What happened to Joji Obara’s Victim? The Australian model who moved to Tokyo was one of the victims of murderer and rapist Joji Obara.
Joji Obara (real name: Kim Sung-jong) holds a record as one of the Japanese criminal serial murderers and rapists. He reportedly had between 150 and 400 women raped and recorded the scenes on 400 tapes.
Two of his victims are Lucie Blackman and Carita Ridgway. In October 2000, he was charged with drugging, raping, and killing British woman, Lucie Blackman, the rape and manslaughter of the Australian woman Carita Ridgway, and the rape of eight other women.
Carita had only recently moved to Tokyo, Japan when her life tragically came to an end in 1992 as she fell victim to ‘Playboy Millionaire” Joji Obara.
Who was Carita Ridgway?
Carita Ridgway was born on 3 March 1970 in Perth, Australia, to father Nigel Ridgway and mother Annette Foster.
After pursuing an education in Sydney, Carita eventually settled in the beach-side suburb of Clovelly. By the age of 21, Carita had already tried her hand at modeling but eventually decided to pursue acting instead. However, there was a problem: acting classes were expensive and Australia’s economy was going through a major recession.
When Carita’s older sister Samantha decided to move to Tokyo to be with her boyfriend Hideki, Carita saw an opportunity to make some much-needed cash. She would join Samantha in teaching English as a foreign language for a few months and save up enough to pay for acting classes and to support her fiancé, Robert, who was studying Law at the University of South Wales.
Carita arrived in Tokyo in late December 1991 and joined Samantha in a house share, especially for foreigners, known as a ‘gaijin’, in the city’s fashionable Kichijoji district. The rooms were let on a temporary, month-by-month basis, but that suited Carita as she’d only planned on staying in the country a short while.
However, Carita ran into problems early in her stay when she was unable to find any work as an English teacher. Aware she’d need to start making money soon, Carita changed focus and replied to an advert in an English-language newspaper, the Japan Times, seeking Western women to work in Club Ayakoji, a hostess bar in upmarket Ginza.
Hostess bars are a tradition peculiar to Japan, where wealthy men pay attractive women to talk to them and serve them. She took in the offer and started working there.
What happened to Carita Ridgway?
Carita was killed by a man named Joji Obara – though his role in her death was not discovered for many years.
In 1992, Carita was offered a lift home from work by serial rapist Obara.
He used chloroform to knock her out and rape her but administered too much of the drug.
Obara dropped Carita off at a Tokyo hospital under a pseudonym, telling staff that she was having a bad reaction to shellfish.
Carita suffered liver failure and was eventually declared brain dead.
Her death was initially listed as Hepatitis E but, years later, police made the connection between her death and Obara.
Police found a videotape at Obara’s home of him raping Carita, as well as a diary entry that read: “Carita Ridgway, too much chloroform.”
At his trial, prosecutors were able to show an autopsy report that found traces of chloroform in Ridgway’s liver.
They also found proof that Obara had been the one to drop her off at the hospital.
In 2007, Obara was convicted of the rape and manslaughter of Carita and received a life sentence in prison.
When was Joji Obara arrested?
Obara was arrested after the 2000 disappearance and death of British air hostess Lucie Blackman.
Lucie’s body was found dismembered in a cave seven months after she went missing from her accommodation in Tokyo.
Obara had chopped Lucie’s body into eight pieces and her head had been encased in concrete.
Police discovered Obara’s involvement in Carita’s death while they were investigating Lucie’s disappearance.
They found the tape and diary entries that showed he had raped her.
They also found videotapes and journals that suggested he may have raped between 150 and 400 other women.
Obara was charged with drugging, raping, and killing Lucie but was acquitted of her rape and murder in 2007 due to a lack of evidence.
In December 2008, after an appeal pushed by Lucie’s family, he was jailed for abduction, and dismembering and disposing of Lucie’s body.
In 2007, Obara had been found guilty of nine other rape charges and Carita’s manslaughter.
Lucie and Carita’s deaths are both explored in the new Netflix documentary Missing: The Lucie Blackman Case.
