A man suspected of murdering missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh has died in prison.
John Cannan, 70, was jailed in 1989 for the abduction and murder of newlywed Shirley Banks from Bristol. And he was later implicated in the murder of 25-year-old Ms Lamplugh, from London, who disappeared in 1986 – with her body never been found.
The Prison Service has now confirmed his death at HMP Full Sutton and said a probe is now underway. It stated: “As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
In 2002, Cannan was named as the prime suspect in the 1986 murder of Suzy but he always maintained his innocence. Suzy had an appointment to show a house to ‘Mr Kipper’ on Shorrolds Road in Fulham at 12.45pm. When she didn’t return to work, her colleagues contacted her family.
The police searched the property that she was supposed to be showing, then her own address, initially holding her father back as they feared they may make a gruesome discovery.
Later that night, her white Ford Fiesta was found a mile away outside a different house that was also up for sale – with worrying signs. The car keys were missing, her purse had been left in the side door, the driver’s door was unlocked but the passenger’s was locked, and bizarrely, the handbrake was down.
Most concerning of all, the driver’s seat had been pushed back to a distance that would’ve been impossible for Suzy to drive from. DC Mick Jones, who was investigating the case, said: “I think the circumstances surrounding her disappearance were becoming more sinister.” In 1993, Suzy was declared dead – presumed murdered.
Last year, Scotland Yard detectives launched a forensic review of the case. Det Chief Insp Teresa Foster sent a new appeal for information. She said: “Whether you saw something that you thought was unconnected at the time, or felt under pressure to protect someone you knew – it is not too late. The passage of time has not weakened our determination to seek justice.”
Mysterious ‘Mr Kipper’
There were a lot of theories and speculation surrounding Mr Kipper. “Some people latched onto the fact that if you added ‘DNA’ to ‘the word ‘Kipper’ you got ‘Kidnapper’,” said Detective Sergeant and Inspector Mick Barley, who worked on the case from 1986 to 1999. He added: “Or ‘Kipper’ rhyming slang for Jack The Ripper.”
Six months later, a member of the public found the very thing the police had been searching for, a BMW registered to a Mr Kipper. Unfortunately, it leaked out to the press and there was a race to Belgium to speak to the Dutch national with that name, but he had an alibi and was fully eliminated from the inquiry.
Suzy’s ex-colleague Steve Wright was investigated by the Metropolitan Police in connection with her disappearance and Mr Kipper. Wright worked on the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 with Suzy in 1982. In February 2008, he was convicted of murdering five prostitutes in Ipswich.
Wright’s ex-wife, Diane Cole, told the Daily Mail he had shore leave around the time of Suzy’s disappearance. She told the paper: “I’m sure Steve used the word ‘Kipper’ as slang for face.” However, a senior Met police officer described the link as ‘speculative’.
False number plates
DCI Barry Webb, Head of Met Police Murder Review Group, decided the case needed reinvestigating from the grassroots in May 2001. Webb believed a false license plate – SLP386S – on a car recovered in 2000 that was once used by convicted rapist and murderer John Cannan related to Suzy.
He explained: “I believe the SLP stood for Suzy Lamplugh and the 386 stood for the third victim in 1986. And that’s the sort of thing that would really appeal to Cannan in terms of showing he is more superior than everybody else.” In December 2000, Cannan was arrested for Lamplugh’s murder and questioned but he was not charged.
Three days before the last sighting of Suzy, Cannan was released from Wormwood Scrubs Prison after serving a six-year sentence for rape. It emerged he was nicknamed ‘Kipper’ by people at a bail hostel where he lived at the time. He has always denied any involvement in her disappearance and there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.
Over two decades later, in December 2023, from his top security prison, Cannan, 69, wrote to the Mirror insisting he did not kill Suzy and accused police of prejudice against him. He said detectives on the case had pointed the finger at him in order to “divert public attention away from themselves”.
Cannan sent the letter through his solicitor just weeks after the Parole Board ruled that after 34 years behind bars, he was too dangerous for release. He declared: “I was not involved in the disappearance of London estate agent, Suzy Lamplugh. I have an alibi.” He claimed that on the day Suzy vanished, he had been in Birmingham “treating [his] mother to a spot of lunch”.
Fake diary appointment
In 2019, ex-Scotland Yard investigator David Videcette claimed to have unearthed ‘compelling evidence’ to suggest the case was flawed from the start. She believed the Mr Kipper diary meeting was invented to cover Suzy’s tracks with her bosses. Mr Videcette believed she never actually visited Shorrolds Road, despite witnesses claiming to have seen her there with a man.
He told the Daily Telegraph: “There is compelling evidence that has convinced me the infamous appointment at Shorrolds Road at 12.45pm on July 28 1986 never took place. It is my firm view that Suzy put the Mr Kipper entry in her diary because she had to nip out to meet somebody else and she wasn’t supposed to leave the office unattended. I believe the answer to this mystery lies in another appointment that Suzy did keep, but that has never been explored.”
However, Suzy’s late mum, Diana, who died in 2011, claimed it was unlike Suzy to go against the rules and regulations of her job. Her parents, Diana and Paul, who passed away in 2018, set up the Suzy Lamplugh Trust in memory of their daughter. They campaigned for private hire vehicle licensing in London, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and set up the National Stalking Helpline. They were both awarded OBEs for their efforts.
