Brother of Suzy Lamplugh says he’ll never get closure after sister’s suspected killer dies – taking secrets to the grave
THE brother of Suzy Lamplugh said his family will never get closure after his sister's suspected murderer died in prison.
John Cannan, 70, died in HMP Full Sutton while serving a sentence for the abduction, rape and murder of newlywed Shirley Banks.
The monster was caged for a minimum of 35 years in 1989 for heinous crimes and named as the prime suspect in the Suzy Lamplugh case in 2002.
The 25-year-old estate agent disappeared in 1986 and her body has never been found but she was presumed murdered in 1994.
Cannan always denied killing the young woman, while the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to prosecute him.
But Suzy's brother Richard Lamplugh, 64, has spoken out after the prisoner's death.
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He was "not mourning John Cannan" but instead grieving the "loss of him ever giving us closure".
He told : "I never wanted to meet the man, although my parents did meet with him.
"As far as I'm concerned, he was a nasty bit of work and he manipulated people. He knew that information is power and he wanted to hold on to it.
"I wasn't going to get down on bended knee and beg him for information."
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Former detective chief superintendent Jim Dickie, who led a re-investigation into Suzy’s disappearance in the early 2000s, said: “Cannan’s death means he cannot harm anyone else now.
“But it also means he takes with him to the grave the secret of where Suzy’s remains lie.
“I feel very sad for Suzy’s family that they are not going to find out from Cannan where he put her body.
“Unless he has left some confessional documentation with a solicitor or with the prison he has taken the secret of where she lies with him.”
Suzy vanished after leaving her office to meet a client named “Mr Kipper” to show him two houses in Fulham.
She didn't return to work after the appointment and was never seen again.
Her white Ford Fiesta was found abandoned in Stevenage Road, Fulham, and police believe she was abducted and murdered.
Over the decades, police have chased up a number of leads relating to the disappearance, but have continued to draw blanks.
Cold case detectives named Cannan as the prime suspect of her murder in 2002.
A fellow prison inmate came forward after Cannan was named as the suspect.
He claimed that Suzy had been buried under the patio at Cannan's mother’s house.
Police returned to the property to dig up a section of the garden in 2018 but nothing was found.
However, there were other clues which suggested Cannan was Mr Kipper long before this tip-off.
He was given the nickname “Kipper” by others at a bail hostel where he lived at the time of the murder — due to his fondness for the fish and a habit of having a "kip".
At the time his sister disappeared, Richard said: "We have never been able to properly grieve for Suzy.
"It's really sad that my folks weren't around to even find out where he buried her.
"We would dearly love to be able to find Suzy's body and to scatter her ashes where my parents' ashes are scattered."
Cannan was being held in Full Sutton prison, in East Yorkshire, at the time of his death for the murder of another woman, Shirley Banks, in 1987.
In 1989 he was convicted of rape, attempted abduction, murder and attempted robbery following a series of crimes against young professional women.
The evening before Shirley was killed, Cannan had attempted to kidnap a woman.
He was also found to have raped a third at knifepoint in Reading, Berkshire, a year earlier.
Cannan was handed three life sentences, and despite originally being given a whole life tariff, this was later reduced to a minimum 35-year sentence.
His attempts to appeal the mandatory 35 years had been rejected.
Cannon's bid for freedom was denied in October last year.
The panel found he was too dangerous to let go from the Category A prison.
The panel concluded: "After considering the circumstances of his offending, the progress made while in custody and the evidence presented at the hearing, the panel was not satisfied that release at this point would be safe for the protection of the public.
"Nor did the panel recommend to the Secretary of State that Mr Cannan should be transferred to an open prison."
Cannan was believed to have been writing a book at the time of his death.
Richard said he hoped the murderer might have included information that would give some answers after nearly 40 years.
"The police think he did it, so I will accept that. It's fait accompli," he added.
He added how the family have "never been able to properly grieve for Suzy" because her body was never found.
The dad-of-two told how his sister's murder makes him fear for his own daughters' safety.
"My eldest daughter is living in London now and I do worry about her, but I was brought up in a city and I loved it," he said.
"They have to live their lives.
"Suzy always said that 'life is there for the living' and that's a motto I want us all to live by."
The Suzy Lamplugh case
By Sophie Roberts
SUZY LAMPLUGH went missing in West London in 1986 but the case still remains unsolved nearly 40 years later.
Suzy Lamplugh was an estate agent who was 25 years old when she went missing.
On the day she vanished, the young woman had an appointment to show a man, who she believed to be called Mr Kipper, around a property in Shorrolds Road, Fulham, West London.
After leaving the office for the appointment Lamplugh didn't return to work - she was never seen again.
She was officially declared dead in 1994, eight years after she was last seen alive.
On July 28 1986, Suzy Lamplugh arranged to meet Mr Kipper in Fulham and was declared missing shortly afterwards.
The police launched their investigation and found Lamplugh's white Ford Fiesta parked outside a property for sale in Stevenage Road, one and a half miles away from where her appointment with Mr Kipper was on Shorrolds Road.
Searches of the vehicle showed that Lamplugh's car key was missing, the handbrake was off, and her purse had been left behind.
The Metropolitan Police conducted DNA tests on 800 unidentified bodies and skeletal remains in an attempt to identify Lamplugh in October 1987.
They tested remains that matched the missing woman's description but were not successful in finding her amongst them.
Convicted murderer and rapist John Cannan was questioned about Lamplugh's disappearance between 1989 and 1990.
Cannan had been released from a prison hostel just three days before Lamplugh vanished and was said to have used the name "Kipper" in jail.
A criminologist also linked Lamplugh, through DNA evidence, to a Ford Sierra that Cannan once used with the false number plate SLP 386S.
The investigation into Lamplugh's disappearance was reopened in 2000 after police traced a car that may have been linked to her vanishing.
In December, Cannan was arrested for the murder and questioned but not charged as there was insufficient evidence to charge him.
Police publicly announced that they suspected Cannan of the crime, despite him not being charged when he was arrested two years earlier.
Cannan denied all allegations.
Following the murder of five prostitutes, police investigating Lamplugh's disappearance checked prosecution files of Suffolk Strangler Steve Wright in 2008.
Even though Wright knew Lamplugh in the 1980s, when they both worked on the QE2, no other evidence linked the serial killer to the crime.
Police attempted to uncover more evidence by excavating a field adjacent to Drakes Broughton village in Worcestershire in 2010 but the case continued to run dry.
Police searching for Lamplugh began digging up a garden on October 29, 2018, in the hope of solving the mystery.
The Sun exclusively reported at the time that the property in Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, was the former home of the mother of prime suspect John Cannan.
It was believed that his mum was living in a different part of the country and there was no suggestion that she was involved in or had any knowledge of this or any of her son's crimes.
A forensic archaeologist guided police during the search, using ground-penetrating radar, but it yielded no evidence at the property.
New evidence that Lamplugh's suspected killer was seen hurling a large suitcase into a canal 34 years ago offered fresh hope of finding her in 2020.
The sighting was made by a lorry driver walking to work at 5am along a towpath next to the canal in Brentford, West London.
There, he came "face to face" with Cannan who was pushing a large holdall on a trolley.
Seconds later, he heard a splash and looked round to allegedly see Cannan running away.
The lorry driver reported what he had seen to Brentford police, the first of three occasions he is said to have tried to alert officers.
Cannan began his sadistic rampage against women when he was just 14 after he assaulted a woman inside a phone booth.
In 1980, he choked his mistress during sex and told her he was going to kill her when she tried to leave him.
The killer committed his first rape a year later when he attacked tied up another lover and attacked her in front of her mum at knifepoint.
He was jailed for eight years in 1981 but later transferred to an open prison - meaning he was on day release at the time of Suzy's disappearance.
Meanwhile, another suspect in the Suzy Lamplugh case was serial killer Steven Wright - also known as the Suffolk Strangler and the Ipswich Ripper.
Suzy had worked as a beautician on the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1982 and Wright was working there at the same time as a steward.
Wright is a convicted serial killer, who murdered five women in 2006.
Wright’s father, Conrad Wright, told he was “troubled” by pictures of Wright with estate agent Suzy, before she vanished in 1986.
In July 2021, Wright was arrested in jail on suspicion of killing Victoria Hall, who was found naked in a ditch in 1999.
Richard spoke out at the time, calling for police to follow-up his sister's case.
He told : "I don’t see any reason why police couldn’t speak to Wright about Suzy’s murder.
"They are trying to solve another case and are probably concentrating on that one.
"But if Wright has been linked, if the police thought it was relevant, then it would be worthwhile.
"Whether it’s Cannan or Wright, I don’t know. What’s difficult is not knowing where she is.
"It would be lovely to find her. To have somewhere where we could scatter her ashes."
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The Metropolitan Police investigated Wright in 2008 in relation to Suzy's disappearance.
But, a senior Metropolitan Police officer described the link as “speculative”.
