The latest true crime documentary from Netflix has viewers wanting to know where Joji Obara is now after he murdered Lucie Blackman.
On July 1 2000, British 21-year-old Lucie Blackman went missing in Tokyo, leading to a highly publicised international investigation. At the time of her death, she was working at a nightclub in the Japanese city called Casablanca as a hostess, where part of the job required going on paid dates with customers. Following the police investigation and an appeal trial, Joji Obara was found guilty of her murder, and viewers of the new Netflix documentary Missing: The Case of Lucie Blackman want to know where he is now.
The release is the latest in a string of popular true crime documentaries that have viewers wondering what happened to the culprit, including The Interrogation, which recently landed on Netflix and has many asking where Tony Martin is now. Meanwhile, the BBC's newest true crime drama The Sixth Commandment has viewers wondering where Ben Field is now, as well as his accused accomplice Martyn Smith.
Where is Joji Obara now?
The exact whereabouts of Joji Obara is currently unknown, but he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007. He was charged with Blackman's murder in 2000 but was acquitted due to lack of evidence, before an appeal trial later found him guilty in 2008.
Obara is a serial rapist and murderer, and evidence in his trial included approximately 400 videos he shot himself, which showed him engaged in date rape. He was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1952 and came from a wealthy family, and he invested in real estate which led to him reportedly owning assets worth an estimated $38 million. However, the 1990s recession caused him to lose his fortune.
Obara's trial began on July 4, 2001, and in April 2007 he was found guilty of multiple rape charges and manslaughter. He was acquitted of Lucie's rape and murder due to lack of evidence, however he was found guilty of the manslaughter of Australian model, Carita Ridgway, who he killed in 1992 by drugging her with chloroform.
Following criticism around Lucie Blackman's case due to forensic evidence not being heard in the first trial, an appeal trial was held in March 2008 at the Tokyo High Court. In December of that same year, the court found Obara guilty of the abduction, dismemberment, and disposal of Lucie Blackman's body.
The Supreme Court of Japan rejected an appeal from Joji Obara in December 2010 and sustained his life sentence.
What did Joji Obara do?
Joji Obara was a serial rapist with an estimated 400 victims. His victims included British national Lucie Blackman and Australian model Carita Ridgway, both of whom he murdered.
Lucie had previously worked as a flight attendant for British Airways, before deciding to spend a year in Tokyo with a friend. She worked as a hostess at a nightclub called Casablanca and on July 1 2000 she went on a paid date with a customer.
After failing to return her friend's calls following the date, Lucie's family flew to Tokyo to start a highly publicised campaign to find her.
In February 2001, Lucie's body was found in a seaside cave in Miura, Kanagawa, about 50km outside of Tokyo and a few hundred meters from one of Joji Obara's properties.
Obara has maintained his innocence, claiming the drugs Lucie had consumed were voluntarily self-administered.
How was Joji Obara caught?
As a result of the publicity surrounding the Lucie Blackman case, three women came forward to describe waking up sore and sick in Joji Obara's bed, with no memory of the night before. Several of them had reported him to local police, but were ignored.
In addition, the police began to make connections between cases involving a man calling himself Nishita and Joji Obara, who was using the name as an alias.
He was charged in October 2000 with the crimes against Lucie and Carita Ridgeway, as well as with raping eight other women.
If you're looking for the details behind more true crime documentaries, we've explained what happened to Deborah Wood from Channel 4's In The Footsteps of Killers, and revealed how the Steeltown Murders culprit was caught following a BBC documentary revisiting the crimes. Elsewhere on Netflix, many have questions following popular documentary The Deepest Breath, and viewers want to know where Alessia Zecchini is now.
