Did police miss clues to Suzy’s killer?
Suzy Lamplugh’s disappearance is one of the biggest mysteries of the last century – but could her case have been solved years ago?
Ever since estate agent Suzy Lamplugh left her Fulham office back on 28 July 1986 and was never seen again, her disappearance has been a source of continual mystery.
Her diary noted a meeting with a client called ‘Mr Kipper’ at 12.45pm on Shorrolds Road, but, after witnesses saw a woman fitting her description talking with a man on the street and getting into a car, it was as if she vanished into thin air.
The 25-year-old’s vehicle was found outside a property for sale a mile-and-a-half away, with the handbrake off and keys missing. Her purse was inside.
Her parents, Paul and Diana, set up the Suzy Lamplugh Trust in December 1986 to raise awareness of personal safety and offering support to the loved ones of missing people.
Despite no body being found, in 1994 Suzy was officially declared dead, presumed murdered. Devastatingly, Diana passed away in August 2011 and Paul in June 2018, going to their graves without knowing what happened to their daughter.
However, a new documentary claims that vital evidence wasn’t followed – evidence which may explain where Suzy’s body is.
Former detective superintendent Jim Dickie has revealed in The Mystery of Suzy Lamplugh that a witness, known as Dave, went to the police three times to report a sighting of a man throwing a trunk into the Union Canal in Brentford, West London at 5am, the Monday after Suzy went missing.
Inexplicably, this wasn’t followed up and the mystery of Suzy Lamplugh has continued.
In 2000, suspicion fell on rapist and murderer John Cannan. He’d been released from a prison hostel just days before her disappearance and, because of his love of big ties, his nickname was Kipper.
A previous girlfriend informed the police he’d told her that he’d killed Suzy and buried her body at Norton Barracks, a former military base in Worcestershire.
Yet he denied the killing and police could find no further evidence to convict him.
The witness, Dave, passed away in 2008 but his friend Anne has spoken out. She explains that Dave recognised Cannan as the man dumping the luggage after seeing his picture in newspaper – and was so convinced, he went to Cannan’s trial in Exeter.
Anne confirmed, ‘He said, “That is the man I passed that day. There was something about his eyes. There was always a starey-ness about his eyes.”’
Jim believes that this could have been what the police at the time needed to link Cannan to the case – and, indeed, locate Suzy’s body. ‘All I will say is, if I was still the senior investigating officer, I would move heaven and earth to see if there is a body in luggage in that area,’ he said.
John Cannan, now 67, is serving three life sentences at Full Sutton Prison in York after being convicted of the murder of Shirley Banks in Bristol in 1987 and the attempted kidnapping of Julia Holman, as well as the rape of an unnamed woman in Reading in 1986.
However, he could be released as early as next year. Could Suzy’s killer be back on the streets?