Brother’s prayer after 32 years
THE family of missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh have said they hope the new search for her remains will allow them finally to lay her to rest.
Her brother Richard said they want the chance to bury Suzy 32 years after she vanished in 1986, aged just 25, after showing a “Mr Kipper” a house in Fulham, West London.
Officers are searching a property in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids, which was previously owned by the mother of the prime suspect and convicted killer, John Cannan, 64.
The dig is focusing on the site of a garage where it is
CLOSURE Brother Richard believed he may have dumped the body in a car inspection pit before filling it with concrete.
Richard said: “It’s been a long time and we’ve had our expectations raised before but it would nice if we could have closure. After all these years it would be wonderful to finally be able to bury Suzy in a place of our choosing and not have her under some house.” Cannan, who is serving a 35-year sentence for rape and murder, was named as the only suspect in 2002.
Suzy’s parents, Paul and Diana, died before seeing their daughter’s killer brought to justice. Dad-of-two Richard, a school technician from Aberdeen, said he was told about the new dig by his sister Tam.
Richard said: “Perhaps this time we will finally know what happened to her. We can say our own proper goodbye.”
Cannan is in Full Sutton prison, East Yorks, where he continues to refuse to admit to any of his crimes.
Cold case detectives are probing the possibility he may have driven to his mother Sheila’s home after the killing.
Insurance marketer Phillip Carey, 52, said that he bought the property from Sheila in 1992.
He said: “We knew who she was, we became aware who she was as we went Suzy Lamplugh was just 25 when she vanished Convicted killer John Cannan
through the relationship, and obviously it was high-profile at the time.”
Jim Dickie, the detective superintendent who led the investigation from 2000 until 2006, confirmed that officers had not dug or performed an “extensive” search of the home during that time.
He added: “We’d no evidence or intelligence to lead us to believe Cannan may have secreted Suzy’s body there.” In 2000 police excavated a site near Norton Barracks, Worcestershire, and in 2010 a dig took place at a nearby meadow.
Cannan was jailed for life in 1989 for the rape and murder of Bristol newlywed Shirley Banks, 29.
His ex-girlfriend Gilly Paige, 54, of East Horsley, Surrey, has told police how Cannan joked he was Mr Kipper when they were together after meeting in 1987.