Why Suzy’s murder will forever be the end of my age of innocence
You have to wonder sometimes how people cope with the rotten lot that life throws at them. Suzy Lamplugh’s family have endured three decades of grief, of confronting the terrible unknown, of staring into the endless abyss that was once the vibrant life of their sister and daughter. And there is still no closure for them.
Not a trace of Suzy has ever been found since she vanished on a Monday afternoon in July 1986.
Eight years later, she was officially declared dead, presumed murdered. A body has never been found.
And now, 32 years after going off for her fateful meeting with Mr Kipper, poor, doomed Suzy is back in the spotlight.
This week, police have been searching the grounds of a West Midlands home once owned by prime suspect John Cannan’s mother. Now behind bars for rape and murder, he has always denied any involvement in this case.
No news yet from the police, but one desperately hopes this fresh investigation will bring a scrap of comfort for her blighted family.
Estate agent Suzy was 25 at the time and her disappearance has always had a powerful resonance for women like me, who were around the same age when she went missing.
I remember that summer so well — a blameless time when Prince Andrew had just married fresh-asadaisy Fergie, Madonna was at the top of the charts and Britain was booming.
Suzy was snatched in broad daylight, on a street not far from where I lived, in the middle of one of the safest cities in the world. If it could happen to her, it could happen to anyone.
Her vanishing marked the end of an age of innocence, at a time when ambitious career girls just like her were making their way into male- dominated professions in large numbers.
She was doing a job that didn’t seem to have any particular safety concerns — back then, it wouldn’t have crossed her mind that she needed an escort or an alarm, or to be super-vigilant.
There she was, without a care in the world, bombing around London in her Ford Fiesta, living a life of independence and fun. Things changed after she disappeared. We all became more safety-conscious at work, always leaving a forwarding address, making sure that someone knew where you were at all times.
Most
men do not have to bother with these kinds of safeguards and it was certainly the first time many of us had to confront the issue.
That is perhaps one reason why the case is so memorable.
Young working women had to start taking responsibility for themselves and acknowledge that they could never be totally carefree, especially if their job involved lone working practices.
This is not a concept popular with feminists, then or now, because it encourages women to moderate their own behaviour and to take responsibility for their personal safety, instead of merely blaming some men for being psychopaths in the first place.
Suzy’s parents, to their enormous credit, somehow managed to quench their grief to launch the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. They couldn’t keep their own daughter safe, but they wanted to make sure that other daughters had more than a fighting chance of survival.
over the years, their charity has helped to raise safety awareness for women, fought to criminalise stalking and insist upon licensing for mini-cab drivers.
Has all of this made the country a safer place for us? Let’s hope so.
However, a male friend recently made an appointment to view a property at the edge of a village in a remote part of Cornwall.
He turned up alone, to be met by a female estate agent who showed him around the two- bedroom, detached home.
The only personal detail he gave before this meeting was his mobile phone number.
The company didn’t insist on an email but, even if they had, what good could that have done?
Perhaps the woman had a rape alarm or a lone worker device concealed about her person, or maybe she was skilled in self-defence
techniques. Still, it was worrying to note that the practice of sending a lone woman to meet a complete stranger in an empty building is flourishing — gender laws probably make sure of that.
But where is the victory for feminism in a young woman’s body lying in an unmarked grave?
Suzy’s brother told Sky News of his hopes that the dig would uncover her remains because, at last, they could ‘bury her where we choose to bury her, rather than where someone THE else chose to bury her’.
simple humility and dignity of that tiny hope is truly heartbreaking. Especially when one considers that Suzy’s parents both went to their graves without discovering what happened to their daughter.
All of the Lamplughs had to learn, over the years, how to curb their dreams of a happy ending.
And all they want now is to give their long-gone girl a decent burial at last. Let’s hope their last wish comes true.
n JoHN CANNAN, the man who is suspected of murdering Suzy, is now 64, and has been behind bars for 30 years.
A relative has said he will not give up his secrets until his mother dies. Apparently, he fears upsetting his 96-year-old mother, Sheila. She used to visit him in prison every week of her life, until she became a prisoner — of advanced dementia.
Despite her motherly devotion, admirable in the circumstances, surely she can have few tears left to shed for her wicked son?
After all, he has a history of sexual violence and is behind bars after being found guilty of murder, rape and attempted kidnapping.
Yet her story is a reminder that every tragedy has multiple victims and that the ripples which spread out from a vortex of evil can capsize all involved.