Disappearance
Lucie Blackman, a 21-year-old former British Airways flight attendant from England, was working as a hostess in Tokyo when she disappeared on July 1, 2000. She had told a friend she was going out with a man. Her disappearance prompted a lengthy search in Japan and sustained attention from her family and British authorities.
Investigators eventually focused on businessman Joji Obara. The inquiry expanded beyond Blackman's disappearance and uncovered evidence relating to multiple women who had been drugged and sexually assaulted. Obara denied responsibility for Blackman's death.
Discovery of her remains
In February 2001, Blackman's remains were found in a seaside cave near a condominium associated with Obara in Miura, south of Tokyo. The condition of the remains meant that investigators could not establish a cause of death with the certainty needed for a straightforward homicide prosecution.
The 2007 trial
At the Tokyo District Court in April 2007, Obara was acquitted of the charges tied directly to Blackman's death. The court found that prosecutors had not proved that he caused her death or sexually assaulted her. In the same proceeding, however, he received a life sentence for a series of sexual assaults against other women and for the drug-related death of Australian Carita Ridgway.
That distinction matters editorially. Blackman's death is often summarized in popular accounts as a murder by Obara, but the first-instance court did not convict him of killing her.
High Court reversal in part
Prosecutors appealed the Blackman-related acquittals. On December 16, 2008, the Tokyo High Court partially reversed the lower-court outcome. It found Obara guilty of abducting Blackman and of mutilating and abandoning her body. The High Court still said there was insufficient proof that he had killed or raped her.
The life sentence already imposed for the wider series of crimes remained in place. Reporting from Japan described the High Court ruling as adding Blackman-related convictions without establishing criminal responsibility for her death itself.
Final appeal
Obara appealed. In December 2010, Japan's Supreme Court rejected his final appeal, leaving the life sentence and the High Court's Blackman-related findings in place. Contemporary reporting on the final appeal also emphasized that the sentence covered crimes against multiple women, including the fatal drugging of Carita Ridgway.
Timeline
July 1, 2000: Lucie Blackman disappears after leaving for an outing while working in Tokyo.
February 2001: her remains are recovered in a seaside cave near Miura.
April 24, 2007: Tokyo District Court acquits Obara of the Blackman-related charges but sentences him to life for other sexual crimes and the death of Carita Ridgway.
December 16, 2008: Tokyo High Court convicts Obara of abducting Blackman and mutilating and abandoning her body, while not finding proof that he caused her death.
December 2010: Japan's Supreme Court rejects Obara's final appeal.
Current status
The Blackman case is classified here as partly adjudicated. Courts established Obara's responsibility for abducting Blackman and for crimes involving her remains, while they did not establish beyond the required legal standard that he caused her death or raped her. He remains under a life sentence arising from the broader prosecution.