Netflix’s “Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case” is a documentary that, in practically every sense, lives up to its title. It can only be characterised as perplexing, compelling, and haunting in equal measure. This is due to the fact that it uses both exclusive interviews with those involved in Lucie’s hunt as well as archived material to really shed light on how her attacker was actually brought to justice. Therefore, we have the information you need if you just want to discover more about Joji Obara, focusing on his past, career, offences, and present standing.
Who is Joji Obara?
Joji was supposedly born in Osaka, Japan, in 1952 into a very wealthy family, but due to the vast variety of choices it provided, he spent the majority of his childhood and education there. He really earned a dual degree in politics and law from Keio University before eventually becoming into a real estate tycoon by making a number of investments using his inherited wealth. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that he has lived almost exclusively in material luxury. Of course, none of this has in any way, shape, or form assisted in the development of his interpersonal and communication skills.
We specifically mention Joji’s abilities because, by the time the summer of 2000 arrived, this resident of the affluent Akasaka neighbourhood was well-known in the area as a reclusive playboy millionaire. Additionally, he had even been detained in the past for disguising as a woman and entering a lavatory to snap intimate photos of the users. This is why many people plainly thought he was crazy. No one could have ever guessed the depth of his depravity, though, until local hostess Lucie Blackman’s disappearance on July 1, 2000, led to the discovery of several more allegations.
It turns out that numerous other hostesses had reported a wealthy man who had a penchant for fancy cars raping them over a long period of time, but there was supposedly never a single real investigation. The original production claimed that the nature of the victims’ occupations and the fact that these complaints were brought to local stations with few resources were to blame for the lack of inquiries. But when Metropolitan detectives started looking into the case for any ties to Lucie’s case, they discovered the suspect had in fact spoken to the latter.
Records show that this suspect called the missing child on the day she disappeared, but it took some time before he was positively recognised as Joji because he went under various aliases. As a result, he was arrested on October 12, 2000, for the various rape allegations. At the time, he wasn’t immediately charged with anything related to Lucie because the evidence against him was only circumstantial. Nevertheless, despite the fact that he had allegedly lost a great deal of wealth during the 1990s recession, the likely connection between these two was sufficient to justify a search of all of his properties, which were numerous.
Where is Joji Obara Now?
Joji allegedly knew his pranks were finally coming to an end, which is why he reportedly said nothing while in detention and a thorough search of his entire estate for any kind of clue became necessary. But little did the authorities realise that they would soon find everything they would need to prosecute this serial predator, including staggering quantities of alcohol, chloroform, and other sedatives. He’d recorded himself sexually assaulting the unconscious corpses of perhaps almost every woman he’d drugged, and there were over 400 video recordings with different ladies’ initial names on them as well as a journal detailing his heinous crimes.
We say “nearly” because Lacie wasn’t in any of these videos, although one of them did feature Australian model and hostess Carita Ridgway, who suddenly passed away in 1992. Then, because Joji was rather a hoarder, there were the receipts, which enabled investigators to reconstruct Joji’s steps and, on February 9, 2021, find Lucie’s remains in a cave on the Blue Sea Aburatsubo beach.
As a result, Joji was charged with kidnapping, drugged rape that resulted in the murder of Lucie, disposing of Lucie’s body, Carita’s rape that resulted in death, as well as a number of other heinous sexual crimes. He initially made the assertion that the sexual taped interactions were consensual, but footage showing the use of chloroform and some of the survivors’ statements made it evident that wasn’t the case.
As a result, Joji was unexpectedly cleared of murdering Lucie due to a lack of strong evidence in April 2007 but convicted guilty of causing Carita’s death and raping eight different women. The attacker’s life sentence was already given, but an appeal by the victim’s parents quickly came to an end when he was found guilty on December 16, 2008, of dismembering and leaving the British national. The 71-year-old is still being held in a Japanese prison as of right now, where he will likely stay for the remainder of his natural life.
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