Missing Suzy Lamplugh (Part One)
(Posting this one as part of the Cold Case Investigations team)
After talking with another writer and two of my researchers, I thought it was time to update our readers on our enquiries into the case of the missing estate agent, Suzy Lamplugh.
First off let me tell you that you will never see us buying into the story that a male named John Cannan was somehow responsible for the 25-year-old’s disappearance back in 1986.
It is right to say that John Cannan had only been released from prison just three days before Miss Lamplugh disappeared. He was not the owner of a BMW in 1986 and he was not Mr. Kipper. The reason I say he was not Mr.Kipper is that Suzy Lamplugh quite simply made up the name and indeed the appointment at Shorrolds Road to be able to leave her office at Sturgis Estate Agents.
John David Guise Cannan was made a scapegoat in the Lamplugh case simply because the police investigating the case could not see what was hiding in plain sight before their eyes. We were warned to keep our noses out of this case, I wonder why!
The fact remains that John Cannan did not know Suzy Lamplugh and on the day of her disappearance he had lunch with his mother then loaded up a borrowed red Ford Sierra with his possessions and drove it to his mother’s home in the West Midlands UK.
When Suzy left the office at approximately 12.40 pm on July 28th 1986 she did not take the keys to 37 Shorrolds Road Fulham with her, so she could not have shown the house to a client, Mr. Kipper or whoever.
We know that Suzy did not take the said keys as officers from The Metropolitan Police used them to enter 37 Shorrolds Road Fulham later on the day that she was reported missing. The owner of the property confirmed that there was only ever one set of keys to the house so that is settled.
Suzy Lamplugh’s Car
Suzy drove a company car provided to her by Sturgis Estate Agents which was a white Ford Fiesta registration B396 GAN, this was found on a road approximately 1.1 miles from her office at 654 Fulham Road. The car had been observed by a resident of Stevenage Road around 12.35 pm before the time that Suzy left the office, this is very important.
There were statements made to the police quite early on suggesting that Miss Lamplugh had been seen waiting outside 37 Shorrolds Road and that she had also been seen with a smartly dressed male. Those statements were quickly proven to be fantasies of the neighbour at the address, who according to his son was a fantasist who had given false statements to the police before.
Let’s go back to the Ford Fiesta.
My researcher tracked down the gentleman who had been the office junior at Sturgis Estate Agents back in 1986 and he confirmed that he had driven the company car B396 GAN earlier in the morning of July 28th 1986 and had left it parked in the side street, Whittingstall Road, adjacent to the office, yet it was in Stevenage Road before Miss Lamplugh left her office. How is this possible? It is quite simple the car was duplicated, with a decoy copy being made which is what Suzy Lamplugh drove off from the office in on the afternoon of her disappearance.
The ‘decoy car’ had identical registration plates fitted and even had an identical large straw hat on the rear parcel shelf but I guarantee that if that car had been found the identity tags such as chassis number would not have matched the registration plates.
Interestingly, no one has ever come forward to say that they witnessed Miss Lamplugh leaving the office or indeed driving away from Whittingstall Road, and neither has anyone said that they saw anyone park the Fiesta in Stevenage Road. The suspect car had been left with the driver’s seat pushed right back and a purse belonging to Suzy Lamplugh in the door pocket of the car containing the small sum of £15. The driver’s door of the car was left unlocked and the handbrake down, so the car could easily have been pushed had anyone known. The car had been left causing a slight obstruction by partially covering a driveway.
Why was the car parked in such a manner? That much is easily explained. The car seat was pushed back and the car appeared parked in a rush to make the police believe that Suzy Lamplugh may well have been abducted in the car and been driven to Stevenage Road by a much taller person. Of course, the purse was simply to make sure that it was indeed Suzy’s car. It seems unlikely that an estate agent working for a good wage and commission of sales, a member of the elite ‘Putney Set’ would only have the small sum of £15.00 in her purse.
Witness — Barbara Whitfield
Now, according to the narrative known to most people and that shared by the media Suzy Lamplugh was last seen at around 12.40 pm on Monday, July 28th 1986 when she left Sturgis Estate Agents but, a witness who knew Suzy well, Barbara Whitfield saw Suzy in the company of a man in Fulham Palace Road travelling north at 2.45 pm. Suzy was driving the white Ford Fiesta with the straw hat on the rear parcel shelf. Yet the car was parked opposite 123 Stevenage Road London SW6 and was still there when a police officer found it at 10.01 pm (2201 hrs). This statement is very important, the car was in Stevenage Road parked opposite 123 at 12.40 pm and did not move.
I am satisfied that Barbara Whitfield was not mistaken as she knew Miss Lamplugh as a personal friend and she waved to her. Suzy did not wave back as she was talking and laughing with her male passenger. This could not have been John Cannan as by that time he was driving north along the M1 Motorway toward his mother’s house where he arrived in time for his tea (evening meal).
I will leave this here and bring you part two in the next few days. We will get to the truth in this case I am sure.
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