Word: blackmaned
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...Sophie left for Tokyo the next day and arrived on July 5. Tim Blackman came a few days later, after turning over day-to-day operations of his business to his partners. Sophie remembers not sleeping for her first eight days in Tokyo, sweating from the intense heat and becoming disoriented in labyrinthine train stations. In their first two weeks, she and her father printed and distributed 30,000 posters with Lucie's picture on them. They talked to anyone who might have known her. They met with police. They held a press conference. Sophie says, "We wanted to make...
...Blackman also wondered why the owner of the club where Lucie had worked was unable to provide police with any solid information about the customer his daughter had met while working there. "My daughter was introduced to this man at the club she worked in a few days before she disappeared. How could the club owner not know anything about him?" The family couldn't help but wonder if the police had other motives for dragging their feet. "My sister was working in Japan illegally," says Sophie. "We were afraid that some people might take the attitude that whatever happened...
...Jane Blackman called and e-mailed the British foreign ministry, until they worked their way up to Prime Minster Tony Blair's office. By coincidence, Blair was scheduled to be in Japan on July 21 for the Group of Eight economic summit in Okinawa. Blair raised the issue of Lucie's disappearance with his Japanese counterpart, Yoshiro Mori. The high-level contacts brought immediate results. Soon after the G-8 meeting, Tim Blackman says, "I was told by the police that they had suddenly solved all of the technical and legal problems in tracing the phone calls...
...When police arrested Obara in early October, he initially denied knowing who Lucie Blackman was. Police found blond hairs that matched Lucie's in one of Obara's seacoast condominiums, then a roll of film that contained pictures of her taken near the same dwelling. But without a body, they were unable to bring charges against him. Police culled Obara's videos and journals for other victims. The three foreign hostesses agreed to cooperate with the prosecution, and Obara was charged with several counts of rape...
...little before noon on March 1, Tim Blackman, his girlfriend and his two surviving children opened a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne on the beach where Lucie had been recovered. With representatives from Scotland Yard and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police looking on, as well as dozens of paparazzi buzzing the water in speedboats, the Blackmans planted a small evergreen tree in Lucie's memory. Tim said of his daughter's end, "I hope Lucie had a glass of champagne, felt a bit woozy and passed out." They prayed. They cried. And then, for some reason, they started to laugh...