Who Killed Suzy Lamplugh (Part 1)

On 28 July 1986, estate agent Suzy Lamplugh left her office in Fulham, west London, for a  house viewing with a client she recorded in her diary as 'Mr Kipper'. She never returned.  Despite one of the largest missing-persons investigations in UK police history, no body has ever been recovered — and no-one has ever been charged. In Part 1 of this story Kerry Daynes revisits the streets where 25-year-old Suzy was last seen, examines the original investigation, and follows the trail of a chilling lead:  just three days before the disappearance a convicted sex offender named John Cannan was freed from a nearby prison. Within a year he would be linked to the abduction and murder of another young woman in Bristol. Was he, as many detectives believe, the real Mr. Kipper?

Key psychological themes

This episode explores: opportunistic predation • the psychology of women's safety in public-facing work • the language of identification — Photofits, witness recall and trauma • the recklessness of a serial offender 

Contributors featured in this episode

•     Kerry Daynes — Forensic psychologist, presenter, and author of Dark Side of the Mind and What Lies Buried.

•     Richard Lamplugh — Suzy's brother.

•     Michael Barley — Former Detective Sergeant, Metropolitan Police; assigned to the original Suzy Lamplugh investigation in 1986.

•     Rod Chaytor — Veteran crime correspondent (Daily Mirror) who covered the Lamplugh case, the Cannan investigation and trial.

What you'll learn in this episode

•     What the 'Mr Kipper' entry in Suzy's office diary actually said — and why every other appointment that day checked out except this one

•     The exact movements of Suzy on Monday 28 July 1986, and the witness who described seeing her in Shorrolds Road, Fulham, alongside a tall, well-dressed man

•     The scale of the original police inquiry: hundreds of officers, thousands of statements, and the year-long search that brought back nothing

•     How a serial sexual offender named John Cannan, released from a Wormwood Scrubs pre-release hostel on Friday 25 July 1986, came into the frame more than a year later

•     Kerry's psychological profile of an offender who collects, returns to and goads — and what that pattern suggested about the man at the centre of two of the worst cases of the 1980s

Relevant links and further reading

•     Kerry Daynes — Dark Side of the Mind (Endeavour, 2019)

•     Kerry Daynes — What Lies Buried (Endeavour, 2021)

•     Faking It: Tears of a Crime (Warner Bros. Discovery) — some interviews in this episode were originally featured in the series. Watch on discoveryplus.com.

•     https://www.suzylamplugh.org/suzys-story — The Suzy Lamplugh Trust: Suzy's story, in her family's own words

•     https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66298929 — BBC News: timeline of the Suzy Lamplugh investigation

•     Personal safety advice and bereaved-family support — Suzy Lamplugh Trust • Missing People (UK) • Victim Support

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Credits

•     Presented by Kerry Daynes

•     Produced by Shearwater Media

•     Executive producers: Jeff Anderson and Steve Anderson

•     Edited by Jeanette Smedley

•     Music by Rob Warner

Content note

This episode contains descriptions of abduction, sexual violence, and a long-unsolved disappearance presumed to be a murder. Listener discretion is advised. If you have been affected by the issues raised, support is available from Victim Support (0808 168 9111), the Suzy Lamplugh Trust (020 7091 0014) and the Samaritans (116 123)

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