Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh

's Craven Cottage on Stevenage Road, where Lamplugh was seen struggling with a man in a dark-coloured, left-hand drive BMW driving south. By 3:30 pm, Lamplugh's colleagues at the estate agency were becoming concerned that she had not returned. the handbrake was not enabled and the key was missing. but neither her own keys nor the keys to 37 Shorrolds Road were found. The witness was jogging when he saw a car speeding south down Stevenage Road (the same road in which Lamplugh's car was later found abandoned) as he emerged from Bishops Park into the road at the exit by Fulham F.C.'s Craven Cottage stadium. The car, which he noticed was a dark-coloured left-hand-drive BMW, suddenly stopped further down the road and a woman who matched Lamplugh's appearance was seen struggling with a man inside the car and sounding the horn in an apparent attempt to attract attention. In his description of the incident, the witness stated: A sighting was also reported witnessing a woman matching Lamplugh's appearance on the adjacent Langthorne Street. ==Initial investigations==

Missing-person inquiry in Bristol weeks before he had murdered Banks, providing the false name of "John Peterson," and had presented himself in a recorded video as a successful, smartly dressed businessman. Another former girlfriend, Daphne Sargent, also believed Cannan to be responsible, saying: "As soon as I heard about Suzy, I knew it was John. It had all the hallmarksright down to the champagne." Cold case In the years after Lamplugh's disappearance, police tested the DNA of 800 unidentified bodies and skeletal remains that matched her description. Lamplugh was officially declared dead at her parents' behest, exactly seven years after her 1986 disappearance, on 27 July 1993. She was presumed to have been murdered. ==Andrew Stephen book controversy==

In 1988, journalist Andrew Stephen published a highly controversial book on the Lamplugh case. The book, which was initially supported by the Lamplugh family before they read its draft versions, included several allegations about Lamplugh's private life, including the suggestion that she was involved in prostitution. The book was widely labelled as salacious and false, and Stephen was accused of victim blaming. In an unprecedented move, the Metropolitan Police responded to the book by defending Lamplugh's personal life and stating "our investigations revealed nothing more than that Suzy was a modern young woman." A highly critical review of the book in The Times asserted that Stephen had included a large amount of his own speculations on what he called Lamplugh's "quest for sexual fulfilment" because he needed filler material to add to the story. Lamplugh's family brought legal action and forced Stephen to add a disclaimer to the book stating that the family did not recognise or accept his portrayal of Lamplugh. ==Michael Sams speculation and elimination==

In the mid-1990s, speculation arose that Michael Sams may have murdered Lamplugh, as he had just been convicted of kidnapping an estate agent named Stephanie Slater in Birmingham, as well as murdering Leeds prostitute Julie Dart. However, police found no evidence for the theory and discounted it, noting that Sams' crimes were likely to have been influenced by the high-profile Lamplugh case. Furthermore, Sams only had one leg by 1986, and no witness sightings of the man seen with Lamplugh on that day reported him walking with a limp or having only one leg. ==Case reopened==

Reinvestigations of the man seen outside 37 Shorrolds Road with Lamplugh in July 1986, compared to John Cannan's arrest photo in October 1987. In 1999, an internal report by the Metropolitan Police criticised the handling of the original investigation and failure to further investigate Cannan. In December 2000, Cannan was arrested on suspicion of Lamplugh's abduction and murder and interviewed at Hammersmith police station. Cannan did not provide interviewers with any information that could eliminate him from the inquiry and did not provide an alibi for his movements between 25 and 28 July 1986. It is believed that she placed the call because Cannan had convinced her that he would release her unharmed. and investigators not being able to dig in the area because of residential housing now standing there. that had been mentioned in several of the original witness statements. that there was insufficient evidence to charge Cannan with the murder. They also announced that all other possible suspects had been eliminated and that Cannan was their prime suspect. The lead detective in the reinvestigations, Jim Dickie, stated that he was as certain as possible without conducting a formal judicial process that Cannan was responsible. Links to Sandra Court murder When interviewed about Lamplugh's disappearance in 1988, Cannan had said that he knew a "Bristol businessman" who was responsible for "the murders of Shirley Banks, Suzy Lamplugh and another girl." Investigators believe that he was talking about himself, as he was previously convicted of Banks's murder. He had been in the prison hostel at Wormwood Scrubs at the time but was allowed to leave the facility at weekends and had access to a red Ford Sierra, the same car that was tested in the Lamplugh case. Court was last seen walking barefoot, appearing slightly drunk, at around 2:45 a.m. Her body was found the next day in a water-filled ditch several miles away. When the Ford Sierra was discovered during the Lamplugh reinvestigations of the early 2000s, two hairs were found inside that matched Court's DNA. However, the DNA evidence was not strong enough to bring a prosecution against Cannan for her murder. ==Steve Wright speculation and elimination==

In 1982, Lamplugh had worked as a beautician on the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2). At the same time, Steve Wright, who was convicted in February 2008 of the murders of five women in Ipswich in late 2006, was working as a steward on the same vessel. In 2008, the Metropolitan Police investigated whether Wright was connected with Lamplugh's disappearance, but this was not a strong line of enquiry and a senior police officer described the link as "speculative." Police investigated Wright's QE2 work records and found that he was working on the ship on the day that Lamplugh disappeared, meaning that he could not have been responsible for her abduction and murder. ==Later searches==

In August 2010, police began searching a field off the B4084 between Pershore and Drakes Broughton, about three miles from the former Norton Barracks where detectives had wanted to search in 2000. In late October 2018, police searched the house. They dismantled the garage and began removing its concrete floor whilst also searching the back garden. On 12 November 2018, police announced that the search had yielded no evidence. In July 2019, a police search of land in Pershore, with the assistance of archaeologists, produced no relevant evidence. where an eyewitness saw a man resembling Cannan push a suitcase in In August 2019, the Specialist Investigation Team was informed of the sighting of a man resembling Cannan dumping a suitcase in the Grand Union Canal around 5am on 31 July 1986. However, this section of the canal was previously searched in September 2014 for an unrelated inquiry. The canal sighting was covered in the documentaries The Vanishing of Suzy Lamplugh and In the Footsteps of Killers. ==Current status==

Cannan remained the prime (and only) suspect in the case, While in prison, Cannan told a solicitor that he might well "reveal all" about Lamplugh when his mother died. Fellow criminologist David Wilson agreed and said that Cannan would not confess because he was a psychopath. Cannan was eligible for parole in 2022. His first parole hearing was scheduled for March 2023 but was postponed until October of that year. Cannan's parole bid was denied and he remained in prison. Cannan died in Full Sutton Prison on 6 November 2024. ==Suzy Lamplugh Trust==

The Suzy Lamplugh Trust is a charitable foundation established in December 1986 by Lamplugh's parents, Paul and Diana Lamplugh. In 1992, their younger daughter Elizabeth Lamplugh escaped an attempted abduction and Anthony Bourgois was later convicted. The mission of the trust is to raise awareness of personal safety through training and various projects, to help people avoid aggression and to offer counselling and support to relatives and friends of missing people. The trust runs the UK's National Stalking Helpline. Paul and Diana Lamplugh were appointed to OBE in 1992 and 2005, respectively, for their charitable work with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust. Diana Lamplugh died in August 2011 at the age of 75, and Paul Lamplugh died at the age of 87 in June 2018. ==Commemorative window==

Lamplugh and her family were members of the congregation at All Saints Church, East Sheen, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. She is commemorated there in a stained-glass window that was installed in 1996. ==Television documentaries==

Lamplugh's disappearance has been the subject of a number of documentaries: • On 16 August 1989, a Crimewatch File documentary on John Cannan's conviction for the murder of Shirley Banks was aired. It also noted the suggestions of a possible link between Cannan and the Lamplugh murder. • On 12 September 2001, a Real Crime documentary was aired on ITV that examined the Lamplugh case. It was concluded that Cannan was likely responsible for her murder. • On 9 March 2021, a two-part Sky TV documentary titled The Suzy Lamplugh Mystery/The Mystery of Suzy Lamplugh was aired. It concluded that Cannan was likely responsible for her murder. • On 16 June 2021, an episode of Channel 4 and criminologist David Wilson's documentary series In the Footsteps of Killers aired, focusing on Lamplugh's case. It concluded that Cannan was likely responsible for her murder. • On 2 October 2021, an episode of Faking It: Tears of a Crime called "The Prime Suspect" went into detail of the mistakes made by John Cannan that caused him to be considered a suspect in Lamplugh's disappearance. ==See also==