The new Netflix documentary Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case delves into the disappearance in Japan of a British Airways air hostess who quit her job to go travelling.
Lucie was 21 when she went missing in 2000 from her job working as a hostess in the Casablanca nightclub in Tokyo’s notorious Roppongi entertainment district.
As part of her role, Lucie went on dates with punters, joining them for dinner before going to the club, but on July 1 she went on a date and was never seen alive again.
After the date, Lucie’s pal Louise Phillips took a call from a man who claimed her friend had joined a cult and she wouldn’t see or hear from her again.
Ms Phillips got in touch with Lucie’s family in Sevenoaks, Kent, who travelled to Japan in a bid to find her, launching a media campaign to raise awareness of her disappearance.
Lucie’s dad, Tim Blackman, battled to keep his daughter’s disappearance in the headlines in an effort to mount pressure on the Japanese authorities.
Suspicion eventually fell on Joji Obara, a Korean-Japanese property developer who admitted meeting Lucie, but denied being involved in her disappearance.
What happened to Lucie Blackman?
Seven months after she vanished, Lucie’s body was found on February 9, 2001, buried in a cave 30 miles south of Tokyo.
Her body had been cut into pieces and was severely decomposed, meaning the cause of death could not be determined at the time.
Obara was arrested in relation to Lucie’s death two months later and in October 2002 he was charged with drugging, raping and killing Lucie.
In 2007, he was acquitted of Lucie’s rape and murder due to a lack of evidence but in the wake of criticism over Lucie’s case, an appeal trial began in March 2008.
Obara was found guilty and jailed for abducting Lucie and dismembering and disposing of her body. He is now serving a life sentence.
He was also charged with killing Carita Ridgway and raping eight other women though it is believed he raped 150 to 400 women in Japan, drugging his victims with chloroform.
The sick killer recorded his crimes and kept a diary in which he detailed his cruel and callous crimes. In 2010, Obara saw his appeal against his sentence rejected by Japan’s supreme court.
In the new Netflix documentary, Lucie’s dad Tim reveals how he fought for eight years to get justice for his daughter.
He says: “Lucie was our firstborn child and she completely transformed our lives. She was very special… very quick-witted and she influenced many of the people around her. Everybody who knew her when she was growing up orbited around her light.”
He goes on to recall the moment he was told Lucie had gone missing, believing there must have been a rational explanation for it.
But further calls and no contact from his daughter convinced him of the worst. Mr Blackman tells the documentary makers: “That feeling of blind panic just crashes in on you.”
Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case is available to stream on Netflix.