The story behind Japan's "pedestrian crossing" sign

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I'm not sure if this story's true or not but while watching an old Japanese show called "USO?! Japan", they featured an urban legend about the story behind Japan's pedestrian crossing sign. They said that Japan held a nationwide photo competition so that they can come up with a new pedestrian crossing sign. One photographer joined and he was waiting for a very looooooong time and still haven't seen his needed image in mind. While we was ready to give up and started to pack his things, he saw 2 figures which seems to be father-and-daughter, hand-in-hand, walking down the street. The man looked at him quickly and child looked at him but since they seems to be in a hurry, she quickly followed her father, still hand-in-hand (you see, they simply passed by him). This is the image he had in mind so he quickly took some shots (just their backs, walking down the street), submitted the picture and he won. The sign was turned into a caricature and was used as the pedestrian crossing sign. After a few weeks, he saw in the local tv news that a child was kidnapped and was missing for quite some time. The news indicated that the suspect was arrested and showed the picture of the man. The photographer immediately noticed the man. He is the same man whom he thought as the father of the child. According to the news, the child was kidnapped and the suspect asked her parents to come up with a huge ransom money. Since the parents can't come up with the amount during the given time frame, he killed and mutilated the child. The time when the child looked at him was her, saying to the photographer: "Help Me...."