Suzy Lamplugh disappearance — Part 1
Part one of a two-part podcast looking at the disappearance of London estate agent Suzy Lamplugh.
As my regular readers will know, my team and I have spent a considerable amount of time involved in the Suzy Lamplugh case, and to see such podcasts still going out is frankly disturbing.
So let's get into this:
First off, the podcast is entitled “Who Killed Suzy Lamplugh”, in fact there is no evidence in existence that she is dead, let alone of her being murdered. Whislt ot is quite possible that Suzy Lamplugh is dead, I don't think it is right to be using misleading titles
At the very start of the production, the former detective being interviewed says that her handbag, purse, keys and bank cards were in the Ford Fiesta. This is not true; her purse was in there with £15 in cash and a bank card, but no keys. If the keys had been there, then the police would not have had to go to Sturgis estate agents' office to get keys to 37 Shorrolds Road, nor would they have had to find Sizy’s flatmate to access her flat.
As to the handbag, which was left on Suzy’s desk in Sturgis Estate Agents' office at 654 Fulham Road, London SW6, this shows the ill-informed story from the outset.
The narrative from the retired Detective Chief Inspector Mike Barley says, “On the evening that Suzy was reported missing, we knew three things
Suzy left her office at around 12.40 pm on Monday, 28th July 1986
Her car was found in Stevenage Road, Fulham, at 22.01 (10.01 pm)
That she hadn’t been seen since
And really, that's all we still know all these years on”!
I have to say that is one of the most uninformed and misleading statements I have ever heard
The podcast goes on to say that Suzy Lamplugh had set out to do a “routine house viewing” at 37 Shorrolds Road, Fulham. If they had done just a little bit of further research, the producers would have known that the keys to 37 Shorrolds Road never left the office of Sturgis Estate agents. Yes, there was a note in Miss Lamplugh’s diary saying to meet a Mr Kipper, but the podcast almost immediately leads onto the involvement of John Cannan
The narrative says that Suzy was seen outside 37 Shorrolds Road. This has long since been debunked
A man was seen joining Suzy at around 1250pm, yet we know and have known for years that the informant was a fantasist, confirmed by the informant’s son.
Reports say that between 2.20 pm and 2.30 pm, a couple were seen arguing in a car in Shorrolds Road, believed to be Suzy Lamplugh and an unidentified man, but Suzy was seen driving north on Fulham Palace Road by a personal friend of hers.
The interesting twist that no podcaster or blogger has ever bothered to question is probably one of the biggest red flags in the investigation.
When a woman was seen arguing with a man in a white Ford Fiesta in Shorrolds Road, SW6 7TP and seen driving along Fulham Palace Road W6 9PL the white Ford Fiesta owned by Sturgis Estate Agents and driven as a company car by Miss Lamplugh remained poorly parked in Stevenage Road, Fulham, SW6 6HH where it had been since 12.30–12.35 pm and not moved right up to when officers of the Metropolitan Police found it at 10.01 pm on the night of June 28th 1986
We have established that Suzy was alive at 2:45 pm, and the police's “only suspect”, John Cannan, was already driving a red Ford Sierra estate car up the M1 towards West Bromwich, Midlands, to be there in time for the evening meal with his mother at 5 pm. Yet still, this podcast made in 2025 continues to push the narrative that John Cannan was somehow responsible for the disappearance and murder of Suzy Lamplugh.
Former Detective DCI Mike Barley says that he’s not convinced that Suzy went to Shorrolds Road, yet he doesn’t see the other issues following on from that.
Follow the Evidence
Former DCI Mike Barley tells the podcast that Suzy told her boyfriend, Adam Leegood, that she was seeing friends on Sunday night, yet she went to the pub and then phoned Adam at 10 pm from her house. Once again, the narrative is way off.
Let's look at just a few things that have been said that make little or no sense in this investigation
Roses were delivered at Sturgis for Suzy, and the former DCI has assumed that they were delivered by or on behalf of John Cannan. Let’s be realistic, John Cannan had been released from Prison on Friday, 25th July, so how did he pay for expensive roses? This is backed up by the evidence that he had to borrow a car and money for fuel to get himself to his mother’s in West Bromwich, West Midlands
No record of a Mr Kipper, even in national directories, suggested to be made up by Cannan, I say made up by Suzy, no records of calls, no contact with any other business in Fulham or indeed in London. Despite this solid evidence, John Cannan remains the prime suspect, yet Suzy didn’t know him, and no evidence at all exists to say that she did. Her parents did say that she had suggested she had started seeing a Bristol businessman man but again, there is no evidence of Suzy even being seen with such a person.
They say he is suspected of murder, but where is the evidence of murder? No sign of a body or remains has ever come to light despite the considerable passage of time,
I have a question for the Metropolitan police. Cannan wasn’t even focused on until late 1987 after he murdered Shirley Banks, so what were the police doing for over a year?
I will leave this one there until I can look at part two of the podcast. I will leave you with this one thought:
We know Shirley Banks was murdered by John Cannan. Her body was found, but Suzy’s body has never been found, and there is no evidence at all to say that she was murdered, least of all by John Cannan.
I will be back with more on this soon, when we look at the Bahamas in connection with this case, and we will examine the second podcast to show just how far off people are in understanding this case.
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