26k files, 40yrs of agony and one never-before see picture… Suzy Lamplugh’s sisters’ final hope before case winds down

A CAROUSEL of fading index cards from a bygone era could be the last hope of solving the kidnap and murder of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh. The antiquated filing system began to be compiled 40 years ago today when the 25-year-old went missing — and it is the last in use by the Met Police. Suzy Lamplugh’s family have released poignant photographs to mark the 40th anniversary of her disappearance Credit: Metropolitan Police Siblings Lizzie, Richard, Tamsin and Suzy at Heathrow in final photograph together Credit: Metropolitan Police It is hoped the 26,000 yellowing cards, used alongside the Home Office Large Major Enquiry computer system — known as HOLMES – may yet hold the key to establishing Suzy’s fate. Fun-loving Suzy vanished after going to meet a client calling himself Mr Kipper at a house for sale in Fulham, West London, in 1986. The prime suspect is serial sex offender and killer John Cannan, who died in prison in November 2024, aged 70. But the Met’s Cold Case Homicide Team still remain determined to definitively solve the case — and find Suzy’s body. DCI Teresa Foster says: “For us and for Suzy’s family, it is finding her resting place and bringing her back.” The investigation into Suzy’s disappearance has remained active over four decades. Six major searches have been carried out to find her remains. Detectives have 30 more potential witnesses to see over the next 12 months before the case winds down to an “inactive” phase. If it is not solved, the file will remain open in the hope that new forensic testing techniques or witnesses may emerge. In the meantime, Suzy’s family — including older brother Richard, who was 26 when she vanished, and younger sisters Tamsin, who was 24, and Lizzie, who was 16, have learned to manage their expectations. Lizzie tells The Sun: “It is highly unlikely we will ever know what happened to her.” Suzy’s parents, campaigner Diana and solicitor Paul, died in 2011 and 2018 respectively. Lizzie says: “We have coped over the years by learning to accept it and move on. Hand-written index cards from original investigation Credit: Metropolitan Police The four children are also pictured on holiday in Pembrokeshire Credit: Metropolitan Police “When you have something like this, where there is no answer, then you have to accept there is no answer. “You have to accept it even if it’s not what you want. “You can think and think about finding her, but it is more positive to think of her when she was alive. We want to think about her time with us.” Tamsin adds: “Anything negative is destructive. We are positive as a family and that’s how we’ve dealt with it.” To mark the 40th anniversary of Suzy’s disappearance, the family have released poignant photographs of them together. One black and white picture shows Suzy holding the family’s cat Myfanwy. Another shows the family at their home in East Sheen, South West London, with dogs Snoopy and Leo. The four children are also pictured on holiday in Pembrokeshire, where Diana’s Welsh family owned a home. Lizzie says of Suzy, who was officially declared dead in 1993: “She was kind and caring, thoughtful and always thinking of and helping others. It is highly unlikely we will ever know what happened to her, Suzy’s sister Lizzie told The Sun Credit: Shutterstock Editorial Suzy’s parents, campaigner Diana and solicitor Paul, died in 2011 and 2018 respectively Credit: Rex “She was also so much fun, always thinking of fun things to do. Never a dull moment. For me, because of our age difference, she also acted as my main sail. “She kept me grounded. She made sure I was ready for school, had done my homework and had eaten well. As I got older she was the one to give me the advice every teenager needs. “Above all, her message was always, life is to be en- joyed, so make the most of every minute. Don’t worry about things you cannot change and keep moving forward. We very much follow her mantra as much as we can.” Tamsin adds: “Her motto was, ‘Life is for living’. She always enjoyed life and embraced it.” The most touching of the new photographs is one showing Suzy with her siblings at Heathrow Airport in October 1985. Tamsin says: “We congregated at Heathrow so they could wave me off as I was going to New Zealand to work. It was the last time I saw Suzy. “Suzy is in the checked shirt on the right of the picture. I still have that shirt hanging in my wardrobe.” Lizzie was visiting Tamsin in New Zealand, having just finished her O levels, when Suzy went missing. The last confirmed sighting of Suzy was at 12.40pm on July 28, 1986, when she left the Sturgis estate agents office on Fulham Road where she was employed. She was due to meet the mystery client calling himself Mr Kipper at an empty house for sale in Shorrolds Road. Suzy drove there in her company car, a white Ford Fiesta, later found abandoned in nearby Stevenage Road. An e-fit of “Mr Kipper” was compiled from eyewitnesses who believe they saw Suzy with a well-dressed man in Shorrolds Road. Another witness later came forward to say they saw a woman resembling Suzy in a BMW driven by a man in Stevenage Road. The left-hand-drive vehicle was never traced. The prime suspect is serial sex offender and killer John Cannan, who died in prison in November 2024, aged 70 Credit: Rex The e-fit issued in 1986 of the suspect Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd At around noon that day a cab driver said they dropped off Cannan in Fulham Broadway. He was carrying a bottle of champagne and roses. The previous day a man looking like Cannan was seen peering into the window of Sturgis estate agents. DCI Foster believes Suzy was “targeted”, adding: “She was put in the window because her colleagues thought she was attractive and would bring in people.” The detective says Suzy is likely to have been stalked by “a predator of some type” who “then lured her into a false meeting”. An entry in Suzy’s Filofax recorded her meeting with Mr Kipper at 12.45pm that day. Mobile phones were not widely used at the time, there was little CCTV and no obvious suspects came into the frame. At the time of Suzy’s disappearance, Cannan was living in a bail hostel close to Wormwood Scrubs prison in West London. He had just completed an eight-year sentence for raping a knitwear shop assistant in front of her mother during a robbery. Suave and handsome, Cannan, of Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, was privately educated and had convictions for sexual offences dating back to when he was 14. His name was first mentioned in connection with Suzy in June 1987 by a detective investigating a rape committed by Cannan in Reading in October the previous year. Cannan went on to kidnap and murder newlywed textiles firm manager Shirley Banks, 29, from Bristol in October 1987. Shirley’s body was found two months later in a shallow stream in a woodland valley known as “Dead Woman’s Ditch” in the Quantocks, Somerset. Three weeks after she disappeared, a tax disc for Shirley’s Mini Clubman was discovered in Cannan’s BMW. It led to the discovery of Shirley’s car in Cannan’s garage at flats where he lived in Leigh Woods, just outside Bristol. The Mini had been painted blue and had the false number plate SLP 386S — suspected of being a reference to Suzy’s name and year of her disappearance. Suzy’s sister Tamsin says she is now ready for the case to conclude Credit: Metropolitan Police VITAL WORK IN HER NAME THE tragedy inspired Suzy’s parents Diana and Paul to launch the Suzy Lamplugh Trust in 1986 to raise awareness of personal safety and violence against women and girls. It has supported more than 100,000 survivors and trained more than a million people in recognising stalking and harassment. A new campaign – #40YearsShouldHaveBeenEnough – is being launched by the trust to coincide with today’s anniversary of Suzy’s kidnap. CEO Emma Lingley-Clark said: “Forty years on, we remember the person at the heart of our work and reflect on the change that has happened in her name.” Ex-car salesman Cannan was jailed for life with a minimum of 35 years in July 1989 for Shirley’s murder, an attempted kidnap the previous night and the Reading rape. He was also a leading suspect in the murder of Bournemouth insurance clerk Sandra Court, whose body was found in a water-logged ditch in May 1986. However, Det Supt Malcolm Hackett, who was in charge of the Suzy investigation, resisted making Cannan a priority as he resented her mother Diana’s demands for him to be questioned. A damning Met review in 1999 said Cannan had not been properly interviewed, put on ID line-ups or had his alibi checked on the day of Suzy’s disappearance. In 2002, the Met apologised to the Lamplugh family for the failings. It followed a major re-investigation which yielded “powerful” circumstantial evidence pointing to Cannan as Suzy’s killer.Cannan was interviewed again and despite earlier claims of his whereabouts on the day Suzy vanished, admitted he had no alibi. But the CPS ruled there was insufficient proof to charge Cannan.However, the Met took the highly unusual decision to publicly name him as their prime suspect. DCI Foster says: “I think John Cannan is a very good suspect. I think he’s a prime suspect. “He has been a focus of the investigation, but he has not been the only focus.” One theory investigated by the cold case team is whether Cannan could have received help to kidnap Suzy by another recently released prisoner. A six-year forensic review of the case began in 2018 with seat taping from Suzy’s car sent to the US for advanced DNA testing. Fingerprints from the rear-view mirror were also checked but turned up no match. In 2020 it emerged that an eyewitness saw Cannan hurl a suitcase into the Grand Union Canal, near Gallows Bridge, in Brentford, West London, three days after Suzy vanished. The canal was dredged during the 2014 murder investigation into the murder of 14-year-old schoolgirl Alice Gross. Retired detective superintendent Jim Dickie, who led the re-investigation into Suzy’s disappearance in the early 2000s, says: “It was not the same part of the canal where the sighting of the suitcase took place. It remains an outstanding line of inquiry which should be followed up.” He adds: “I have no doubt at all that Cannan kidnapped and murdered Suzy. There is powerful circumstantial evidence to prove it.” The cold case team has examined 178 boxes of 450 documents and 80,000 physical items, including the carousel cards. Among the boxes is one containing Suzy’s diaries and Filofax index cards. DCI Foster says: “We have cross-referenced all these people. We focused solely on the year before Suzy disappeared. “We focused mainly on her work diary to look at clients to see if there were any that were missed. “It’s quite poignant and upsetting really when you realise this is Suzy’s handwriting.” Suzy’s sister Tamsin says she is now ready for the case to conclude.She adds: “Police have been so thorough and we hear on a regular basis from them. It gives us great comfort to know they are still at it. “But I don’t know what will ever come out of it. I don’t think we will ever find anything out.” Lizzie adds: “I would like them to find something that definitively proves it was Cannan. “For me, it doesn’t change anything. Our parents were satisfied it was him. “But it would be good to have more information to know that it was him. It would also be nice for the police, who have put so much into it.” She adds: “Time moves forwards, we are where we are.”