Suzy Lamplugh cops widen search to patio they failed to dig up 15 YEARS ago at prime suspect’s mum’s house
POLICE are today searching a patio they failed to dig up 15 years ago as part of their investigation into the murder of Suzy Lamplugh.
Aerial photographs at the former home of the mother of prime suspect John Cannan show police erecting a forensic tent outside the kitchen window.
Suzy, 25, was abducted in 1986 and declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1994.
It follows information that Cannan may have buried 25-year-old Suzy there after abducting and murdering her.
The home was first searched in 2003 but cops have now returned to dig up a section of the garden.
Officers today rolled out green squared mats by the back door and patio, suggesting the search area has been widened, as the investigation heads into its third day.
A fifth blue forensic tent has also been erected as they search for Miss Lamplugh who was last seen in 1986.
Excavation work was focusing on an old corrugated iron garage in the back garden of the semi- detached property in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids.
But police have already dismantled a former inspection pit, which was filled in with concrete, as they search the Shipton Road home in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids.
Suzy disappeared after going to meet a client named “Mr Kipper” to show him two houses in Fulham, South West London in July 1986.
Her body has never been found, though she was declared dead — presumed murdered — in 1994.
It remains one of Britain’s most infamous unsolved murders.
But cold case review detectives now suspect that after murdering Suzy, Cannan may have driven to what was then his mother’s home.
They fear he put Suzy’s body in an inspection pit in the garage he used for working on cars, before filling it with concrete.
Current homeowner Phillip Carey, 52, bought the semi-detached house from Cannan's mum Shelia in 1992, which is wife Deborah, 51.
Mr Carey said police were preparing to dig up the patio but never did after taking samples from the stone slabs.
Speaking today the insurance marketer said: "I've just popped out and come back and found that they've put up another tent near the front of the garden.
"It's news to me.
"I'm not really looking at what they're doing.
"I've closed the curtains and I'm just letting the police get on with their job."
It is believed suspect Cannan's mother is in her 80s and is now living in a different part of the country.
There is no suggestion that she was involved in or had any knowledge of this or any of his crimes.
She previously spoke about the case in 2000, saying: "He has never discussed this with me, and I have never asked him.
"I suppose I have had it on my mind for so long. I am getting old, and you feel guilty yourself. He's mine, I can't deny that. He 's my son who I brought up.
"But I still can't understand anything about why. That's what disturbs you. It's very upsetting really."
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The cold case review team is not conducting a full-scale investigation into Suzy’s abduction and murder but are said to be acting on specific information relating to the potential burial site.
Police have previously defended the decision not to dig up the garden more than a decade ago after searching the home in 2003.
DCI Jim Dickie, who led the investigation over six years from 2000, told the BBC: "They must have had new information or intelligence. We did not dig or carry out a search of the garden because there was no evidence to suggest the body was secreted there."
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