FAKE PLATE CLUES TO SUZY MURDER
Suspected killer in police ‘taunt’ with initials on car reg
THE suspected killer of Suzy Lamplugh was caught with a car fitted with false number plates bearing her initials.
Detectives have named John Cannan, now 64, prime suspect for the missing estate agent’s murder.
Yesterday they extended their search for her body at his mum Sheila’s former house in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids, from a mechanic’s pit in the garage to the patio.
Officers spent six months searching the same garden 16 years ago to no avail. They have returned after receiving new information.
The Daily Star can reveal police suspect Cannan – who is serving life for the murder of newlywed Shirley Banks – used car number plates to taunt them over Suzy’s unsolved case.
He killed Shirley, 30, after abducting her as she got into her mustard-coloured Mini in a Bristol shopping centre car park in October
1987. When Cannan was arrested three weeks later, police found the tax disc from Shirley’s motor in his BMW.
They found the Mini in the garage at his Bristol home – sprayed blue and bearing the fake plate SLP
386S. Cannan claimed he had bought it at an auction.
Shirley’s body was found dumped in Dead Woman’s Ditch in Dowsborough, Som. She had been battered to death with a rock.
Cannan was jailed for life after being convicted of her
JAILED: Evil Cannan murder and sex crimes after a trial.
The judge ruled he should never be released.
In 2000 police found another car Cannan once drove at a dealers in London, with the registration SLP 386.
A source close to the investigation said: “Is it a taunt? Is it a coincidence? It has always remained an aspect of the inquiry.”
Cannan has always denied killing Suzy.