The father of slain visitor Masumi Watanabe said he will continue to search for his daughter's body, and he hopes her killer spends the rest of his life behind bars.

In the first public statements from the Watanabe family following the murder conviction of Kirk Lankford, Hideichi Watanabe of Sado Island, Japan, said he hopes that Lankford's sentence serves as a "moral lesson" for him.

"I would not like parole to be an option," he said, speaking through a translator, during a conference call with the media from Japan yesterday. "I don't want this to happen again."

The family will continue the search for her body, he said.

"I would like to know where he left my daughter. When the verdict was announced, we were in the airplane on our way home to Sado without Masumi's body. Upon arrival at the airport with word of the news, we could not stop our tears from flowing," the father said.

"Knowing the amount of pain a family can go through, we do not want this to happen again. This is one step in the process, that justice is reached for Masumi. However, one of our goals is to bring Masumi's body back to our home in Sado. "

Watanabe also disputed Lankford's testimony that he took Masumi Watanabe's body out to sea from an open area along the shore near Kualoa Ranch.

Watanabe, who has fished for years off Sado Island, said he knows how tides and currents behave. He said his daughter's body would have come back to shore if Lankford had left it to float away, as the man testified.

"I am a man of the sea myself," said Watanabe, speaking through Denise-Aiko Chinen, a translator for the city office of the prosecuting attorney. "If he did what he said he did, I believe the body would have surfaced, so it is not as he says."

Watanabe visited the site near Kualoa Beach Park and watched the water and declared that Lankford couldn't walk out far enough to push Masumi's body out to sea, family spokesman and friend Bob Iinuma said.

"I got torn apart listening to the story. I took the father to the area of the ocean where Lankford said he let the body go," Iinuma said. "He looked at it and immediately said he doesn't think so. We've been working on it for several months now."

DUBIOUS TESTIMONY

Hideichi Watanabe, who works as a painting contractor, said he did not believe Lankford's testimony.

Lankford testified that he accidentally hit Watanabe with his work truck as she stood beside Pupukea Road. He said she had only minor injuries, but died when she became frantic, jumped from his moving truck and hit her head on a roadside rock.

Fearful of losing his job, Lankford testified, he put Watanabe's body into his truck and completed a day of work. That night, he said, he took the body out to sea wrapped in plastic bags.

A jury did not believe his story and convicted him of second-degree murder April 14. Sentencing is scheduled to begin May 27.

The typical penalty for second-degree murder is life with the possibility of parole. But prosecutors will argue that Lankford should not be given the chance for parole.

Masumi Watanabe was staying with a distant relative in Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore because her family hoped that would help build self-confidence.

The youngest of five children, she was last seen April 12, 2007.

A public memorial was held a year later at Kawaiaha'o Church with Masumi's family.

Among those who attended was Lankford's father. Yesterday, Hideichi Watanabe said he did not appreciate the gesture.

"I had quite a bit of complex feelings; no verdict was rendered at the time," Watanabe said. "I wanted to know what the reason was for Mr. Lankford to come and what he thought of his son. In the end, I don't think I really wanted him there."

FAMILY THANKFUL

The jurors who found Lankford guilty also will decide his sentence.

"The reason we're having the sentencing hearing is to determine if there is a factual basis to sentence him to life without parole," City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said yesterday. "Is he a dangerous person? Is his imprisonment for an extended term necessary to protect the public?"

The day Lankford was convicted, Carlisle said outside of court that he will argue that Lankford should not be given the chance for parole.

During the trial, Carlisle said with the jurors out of the room that he hopes to conduct a psychological evaluation on Lankford and present evidence that shows he has exhibited a pattern of "psychopathic" behaviors, including an assault on another woman for which he was acquitted, and alleged "attacks on his wife" and "attacks on cats and other animals."

Hideichi Watanabe said he appreciates the work of prosecutors, police and volunteers, and thanked the people of Hawai'i who reached out to support his family.

He said he hopes to return for the sentencing phase but he has obligations in Japan that include caring for his parents.

"We were touched to have a memorial service in Masumi's honor at Kawaiaha'o Church. The mayor and many others attended and I was able to shake hands with so many people and hear encouraging words," Watanabe said.

"Although I lost a very valuable daughter, through this loss, beauty and kindness has surfaced and our family has a debt of gratitude to the people of Hawai'i."