when you're speaking up, find
someone who will. Yeah, we will. And be a good roommate, yeah,
(01:07:43):
be a good roommate for sure, a good friend and roommate,
a good family member, be a good person. We need
good people.
Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
That's that's an easy one. That's not hard, I hope. So,
I mean it's easier for some people. That's good, you know. Yeah,
all right. I mean sometime you don't even have to
be just be decent, like I mean, we're not.
Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
We don't need you to go above and beyond. Just
don't be a shithead. Just don't be a bad please,
Just don't be bad. Progress not perfection. Let's just go
with that and move on.
Speaker 7 (01:08:19):
Okay, move on, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
We'll talk to you guys next week.
Speaker 7 (01:08:22):
Hey, love you bye, he love you bye.
Speaker 5 (01:08:47):
Looking for your next true crime podcast and consider checking
out my show, Truly Twisted wherever you get your podcasts. Hi,
my name is Alicia Watson and each Thursday, I will
be bringing you a twisted story that is always victim
focused and fact based. My goal is simple, bringing a
voice to the voiceless, So be sure to follow me
(01:09:09):
on Instagram and TikTok at It's Truly Twisted and for
more on my show and other amazing creators, visit fireeyesmedia
dot com. And in the meantime, remember you are wanted,
you are loved, and you deserve to be here and
I'll see you there.
Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Fireeyes Media
Welcome to Like Mother Like Murder. I am Rachel and
I'm Heather. We bring you the good, the badass, and
the crime.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
This is Like Mother Like Murder. Hello and welcome back
to Like Mother Like Murder, your favorite true crime mom cast.
I'm Rachel and I am Heather, and each week we
(00:44):
bring you mom related true crimes from missing mom's, two
murdered moms, mom's who murder, murder survivors, and much more.
I don't think I've ever messed up on that intro,
and that's the first time that, you know, there's a
first time for everything in this. You know, words are hard,
words are hard.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
And I think the reason is, like we've recorded this
is probably our like fifth time recording this week because y'all,
we've been like rocking and rolling once we kind of
came down from our crime con crash, but we have
we've been like working on other.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
Projects cases that haunt us.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
The newest and the you should be here Podcasters give
Back series is going to come out very soon, so
we have been working on our cases for that, so
look out for that.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
So we've been working on those. We've been working on
some other projects, but.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
We so we're finally, you know, getting back around to
our one and true, our our true love here like Mother,
Like Murder, and so I think that you know, I.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Was stumbling a little bit, but it felt good to say.
I was gonna say, it's okay. You're allowed to stumble
right there, because you're right. We have been doing so
many other things that I feel like you haven't said
that line and White some time. Exactly, I'm out of practical.
We're we need to get back into the recording for
(02:13):
Like Mother Like Murder. They need it, they need us,
We need it actually as well. I know. But Heather's right,
we have so many other things going on that we
definitely encourage you guys to check out. So cases that
haunt us are only you should be here. Podcast Missing
in Hushtown Season two will be coming out next month.
That is crazy. If you have not listened to the
(02:35):
entire first season on Jennifer and Adriana Wicks, please go
and do that. Voices against Philocide, That's something I've been
working on a lot as well, So go and check
that out. That is a very very important podcast that
Hope Putin does. So there's just so much. But I
also wanted to say that if you guys are new here,
we're just happy to have you. And if you've been
(02:57):
here for a while, dude, hey Frans, Hey, hey girl,
Hey Eather. And I've just had a full on, like
vent seession before we got on because it was very
necessary and I don't want to go into the whole thing,
but all I will say is to all of you
parents out there, anyone who has school aged children, good luck.
(03:23):
Power to you all of those things, because the more
days off, the more vacations that are about to be
coming around, and like you know them, being home is hard,
and just power to you.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Guys.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Are our hearts and are any will we have left?
We are sending all of those vibes to you because
we understand the struggle. It's funny because I was.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Like, should we we be recording this as a dead serial,
but not really, because this is lariously, this is exactly
the life. It's so funny because I was gonna say too,
for all of those who have been with us for
a while, if you have not yet become a Patreon
subscriber or we do also have our Apple subscription available.
(04:11):
All options are less than five dollars, but that is
where you can check out bonus content like dead serious
but not really where we just gab about a lot
of these things like the struggle of parenting life and
when your kid has.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
A random Tuesday off, whah do you do? And when
you're on a call with your boss's boss and your
child decides perfect time to come in to your video
conference and say, hey, who's that on? Who's up on
the video? And yeah, just the fun the fun of that.
(04:46):
Uh And and the other thing.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
That we also recorded recently was a part one of
our Crime Con recap, which which was so much fun.
We did talk about it a little bit on our
last episod Zoe, but there's a lot more detail that
we get into, fun stories about Rachel locking you out
of the room. And so that's all available on Patreon
(05:16):
or the Apple subscription either one, and so you guys
can always check out that for ad free listening and
bonus content.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
So, yeah, one other thing that we don't shout out
enough and we need to do better at this, so
Heather hold me accountable. But we also do a missing
person segment on Weird Java in the line that is
a Sunday morning show that David from down the rabbit
Hole and Kevin from Where the Weird Ones Are. They
bring bi weekly on YouTube every not every bi weekly
(05:47):
on Sundays, and so if you guys have not checked
that out, we encourage you guys to go do that too.
We are there each and every week except for the
one week that I completely lost my brain and did
not submit a video. But if we bring a missing
person segment to that too, so go and check that out. Okay,
we are done, Heather. I have a crazy, crazy case
for you today. Hi. Are you ready? I am so
(06:09):
ready to hear this because the name sounds super familiar
and you gave me a little hint that this has
a documentary on Netflix. Yes, but I don't know, so
I let's hear this. Let's let's let's hear it. Yeah.
So before I get into today's case, I need to
(06:30):
give a very serious trigger warning. This is a true
crime podcast, so I feel like as a listener you
should already kind of be aware that the conversations that
could take place, you know, could be heavy and hard
and triggering. But specifically today we're talking about sexual assault, murder,
and dismemberment. This case is dark, it's heavy, and it's heartbreaking,
(06:56):
so please listen with care. Of course, all of my
sources will be in the show notes for you to
go and check out and look into things yourself. But
I wanted to add that I also watched, like Heather said,
the documentary that is on Netflix right now, and that
was kind of the beginning of me diving into this case,
and so that will be sourced in the show notes
(07:17):
as well. All right, Heather, imagine this. You're young, you're
(07:47):
full of life, and you decide to spend a year
abroad just to see the world, have an adventure. You
end up picking Tokyo, Japan, but while you're there, you disappear,
just vanish. This is exactly what happened to Lucy Blackman.
(08:08):
Her family immediately flew across the world to try to
find her, and they're met with pushback when they're told
that pretty much because Lucy was not a Japanese national,
they may not even do a police investigation on her.
What that's bull. It is bull, and they do do
(08:30):
an investigation. So let me tell you, but could you
imagine as a parent going across and they have this
very The more sources that you look into and things
that you watch or listen on this. You know, everyone
has their protocols in what they do, and what it
seems like in Tokyo, Japan is they're always going to
(08:51):
do what's best for theirs first before anyone else. And
because Lucy was from she she's from England, which I'll
get into, it was as if, well she ran away,
we're not going to look into this. It's not something
we're going to look into. Wow, yeah, sure, you know
(09:14):
that's just so Okay, go on, Okay, I'll go on
because my opinions on this is not only I said
go on, and then I'm like, no, wait stop. So
this is the thing because I understand that.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Whatever you may have your protocols, but a crime happened
in your country, on your soil. It doesn't matter that
whoever it happened against, or even maybe whoever perpetrated it,
maybe even the criminal and the victim are both not
you know, from your country.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It doesn't matter. It happened on your soil. What do
you want?
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Do you want someone from English to come over into
your jurisdiction and and and.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Try to solve the crime. No, that's the last thing.
It's not someone there. Don't you want to protect your people,
protect people because what if it That's exactly Part A
is if this was something criminal, it could happen next
to someone who is from Japan. Second is, if all
(10:26):
of a sudden, people from your country or people who
visit your country just start freaking disappearing, that's not going
to be good for your tourism for anyone who wants
to come. And I understand. So the thing is Japan
and in terms of you know, how they make money,
there's a lot of products that it's not like. It's
(10:47):
not like it's Hawaii who relies on tourism as a
big part of how they make money. Now, I'm sure
tourism in Japan is a very lucrative, you know way
of them, you know, their income.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
However, if people just start disappearing and they get a
reputation for not investigating those disappearances, that's not going to
be good for y'all. And that's just not like a
good that's not cool, like have some basic human decency.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Right, Well, I'm gonna tell you right off the bat
so that everyone else can stay with us on this.
It does not stay that way. They got sation, They
they do what needs to be done. How long did
they decide? How long did it take before they're like, okay,
I don't know exactly how long. But the whole, the
whole thing in my head in the beginning is could
(11:38):
you imagine your child going missing in another country to
be met with that sort of a response, Right, I know.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
I can imagine my child going missing in this country
being met with that kind of respect.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Rh's it's it's horrific. And we hear it all the
time that you know, your thoughts are they ran away,
They're they're doing their own thing whatever.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
I mean, yeah, we need that there save we abstantly
in America right for our own and our own citizens.
So right, yeah, So.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
But it did not stay that way. I don't know
how gone, because I mean the other thing that I'll
get into is this family is like, oh, you're not
gonna investigate, watch me investigate. So that kind of stuff.
But we're gonna go back a little bit. So. Lucy
was just twenty one years old when she left Seven Oaks,
which is a town in Kent, England, in two thousand
(12:30):
to go to Tokyo. She was tall, blonde, bubbly. People
described her as the type of person who made everyone
feel special. Before heading to Tokyo for what should have
been this new adventure, she was a flight attendant for
British Airways, and although it's believed that she loved the
travel aspect, it's said that she was fed up and
(12:54):
over the large amount of like debt that she was
in from the life that she was living, and so
she was going to Tokyo to kind of like start
anew and just try something different. And so when she
went to Tokyo, she was on a ninety day visa
and she started a job as a hostess in Tokyo's
(13:20):
row Pongi district. Okay, Now, I want to pause here
because the word hostess can sound misleading, and the way
that it's explained in the Netflix documentary, which is called
Missing the Lucy Blackman Case, is how I want to
refer to it here. Because they had a journalist and
an author who wrote on hostesses in the area, there's
(13:45):
really no direct equivalent in the US. It wasn't sex work,
it's not stripping. Hostessing was more like being paid to
poor drinks, chat and keep clients company. And according to
the information that I found on these hostess clubs in Tokyo,
specifically in the Ropongi district. They have a no touching
(14:07):
policy and anyone who initiated any sort of sexual contact
or conversations or advances whatsoever at the hostesses were removed immediately. Yeah,
Lucy described her job to her sister one time, stating
that it was like a platonic companionship where they just
(14:28):
talked work or sports, and that it was like being
an air hostess with the without the altitude. So she
was making good money, she was enjoying what she was doing,
and she said that she was just pretending like she
was listening to these people.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Yeah, it's basically like it's I can see this too,
and her making specifically like decent money because she's you
said she was tall and land and I'm assuming she's white, yes,
And so for her to go to Japan and she's like,
(15:09):
that's probably something that like they don't like, she's gonna
stand out. So if there's someone who you know, wants
to have a conversation and experience with someone that doesn't
have you know, that has a different background that doesn't
it's not gonna have the same conversation as you.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
So she she probably was making decent money, and and
I do know that that is a more common thing.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
To have.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
It's basically like, yeah, it's like almost like a it's
like a platonic date.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
But yeah, yeah, well, and and I mean in this area,
I don't I don't have this in my scripts, but
in this area it's it's very touristy and there are
a lot of people like Lucy that are from like
a Western that were there. And so this was more
(16:03):
common in the hostess field, like right, But sometimes these
hostesses did what was called dohan and that was just
a little different than their typical hostess nights. But it
was when they would actually leave, they would go out
to dinner with their client and then bring them back
to the club. And that was what Lucy was doing
(16:27):
the night that she vanished. So question question were a
lot of the client's local client client towel or like
a mix. From what I understood, there was a mix,
(16:47):
but they do talk about that there was a lot
of locals that are there and regulars. So Lucy worked
at the Casa Blanca club in the Ropogi district and
it was very fast paced. It was a very high
pressure work environment too. She had a diary that she
kept that shows that at some point during her time there,
(17:10):
her self esteem had struggled because she felt that she
wasn't doing as well as the other women that she
worked with. On July one, two thousand, Lucy told her
roommate that she was going to meet a client for
a Dohan dinner. She promised that she would call her later.
They had plans to go out that evening. That call
(17:32):
never came, and she never came back. This roommate and
friend was named Louise Phillips. She was very concerned when
Lucy did not return, but she was even more concerned
when she received a phone call from a random man
saying that Lucy had joined a cult and would never
(17:56):
be seen again. What yeah, yeah, that's so creepy question. Ye,
Lucy was her roommate's name. Sorry, no, her name is Lucy.
Her friend's name is Louise. Louise was her roommate's name.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
Was Louise also a hostess?
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Yes? Okay, okay, so like she and I think that
she may have traveled there with her. I don't know
if they knew each other for a long time before,
but from my understanding, it seemed that these two kind
of did go together and that's okay, but like they
like they so she knew like what like like she
knew like what was regular, like what would have been
(18:43):
out of ordinary, and she knew like what Lucy's like
normal activities would have been, and like she's she okay,
good and she she and she a call from a
random stranger saying like that's obviously out of the ordinary,
right And and this cult they said that she was
(19:04):
doing this based on the fact that she wanted to
pay she had she was so far in debt supposedly
that she ended up running off to this religious cult
and was never going to return to like escape her debt. Yeah, okay, yeah, no, no,
none of it makes sense, but it does come back around.
(19:26):
So Louise ended up contacting Lucy's family, who, like I mentioned,
flew to Tokyo immediately, and she contacted the police as well.
This moment for any parent or family member is such
a whirlwind, because all you want to do is find
your loved one, but not for this family specifically. Not
(19:47):
only are you on this search and trying to find Lucy,
you're in unknown territory as well. There's this moment in
the Netflix documentary that gave me ch bills and infuriated
me at the same time. Her father, his name is Tim,
and we'll talk about him and other family as well.
(20:10):
But Tim was hanging posters in Tokyo when a police
officer went up to him and told him to stop,
that he wasn't allowed to do that, and this father,
he just was like, pretty much like what the heck?
But they show videos of this happening, but he just
held his hands out in front of him and said,
you can arrest me because I'm not taking them down.
(20:32):
So that to me, you know, I couldn't imagine going
there and being met with that sort of a response.
But he was not gonna just sit around and wait
for answers. He was in us posting or anything. Yeah, Yeah,
and he did. He pushed the police, and he spoke
(20:53):
with media, and he did all of these things that
I think made them realize that he wasn't going anywhere, yeah,
and that you can either join me in the search
for my daughter or we're gonna have a problem. Tokyo
police started looking into the case, but they struggled. The
(21:15):
nightlife district in this area was massive and foreign women
often got overlooked. It was time to start doing anything
and everything that they could and talking to everybody. They
ended up questioning someone early on that would frequent the clubs.
(21:36):
He had an alibi that checked out, so that one
was pretty much done as quickly as they thought he
could have been a suspect. Police and investigators are doing
their things, and they're doing, you know, stuff on their
own and asking questions to the officers stuff like that.
But Lucy's family is doing their own thing as well,
(22:00):
so they end up holding press conferences, they set up
a tip line, and they even offered a half million
yen reward, which I should have looked up to see
how much exactly that is here because I don't know
that answer. But with all of those things still nothing.
One thing that I want to add here for dynamic
(22:22):
purposes and understanding is the documentary features Lucy's father, Tim
a Lot. Her mother's name is Jane Steer, and Jane
and Tim at the time of Lucy's disappearance, they were
not together. They had gotten a divorce a couple years
before this. And so even though you know, the investigation
(22:45):
had Lucy in the forefront and it was clear that
she was in the center of their minds and everything
you could still tell. And they do talk about how
contentious it was for them and how much of a
struggle it was for them to to be there with
kind of differing opinions or views on things. So this
(23:06):
isn't about them. And I don't want to go into
all of the stuff because there is a lot. But
the other thing I do want to add is that
Lucy she had two siblings, so and they were both
Jane and Tim's children as well, and this was hard
on all of them. It was hard on the children,
it was hard on the parents. So this case goes
(23:28):
beyond what happened, as most do. But the toll that
it took on this family searching for their loved ones
and loved one, but the toll it takes on families
searching for their loved one and going through the hardest
time of their lives is such a hard thing to
think about. And my heart just goes out to you know,
(23:48):
her siblings and her parents. As I mentioned at the beginning,
there was a little pushback from longment there, but throughout
the time there was said to be more than one
hundred and fifty detectives that started working on Lucy's case
(24:10):
as they got deeper into this investigation, and the reason
is because the more that the more time that passed,
women started coming forward. Other hostesses in the Ropongi district
who have had negative experiences on the job came forward.
(24:32):
So they really needed like all hands on deck, nass point.
Oh man. These women would explain that they would go
to dinner with a man, have a drink, and then nothing,
hours missing from their memory. Oh my god, axt day
they would wake up soar, disoriented and sometimes burning with pain.
(24:57):
Would this be the same and they would be describing
the same man?
Speaker 5 (25:02):
Huh?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
And so you know, it seemed at this point with
these women coming forward, there was something extremely sinister going on,
more so than what they originally had brushed off as
maybe a runaway. And the next thought was that whoever
took Lucy had likely done this before. As women came forward,
(25:24):
one woman in particular named Monica remembered being taken to
a seaside resort that had palm trees, and the detectives
immediately knew of a place that was a resort that
had palm trees right outside of Tokyo, and it was
called Zushi Marina, a luxury resort right outside of Tokyo.
(25:48):
They ended up asking Monica to go with them to
see if there was anything that she could remember. They
took her back there and when she saw it, she
knew this was the place. Ye I'm so sorry. I
know to do something like that, right, And I don't know,
(26:10):
I don't know the time frame of because these people
start to come out when they're they're hearing of other
women who went through similar stories. So people are coming
out and it's over years, right, years and almost decades
because I will or a decade that I will, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:29):
Bey, But like they're starting to compile these reports.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
And that's why it's just because you said this.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Was two thousand, this was an issue, yes, So it's
just like you're starting to like imagine if I mean
we're starting, you know, they were starting.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
To get into the digital age. But imagine if like,
you know.
Speaker 3 (26:49):
You could have keyword searched like the same things that
these these women had maybe hopefully been reporting. But it's
just like imagine, you know, how how much easier it
could have been. But at the same time, like a
shout out to all these women for coming forward because
that in and of itself is just a very brave.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
Thing to do.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
Be Monica like for being like, yeah, I will go
back to the scene of an incredibly traumatic experience for
me in order to make sure that this doesn't happen,
you know, to anyone else, and hopefully to also bring
justice because at this point there's probably you know, we
(27:29):
know that there are other women who who have experienced
something similar, and there's potentially women who haven't come forward
and or cannot because like you know, people like Lucy so,
oh my god, that's heartbreaking.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
It is heartbreaking, it is. And I know earlier before
you set all of that, I was talking about I
don't know the timeframe. It doesn't matter the time frame, right,
could be ten years, twenty years, thirty years, and that's
still going to be as it's traumatic, right. Pretty much,
the only thing that was able to be confirmed was
(28:11):
that it was at that resort. She couldn't give any
other information. I mean, that was information enough, but she
didn't know the exact room number, she didn't know exactly
what building. She just was the resort. Correct. Monica and
the detective end up going to get food and while
(28:33):
they were there, the detective had a picture of Lucy
and held it up to the waitress asking if they
had ever seen this girl, and the waitress said yes,
and somehow was able to confirm And I'm not too
clear exactly the time frame on when they were there.
You haven't been able to figure out exactly the timeframe
(28:55):
of when they went there, but this waitress was able
to confirm that Lucy was there at that restaurant on
July first with a man. Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
Yeah, shout out to these servers who are just able
to be like, oh, yeah, that person was here, like
during my shift, Like that's awest and who.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Knows, maybe maybe this server sees this person all the time,
come in there with him with whoever. It seems like,
you know, he's from that area or knows something.
Speaker 3 (29:29):
So it's like, oh, yeah, that's my regular and he
brought this girl in on this date.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
But like, that's so crazy. Always be aware, always pay attention,
and even if he's not maybe that was the first time,
but you just felt something was off, you know, and
so you remembered her face rust did the gut, Yeah, exactly.
So with this information of a man who could be
drugging and taking advantage of women, the knowledge of Lucy
(29:55):
being missing, and everything else they've done on their investigation.
They had asked people that Lucy worked with at the
clubs to do sketches of people that they saw Lucy
with in the recent days before her disappearance, and the
investigators obtain a residency list of the Zushi Maranera resort
(30:19):
Marinera Marina. Sorry, everybody, you know, when I was when
I was writing this in my head, I said Marinera
so many times that I was like, I'm not going
to make that mistake. Zushi Marina resort, and they, you know,
they start to weed people off of that list. So
(30:40):
in time, with all of the information that they've gathered
and that they've came across, a forty eight year old
Japanese man who spoke very well English, seemed to have
a lot of money, frequented the hostess clubs, and had
a resort at the Zushi Marina was found and his
(31:03):
name was Joji Obara. Obarra was wealthy, but he was
described as a loaner by others that lived at his residencies.
And I said residencies plural, because Obara had inherited money
from his father and owned multiple properties. While they were
(31:26):
looking into him and trying to find more information on him,
they found that he had a past arrest for dressing
as a woman to sneak into the women's restroom and
record them. So because of this arrest, they had a
mug shot and they asked you know this agency to
(31:48):
send them the mug shot. They printed it out, they
added it to a lineup of numerous other photos, and
they asked the women who came forward to point out
who they believe was their assaulter, pointing directly without hesitation,
to Joji Obara's photo, which is an amazing thing to
(32:09):
be able to do, especially after having been traumatized and
in the same like and having been drugged like during
it as well. That's just I mean, oh my gosh.
Investigators came up with a plan and they went to
his Zushi Marina resort home and arrested him. When police
(32:35):
searched his homes, all of them, Heather, they made one
of the most horrifying discoveries that makes me sick to
my stomach. He had over four hundred videotapes in his
possession of unconscious women being assaulted by him. What a
(33:00):
fucking disgusting, psychopathic piece of shit inhuman Yeah, pile of shit.
Oh my god, he's been doing this for years. Out.
(33:21):
I don't have any more words, No, I know, but
that's why I was quiet, letting you get all of
that out, because it's important to hear how awful he is.
So my god, and not a single one of them
showed Lucy No. But I mean, at this point the
pattern was undeniable, right, and so even though they didn't
(33:46):
have Lucy who who was the start of this investigation? Hey,
they had enough to you know, arrest it, I mean
their stuff and get this, which it's it's not surprising
to me because he's a complete, disgusting and vile human being.
But Obara claims that everything was consensual and he said
the well agreed and they were paid for it.
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Yeah, while talking unconscious and drug do you absolute fucking
get trash?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah? So, I mean, if it's so sorry for you guys,
if you're drugged you can't give consent? So weird? How
many times does that need to be? Like, like people
need to I don't understand why how is that still?
Speaker 3 (34:30):
How do we still need to talk about this? Why
is this still something that needs to be.
Speaker 2 (34:36):
Okay, it doesn't get any better from here, so bear
with me. I'm gonna move the mic a little further
away because I know, we get I feel like everyone's
getting riled up, and they're probably screaming right along.
Speaker 3 (34:50):
Get angry specifically though, and we get rude comments because
they talk about me yelling a lot.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
So I'm just gonna move my micael all if they're
not yelling right now now we have a whole different situation.
Like I mentioned, none of these videos showed Lucy, but
they still have to look into every single one of
them because no matter what, they had a serious problem
on their hands. And you know, it's people's job, probably many,
(35:22):
multiple of these one hundred and fifty detectives to watch
every single one of these videos. In one of the videos,
they see a girl who her hands start to shake
during his attack. She's unconscious, but her hands start noticeably shaking.
(35:43):
This is actually a side effect or a response to
chloroform toxicity. And the name exactly of what happened is
called and I know I'm gonna butcher this, so bear
with me, but it's called fulminent hepatitis, which leads to
hepatic insephilopaphy, and I listen to them say this over
(36:06):
and over in the documentary to try to get in
in my head, and it's really hard. But ultimately what
it's described as is flapping tremors. So this woman they're
able to eventually identify her name was Karita, and she
had actually passed away. I do want to take a
moment to talk about Karita right here before we continue
(36:29):
with Lucy's story. So Karita and her sister Sam, they
love to travel, and they decided they wanted to travel
to Tokyo, Japan, and Sam, her sister, had gotten a
job as an English teacher, and Karita she was there
(36:49):
and she wasn't able to find a job right away,
so she ended up working temporarily as a hostess. One night,
after a date with a client, she returned to her
apartment feeling violently ill. She ended up being taken to
the hospital with the thought that maybe she had food
(37:09):
poisoning or something going on. Medical staff continued to try
to help her and see really what was going on,
but she had ultimately started having organ failure. After a
week of her being in the hospital, she was taken
off of life support. Oh my god, this happy, healthy,
(37:34):
adventurous twenty one year old girl, and all of a sudden,
this happens, right, and they never end up doing an
autopsy or anything because they just believed that it was
either this food poisoning or something just natural flaws kind
of something right, because they didn't have any other like
(37:54):
she reason had underlying thing, just some random thing that
happened her, like, nothing criminal that would have required an autopsy. Yeah.
So then fast forward, after all of this comes out
about Joji o'bara and him having Karita on his films,
they had actually saved a part of her organ and
(38:16):
they had tested and shining for a form on the sample,
so they were able to arrest him for abduction and
ultimately manslaughter. Good Karita. Good. We'll talk more about her
a little bit later, but back to finding Lucy right now.
(38:39):
So Joji Obara was one of the criminal fools that
kept keepsakes and memorabilia and receipts of everything, which ultimately
ends up being helpful in cases when you can make
connections and then create, you know, a timeline based off
(38:59):
of the ruth, the receipts, and the things that are found.
And at this time, Obara has said that, you know,
he knew who Lucy was, but of course he had
nothing to do with her disappearance. Coure. But they're able
to put a timeline together. And if you guys do
go and watch this documentary or if you go into
(39:20):
our sources, there's certain articles that have pictures laid out
of the tables and tables of items that they have
of little notepads and receipts and just things that he
had in his numerous houses. So they put this timeline
together and they were able to see that. On July first,
(39:41):
Obara met Lucy around three pm and they headed to
Zushi Marina. On the way to Zushi, they stopped in
eight at a restaurant in Hiyama. At five pm, they
go to Obara's apartment, and this is when Lucy is
no longer able to be tracked and ultimately is never
(40:04):
seen alive again. On the third, Obara goes back to Tokyo.
On the fourth, he goes on a shopping spree. On
the fifth, he goes to another apartment building that he
owns at the Blue Sea. Aarbarasubo July sixth, a resident
(40:26):
at that apartment at the Blue Sea Aberasubo filed a
complaint about noise coming from Obarro's residency there, and going
back to the receipts during that shopping spree on the fourth,
they can see that he bought a chainsaw, cement and
(40:46):
a portable tent.
Speaker 6 (40:47):
Oh my god, this guy is absolutely just.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
The worst of the worst. And I didn't say this earlier,
but the more that we talk about him being trash,
I just want to like double down on it. In
this moment, Karita, she had that happen in nineteen ninety two.
Oh my god, that was eight years before Lucy went missing. Okay,
(41:26):
so it's that many years. And I mean we already
said four hundred, over four hundred videos of women, and
so you know that this is something that was just
continually happening, I'm sure over a decade. So they have
(41:46):
all of this, they have this, you know, circumstantial evidence,
and they're able to create a scenario scenario of what
they believed happen, but they don't have anything concrete at
this point. And so with this circumstantial evidence and nobody
it's hard to try to convict somebody of a crime.
(42:09):
Get a warrant, get to that apartment, building. There's still
gotta be some kind of a forensic evidence. Well, they
have been searching these homes because he was arrested already,
So he's already he's already arrested by the time that
they find these things. No, I mean get a warrant
for that apartment building where someone heard the noise. Oh,
(42:31):
they're in there. They're in there for sure. So they
don't find anything in the home other than all those
items that they've confiscated. Okay, like I mentioned, like all
of those items, Well, go back and run some more tests.
There's no way that this asshole.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
He's stupid enough to keep his receipts, he's stupid enough
to fuck something up.
Speaker 2 (42:51):
Yeah, I'm not done here. Okay, So I'm just mad.
I know, I you can be mad. I'm mad. It's ridiculous.
And so they do that. They search and they search
and they search in that area, that specific location, the
Blue Sea ARBORISTUBO is right off of the coast, and
(43:15):
so they have ground teams, they have dive teams. And
on February ninth, two thousand and one, two hundred and
twenty three, days after Lucy had initially went missing, Oh
my god, they were out searching again in another area
off the coast, and one of the investigator his name
(43:35):
is no Zoe. No Zoe, he went into this small cave.
So there was like a few little areas off the
side of the coasts that look like little mini caves,
and he said that this case was kind of riddled
with trash, as if every time that the water would
come up, it would leave something on the grounds. And
(43:56):
when he went into this cave, he said it was
weird because he saw a aft tub that was actually upside down.
So when this officer Nozoe flipped it over, he said
that he immediately saw a large amount of bugs crawling
around and he could tell that they were carnivorous bugs, so,
(44:18):
oh my god. He started digging until his shovel made
contact with what seemed at the time like a burlap sack,
and that when he opened it he saw a human foot.
After they were able to dig around the entire area
and take the entire it was not a burlap sack.
(44:43):
I don't know if it was the tent yeah that
he had bought mixed with the cement, but her body
was ultimately dismembered into eight pieces and encased in concrete,
buried in this cave. So her body was recovered and
(45:06):
her family was notified. I'm going to read a quote
from her mother, Jane Steer quote, I love Lucy so
much for the wonderful and beautiful person she was. When
Lucy's killer is convicted, justice demands that he spends the
rest of his natural life in prison contemplating the enormity
(45:27):
of his crimes. End quote. Now they have Lucy, and again,
like I mentioned, they have some circumstantial stuff that shows
what happened mm hmm, but ultimately nothing that directly they
say directly links to him. So Obara was charged with abduction,
(45:50):
rape resulting in death, and dismembering of Lucy's body. Plus
in the same trial, he was charged with rape leading
to deaf in Karita Ridgeway's death. During this trial, Joji
o'barro was found guilty on his charges against Karita Ridgeway
and was sentenced to life in prison, and shockingly, he
(46:14):
was found not guilty on Lucy's charges. I don't reason,
gohd no, just go ahead, okay, I mean okay, sorry,
I said go ahead. I understand that it's circumstantial because
they can't directly say like his fingerprints were found on
(46:38):
the concrete or on the whatever, but like they have
the receipts to the.
Speaker 3 (46:47):
Material that was used that they could potentially, I'm guessing,
be able to identify as the same material that was
later found with Lucy.
Speaker 2 (46:55):
So that should be enough.
Speaker 3 (46:56):
They have a witnessing that they heard, you know, the
commotion at his where he was, and then they are
able to find her remains in the vicinity of that area.
So and they have the pattern of his fucking behavior.
And I don't know if they're able to do any
(47:17):
kind of toxic coology. I mean, I understand that she
was dismembered, but I mean I don't know if there's
any kind of toxicology that they're able to do on
her where they can say, yes, there was some you
know in her remains, they were able to find some
kind of the chloroform or whatever, But like, I mean.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
What the fuck? Yeah? No, and and what they what
what I found that they based off like basis off
of was they said, lack of direct evidence and saying
that they didn't have enough forensic evidence, like you're saying, right,
but just because they don't have that we've we've seen
that you don't need that and you have every other
thing it's in. It's infuriating, so real quick. I want
(47:58):
to explain the time a little bit too, because this
was years after the fact. This family had to wait
years missing in two thousand and then later that year
he was arrested in connection as you know, a possible
suspect find all of those videos and all of that
linking him to Karita Ridgeway. And so when he was
(48:21):
charged with hers, that was in two thousand and seven.
It was two thousand and seven. Are you fucking kidding me?
That they had to deal with the fact that, you know,
deep down they knew, everyone knew, so to wait for
that to then be slapped in the face with you know,
(48:44):
and they her father makes a statement saying that justice
was served that day for Karita and that they're not
giving up because they will not be done, you know.
And Obarro was back in court the following year because
the family did not give up, and in December of
(49:05):
two thousand and eight, thankfully, he was found guilty and
charged on all counts of abduction, dismemberment, and the disposal
of Lucy Blackman's body and he was given an irreversible
life sentence. How did they do How did did they
find more evidence?
Speaker 3 (49:24):
How did they I mean I'm not familiar obviously with
Japanese court system, but like, do they not have double jeopardy?
Speaker 2 (49:32):
Did they have a change in forensic evidence? Like how
did that happen? I don't know, okay it because it
could be totally different in Japan, Like you know, here
you can't be charged with the same crime unless there's
you know, like or maybe like there was some kind
of appeal or there was a different court system or something.
But thank god, Yeah, I should have done better at
(49:54):
looking at that time. No, it might be totally I
want to know those answers too, and it might be different.
But I mean, we're talking about this, I should have
that information. But it's like I hear not guilty in
one second and guilty in the next, you know, like
that that I don't understand how you even said not
guilty when you had all of that stuff. Because the
other thing is like they had the evidence that his
(50:15):
phone his phone number was linked to that call that
was made to Louise saying, oh my god, I forgot
about it. They had all they had that information, they
had his writing on something like with her, So there
was so many things I had totally forgot about the
call Rachel. Obviously he should have been guilty from the beginning.
(50:37):
I mean, how are you not guilty based on the
fact that you found her cemented? It's so ready he's
remembered in Semounting and he had a chance on Cement
like it. It made no sense. And it just shows
you know, why this family and I'm sure not only
the family, I'm so I'm sure so many investigators who
so deep into this for so many years. Exactly I know,
(51:03):
we're not found fucking who found her under a bathtub
in a cave. He's gone to visit her family in
England and it made me cry like a baby. So
I'm crying. No. Yeah, to this day, some of Lucy's
family still visits the cave where her body was found,
(51:24):
and they've turned it into a memorial, a tribute to
her life. How do people like that exist in the world?
I do not know. And for him an deck and
that escalation and well, and that's the thing is, that's
the thing.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Is this guy you know that probably and that the
minute that he had that arrest for.
Speaker 2 (51:52):
Going and videotaping women in a bathroom.
Speaker 3 (51:55):
He should have been on a list of men to
be watched, like and I know, like you know, World Ride,
it's not like we have the resources, but like you
knew from that point on, I'm sorry he could be
a danger dangerous individual because that is the type of
behavior that escalates period point blank. Like statistically speaking, that
(52:21):
man is going to be dangerous to women for the
rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah, for sure. I want to talk about something else
really quickly too. So because after all of this, a
trust was started by Tim Blackman, and there's a lot
of other conversation. Like I said, I don't really want
to talk about the other stuff that goes along with
(52:48):
the family and contentiousness and stuff like that. But ultimately
that trust ended up like disbanding in twenty twenty and
the money was put into the LBT Global Charity, which
is a foundation that helps British victims of serious crimes overseas.
(53:09):
So that's such a beautiful thing to that that kind
of stuff happens. It helps families, this charity, it helps
families in their times of need during missing persons cases
as well as murders or manslaughter cases, and it provides assistance, fundraising, support,
(53:30):
and so much more to these families who may not
know what to do because oh yeah, you're not just
knowledgeable in how to find your missing loved one or something.
Jazz right, So that link will be in the show
notes and put on our social media for you guys
to check out as well. But that is the story
of Lucy Blackman and cared A Ridgeway as well, and
(53:55):
so many others that are you know, not named in
this but for hundred videos, I want to say that
there was eight women who either I don't know if
they directly went after him as well or if they
were able to get you know, their names and charge
him somewhat with responsibility for them too. But it's just
(54:19):
horrific that these kind of things happen, that you can
cross paths with such a predator and a family who
was not going to give up, who was going to
fight tooth and nail four answers, even when first of
all they have pushed back in the beginning, and then
second of all, there's a you know, not guilty verdict
(54:40):
and they're like, no, that's not happening.
Speaker 3 (54:42):
So and it's like, just imagine and I'm sure like eventually,
I mean, who knows, eventually, maybe the police would have
you know, gotten to it or you know something. But
imagine if the family hadn't have come, hadn't have pushed,
hadn't have you know, fought for their child, Imagine how
many more victim there could have been, you.
Speaker 2 (55:02):
Know, in that time. And it's just like.
Speaker 4 (55:07):
I just.
Speaker 2 (55:09):
Like, I mean, you say, this is a fucking predator.
It's a fucking and the worst of the worst. Oh
my god, it's not I mean, it's never it's horrible
when we talk about someone who does this to one person,
I know, and sad. The sad thing is is is
(55:31):
I mean he's been you know, convicted of the death
of two, being responsible for the death of two, and
you know there's you know, like you said, there may
have been eight other women who you know, put their
names down and you know, made him responsible as well.
But there could be more deaths related to him over
(55:52):
the years that.
Speaker 3 (55:55):
May not may go unnamed and just may never know.
And that is just so sad and scary.
Speaker 4 (56:03):
And I mean, oh my gosh, that is absolutely horrifying
and terrifying and just so important to like unders like
such an important.
Speaker 2 (56:19):
Thank god that she had Louise was the roommate's name, right, yes, yeah,
thank god she had Louise. Thank god she had a
family behind her.
Speaker 3 (56:30):
And thank god that eventually when the the you know,
investigators did you know start working on it, that they
were like okay, like because I mean, that seems like
a very long drawn out investigation that resulted in a
lot of dead ends and they had to keep trying
to find ways to you know, enlive in that case.
And thank god for all those women who decided to
(56:54):
step up and be in a very vulnerable place and
tell their when I mean a lot of them, it's
not like they probably could very much tell a lot.
I woke up and something just very did not sit
right with me, and I don't have a lot of
details to share with you, but I need to tell
you that something's not okay.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
And you know, a lot of them are in a.
Speaker 3 (57:19):
Very vulnerable ways because how many times has a woman
walked in and told somebody that and they just brushed
her off? And how many women probably walked in and
told them that and was brushed off. So thankfully somebody
finally listened to these women. But thankfully those women were
strong and brave enough to fucking come forward with their story.
Speaker 2 (57:37):
See, but you also have to listen to women when
they tell you this because this should have been handled this,
I mean, and a lot of them could point him out.
So if you would have handled this the first time.
And I don't know one hundred percent whether they went
or not, but that is the thing. It's too often
we see that something was said and then they either
(57:58):
what got a slap on the and released immediately or
the women were turned around, turned away, started completely. Well,
and you said that it was like nineteen ninety two, right,
was that for Karita? For Karita was the death? So
imagine how many women probably came in around that time
or even before, because we know what it was like.
What it's fucking still like for.
Speaker 3 (58:21):
Women, especially who you know and not and it should
not be this way, but like, oh well they're in that.
Speaker 2 (58:27):
Line of business, so whatever. And I think that's why
in the beginning I wanted to stress exactly how this
was explained as well, and just because something is explained
a certain way doesn't mean that that's exactly thing. And
you know that there's people in all fields.
Speaker 3 (58:43):
They're all gonna stay out whatever, and who I mean,
even if she was let's say, like luc was a stripper,
was a sexa and do you think that this means
that she's allowed to be murdered sexually assaulted. And so
that's the crazy thing is that there was probably so
many women who probably came forward and tried to tell
their story about this motherfucker beforehand, and they probably were
(59:05):
turned away. And that's also just fucking heartbreaking because then
how many fucking victims, hundreds hundreds of fucking victims came
in between that time probably died definitely, I mean definitely died,
but like also not just the two that we have
the names for, And that's.
Speaker 2 (59:25):
Just so fucking tragic to think about. I wish that
all of the all of the survivors and then all
of the families.
Speaker 7 (59:36):
Just I.
Speaker 2 (59:37):
Wish them peace and just a lot of healing because
to have to have been involved and have to have
crossed paths with a monster, yeah, a literal monster, like
(01:00:00):
a completely inhuman thing like that, I just that's absolutely
horrific and just a lot of you know, and I
just hope that guy rots right, and I hope he
gets I hope he's tortured somehow, I get I don't.
(01:00:23):
I hope he is literally tortured every single day for
what he's inflicted on the people that he's crossed path with,
because he deserves hell. He deserves hell, and trying to
think in my head. Her sister said something at one
point about you know, as soon as and the way
(01:00:46):
that she said it was beautiful. I wish I would
have wrote this down, but you know, because she says, like,
if it was him, because at this point there's still
you know, in the unknown but probably knowing. But she's like,
if it was him, I hope he never gets to
see sunlight and ends uptaking his last breath, something along
those lines, like immediately type thing. I don't know, but
(01:01:09):
I do. I highly recommend you watching this documentary. It's
I don't like documentaries very much. I didn't plan on
watching that. When I sat down, I think I was
gonna watch Workaholics. I should have no, but this was important.
(01:01:32):
There's so much more on a few other aspects that
I didn't really touch on, but it's horrible and he's
locked up and you know, good Reddence. I think there
was a point you were you were talking about and
I don't know if I brushed over it, or you know,
(01:01:53):
we lost connections somehow or something. But you were talking
about her roommate and her knowing her routine and knowing
what she did and how important that was. And you know,
whenever I start to write a script, this is just
(01:02:14):
like a side note for everyone listening right now. Whenever
I start to write a script, I think about what
can I do in an educational way to try to
help people in the future, right, Like if you're traveling,
how can you travel more safely? Or if you do
this or that, And it's like, she did everything right.
(01:02:36):
She did everything right. She told her her roommate where
she was going. There's so much that you know. And
in no means am I This isn't a victim blame
type thing or whatever, but it's just the fact that
it's like, when you look back, it's like, no, she
did all of that, but there are freaking monsters among us,
and it's disgusting, and you you the only thing that
(01:02:59):
I go back to is the fact that if this
would have been put to an end when it started
before it could have escalated, that's the only way to
make the change that needs to be made so yeah,
I don't know, it's just sucks. Yeah, freakin sucks, Like
I said, that guy should have been And that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (01:03:20):
It's like, we know, like what's that movie Minority Report
or something with palm cruise where you can see the
person gmitting the crime before it happens and then they.
Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
Arrest the gump.
Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
So it says like I understand that that's not like,
that's not realistic, Like we can't actually start doing it,
but as soon as somewhat like but like, just statistically speaking,
if an individual is ever arrested caught doing a crime
like that, odds are.
Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
This individual is likely going to do that.
Speaker 3 (01:03:53):
The recidivism right for this type of crime and the
likelihood that it will escalate into more serious violent.
Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
Crimes is is incredibly like that is look at the
look at the And I always go back to to
something that one of my forensic psych professor said, the
the the highest predictor of past or of future behavior
is past behavior.
Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
And I'm not saying people can't change. I'm not saying
that certain therapies don't work. I'm not saying that people
can't work on themselves. But there are certain people that
are just wired like this guy is a fucking monster, clearly,
and he doesn't deserve, like the sister said, he does
(01:04:42):
not deserve to ever see sunshine again. So and he
he from day one exactly like you said. He never
should have been given the chance.
Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
So it is. It is just hard I and my
heart just is really with all of the brave women
and who had to go not only you know, went
through what they went through, but especially living with that
(01:05:12):
every day and knowing they crossed paths with someone who
was just that horrific. It's just yeah, you know that,
just in and of itself, it is just very scary.
So yes, it is. Oh my gosh, Rachel wows a,
wowsa a wowsa. All Right, next week, I promise it
won't be this heavy. Look Heather last the week before
(01:05:35):
the week prior, She's like, look, I'm gonna bring this
fun one because Rachel just likes to hit us in
our feelings. Twenty four to seven, we are going like
in terms of like the heavy hitting this, we just
went like from a literal one to like a ten.
We're taking y'all on a roller coaster here. I'll you know,
(01:05:55):
we never know what we're doing. This is the thing,
you guys, We do not plan these out.
Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
We do not, And you know the truth is, we
don't even like really plan them from our for ourselves
because there are literally hours before we might change our
minds on which story we want to like for ourselves personally,
we might change our mind on which story we want
to do, and we definitely don't tell each other which
(01:06:20):
ones do, which is so crazy because we've been doing
this now for three years. We're up, we're pushing like
three hundred something episodes and we have yet to like
do one that we were are like. It's absolutely bonkers,
and but we're taking you on a roller coaster, so
just buckle up because who knows what's coming next week.
(01:06:41):
But thank you guys for coming along. This is just
how dynamic we are as a pair.
Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
True.
Speaker 3 (01:06:46):
This is what you get when you come to like
Mother like Murder. You get all the highs and the lows,
very true, along with the tears and the cussing, yeah,
and the.
Speaker 2 (01:06:56):
All of it. And this one, well, I and not
get very sad and I rate simultaneously for real, And
I need to take a video of you just shaking
your fist at the screen. Yeah, all right, that is
going to be the place we use on Instagram this weekend.
(01:07:20):
We will talk to you guys next week. You guys,
I don't even like I always feel like I have
something that I want to say at the end of
these But the only thing that I want to say
is beware of monsters and always speak up. And if
someone's not listening to you when you're speaking up, find
someone who will. Yeah, we will. And be a good roommate, yeah,
(01:07:43):
be a good roommate for sure, a good friend and roommate,
a good family member, be a good person. We need
good people.
Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
That's that's an easy one. That's not hard, I hope. So,
I mean it's easier for some people. That's good, you know. Yeah,
all right. I mean sometime you don't even have to
be just be decent, like I mean, we're not.
Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
We don't need you to go above and beyond. Just
don't be a shithead. Just don't be a bad please,
Just don't be bad. Progress not perfection. Let's just go
with that and move on.
Speaker 7 (01:08:19):
Okay, move on, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:08:21):
We'll talk to you guys next week.
Speaker 7 (01:08:22):
Hey, love you bye, he love you bye.
Speaker 5 (01:08:47):
Looking for your next true crime podcast and consider checking
out my show, Truly Twisted wherever you get your podcasts. Hi,
my name is Alicia Watson and each Thursday, I will
be bringing you a twisted story that is always victim
focused and fact based. My goal is simple, bringing a
voice to the voiceless, So be sure to follow me
(01:09:09):
on Instagram and TikTok at It's Truly Twisted and for
more on my show and other amazing creators, visit fireeyesmedia
dot com. And in the meantime, remember you are wanted,
you are loved, and you deserve to be here and
I'll see you there.
Speaker 1 (01:09:31):
Fireeyes Media
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.