SUZY COPS LEFT US IN ‘BOMBSITE’
Family’s ordeal after search
A FAMILY whose home was torn apart by police hunting for Suzy Lamplugh’s body are still living in a “bombsite” two months on.
Search teams tore out kitchen units, ripped up the floor and dug up the garden of the house Phil and Debbie Carey share with their two teenage children.
The home in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, was targeted because prime suspect John Cannan’s mum used to live there.
After a two-week search – during which the family lived in a hotel – no trace of murdered estate agent Suzy’s remains was found and police pledged it would be restored.
But the family still do not have a working kitchen and had to borrow a friend’s oven to cook their Christmas turkey.
Marketing manager Phil, 52, said: “We knew there would be some damage, but I have to admit we were taken aback when we returned to the ® house. It was like a bombsite with a massive hole in the kitchen floor and all the bottom cupboards chucked out in the garden.”
An £870 flooring bill was approved by Scotland Yard, but Phil had to pay the contractor himself. Fitters say it will cost £14,000 to restore the kitchen, but the work still hasn’t got the go-ahead.
He asked MP Andrew Mitchell to contact Met Police chief Cressida Dick and Mr Mitchell said: “I’m sure the Met will want to speed up their response and make sure the Careys get their house back in good order.” Suzy vanished in Fulham, west London, in 1986 after going to meet a client called Mr Kipper. Police have long suspected the man was Cannan, 64, a convicted rapist currently serving life for murder, but he denies any involvement in her disappearance.