Why was key evidence ignored in the Suzy Lamplugh case?

0:02Sky News, the full story first.

0:12Forty years on, the Metropolitan Police are looking for new evidence in relation to the disappearance of Susie Lampion. This is why.

0:25Martin Brunt:How does a banana trigger a CIA-backed coup? Do AirPods herald the arrival of a new global order? What do LED lights say about the future of humanity? I'm Ed Conway, and in each episode of my new podcast, Stuff Matters, I take an object, crack it open, and reveal the world-shaping forces hidden inside. This is economics told through the things we think we understand. Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow.

0:59You as a mother, you as a person who's involved, I mean, you can't help it. You can't help but get out there and say, please find her. Hello, my name is Mari Arora and welcome to today's episode of This Is Why. 40 years ago, 25-year-old estate agent Susie Lampew went to meet a client and was never seen again. Susie's family have never stopped trying to find her, and neither has the Metropolitan Police. But without sufficient evidence and many unexplained aspects of Susie's disappearance, the case was never brought to trial. Now, previously ignored information might be the key to cracking the case.

1:39Martin Brunt:I was totally unaware of it until I got an email in 2019 telling me about it, and I passed that information to the police. And what happened? Nothing. I'm joined by Martin Brunt, Sky's crime commentator, who's been following this case from the very beginning. Martin, thanks for being with us. What happened to Susie Lampie? Nobody knows. That's the riddle that's persisted for 40 years. She left her office 40 years ago today at 12.40. She had an appointment not far away in Fulham in West London to meet a client to show him round a house. And all her colleagues knew about who she was meeting was a note she wrote in her work diary, which said simply, Mr Kipper, which is an intriguing name, whether it was his real name or whether it was a nickname she'd given him, nobody knows.

2:40She drove in the

2:42Martin Brunt:company car to this house that she was showing to this client. And there were witnesses who saw her a few minutes after she left her office, waiting outside the house or appeared to be waiting. There are other witnesses, a neighbour or two, who saw her a few minutes later leaving the house. Nobody's quite clear whether she went inside, but they saw her leaving with a well-dressed man. One witness said he was carrying a bottle of champagne, which only kind of added to the mystery. And she was never seen again. And it was later that night, 10 o 'clock that night, her company car was found abandoned.

3:22Martin Brunt:Again, not very far away, a five-minute drive away near the River Thames, still in the Fulham area. And that's it. There have been no other sightings. Martin, where were you when you first heard about this case? I was a young reporter in Fleet Street. And I remember getting caught up in the absolute media frenzy around this story, because there appeared to be no real trace at all. And it was fuelled, of course, because there were several pictures that showed her, you know, a bubbly, attractive woman. And I know those things shouldn't make any difference, what somebody looks like, but they did in those days.

4:04Martin Brunt:And her photograph was everywhere. It was front page news. And I think what added to the media interest particularly was the fact that her parents, Diana and Paul, were very, very keen to talk to journalists and express their fear on the basis that, you know, information needed to go out there. And they wanted the whole country to be looking for their daughter because there was absolutely no explanation for her disappearance. How did the case develop in the kind of early weeks and months? I mean, there were those early witnesses who saw Susie around the house where she was supposed to be showing this client and then nothing and it was really I mean it wasn't until the following year when a man called John Canan was convicted of the rape and murder of a woman called Shirley Banks who was a similar age to Susie similar in character in some ways she was a newlywed and she vanished and her body was found dumped in a stream.

5:10Martin Brunt:But John Canan was convicted of this murder, rape and murder, and it also transpired that he committed other rapes and he suddenly became a suspect in the Susie case, but he wasn't pursued as a prime suspect. And some years later, when there was an internal review of what the early detectives had done in the Susie case, there was a lot of criticism that for one reason or another, this man John Canan had not been pursued properly as a suspect. And it was some years later in 2002 that the police finally named him as their prime suspect. But that was many years after Susie had vanished and the opportunities for gathering evidence against him had, if not vanished, had certainly diminished.

6:01And then how did the case develop over the following decades? I mean, we're talking multiple decades since Susie disappeared.

6:08Martin Brunt:Yeah, well, her parents continued to campaign for information, but they also launched the Susie Lamplew Trust. This was a, I suppose, if you want to find something positive that came out of Susie's disappearance, it was this, the setting up of the Susie Lamplew Trust, recognition of the dangers to women, and certainly lone workers, as Susie was, going off to meet a client without any colleague with her. And the trust has grown and grown over the years. So that was one aspect of the Susie Lamplew story. But police had tip-offs over the years about where her body might be. There were a number of searches, at least six, I think.

6:52Martin Brunt:And at one point, with John Canan still at the back of the police mind as the prime suspect. They dug up his mother's garden in the West Midlands. They dug up other areas, but all in vain. Nothing was found. But they continued to look at John Canaan, even though the early criticism was that they hadn't treated him seriously as a prime suspect. They did eventually. And there were intriguing clues and you could say circumstantial evidence against him. the police they put together a file for the crown prosecutors in 2002 but the prosecution prosecutors the cps decided that there wasn't enough evidence and it was at that point in 2002 that scotland yard made a rather unusual announcement they announced that john canan was their prime suspect they believed that he had abducted and killed susie but they just didn't have enough evidence to persuade prosecutors to charge him.

7:57Martin Brunt:And that's where it stayed. And John Canan continued to deny any involvement and died two years ago. So you might think that was the end of the case, but the police in the last few days ahead of this anniversary have made it clear that they are still investigating. Well, this is what I was going to ask you, Martin. So fast forward 40 years, where is the police investigation now? I mean, I think the police, the Metropolitan Police are stung by that review in 2000 that, you know, really castigated the early investigators, or certainly the chief detective in charge of the case at the time. So they've done a couple of reviews since, which means they go back and look at all the evidence.

8:41Martin Brunt:I mean, quite a big thing to do, looking for potential witnesses, forensic opportunities and so forth. The officer in charge of the case now believes that there are perhaps 30 witnesses that they still want to contact. And these are not new witnesses. These are witnesses who, at some stage over the last 40 years, have come into the police investigation. So they're going to spend the next 12 months looking for those 30 potential witnesses. Of course, it's likely that not all of them will still be around. A good many of them may be dead, but there might just be somebody there who might have a bit of information that wasn't given at the time.

9:27And there's also one other intriguing eyewitness account.

9:32Martin Brunt:This is a sighting by a man who was walking by a canal. In fact, it lies just behind the Sky Building in Isleworth. a stretch of the canal. This man says that at five o 'clock in the morning, he passed a man wheeling a big suitcase or a big bag of something, some type. And as he walked past him, he heard a splash. So he thinks this man dropped this big case in the canal five o 'clock in the morning, two or three days after Susie vanished. And this man is convinced that the man he saw was John Canan. He recognised him a year later from newspaper reports of his subsequent trial on the murder of Shirley Banks.

10:14Martin Brunt:That man said he went to the police station three times, gave them his information, but it never reached the murder investigation. And it wasn't until, what, seven years ago that this evidence emerged. And do we know why? Do we know why that never reached the police investigation? It doesn't really make sense, does it? He says he went to the local Nick Brentford police station, told them three times. He told his family that they didn't seem that interested. So he rather gave up. He died. His family then contacted Jim Dickey, one of the former now retired police officers. He thinks that this is quite compelling evidence.

10:56Martin Brunt:So he gave it to the Met Police seven years ago. So their argument is that they haven't gone back and searched that stretch of the canal. They say that that part of the waterway was searched in 2015 on another murder investigation. And they are quite convinced that nothing was found there that related to Susie. But they have said in the last few days, if there is anybody with any more information about that sighting along the canal stretch, then please come forward. But they want to hear that equally. They want to hear from anybody out there, even after 40 years, who might have some information that might just either point again to John Canan, perhaps some conclusive evidence that he was Seuss's killer, or perhaps might point to somebody else.

11:54I mean, it's it's still a mystery.

12:07Martin Brunt:How does a banana trigger a CIA-backed coup? Do AirPods herald the arrival of a new global order? What do LED lights say about the future of humanity? I'm Ed Conway, and in each episode of my new podcast, Stuff Matters, I take an object, crack it open, and reveal the world-shaping forces hidden inside. This is economics told through the things we think we understand. Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow.

12:43Let's look forward now to the impact of the Susie Lampou case. What impact do you think it's had on the way the Met Police operates today?

12:55Martin Brunt:Well, clearly, they learned an awful lot of lessons when that major review found so many failings. They will tell you that they don't or they try not to make the same mistakes then. It's very difficult to compare, I think, a murder investigation now with one 40 years ago. There were things that the Met were criticised for, like, for instance, the senior investigating officer didn't pursue John Canan, as others might have done, because the information about him, the tip-off about him, had come from the Lampleau family and not through policing endeavours. Now, I mean, that's an awful thing to have happened, if that's what happened, but that's what the review found.

13:40I can't believe that any senior investigating

13:44Martin Brunt:officer now would let the relationship with the family get in the way of what should or should not be done. But I think it's all about computerisation and the advance of science that I think make murder investigations and other investigations very different to the way they were 40 years ago. What impact has this case had on society in the way we think about personal safety and obviously in particular women's safety? Well it's been a huge issue hasn't it? It was highlighted after Susie's disappearance hence the setting up of the Susie Lamplew Trust that campaigns and educates about personal safety.

14:29Martin Brunt:The murder of Sarah Everard again was an opportunity for those involved the charities involved in highlighting or campaigning on safety to to highlight that case again. Police forces were told a few years ago by, I think, by the Chief Police Officers Association, or the NPCC as it is now, that they should prioritise on the safety of women and girls. And I think if you ask any police force, they will say that they do just that, but, you know, they can't protect all women and girls who are out alone. And I think they would probably quite rightly say that it really is a matter of education. But these cases do highlight the dangers.

15:19And Martin, final question for you. You've been a crime correspondent for decades. You've had a long career reporting on crime. For you, where does this case, the Susie Lampie case, sit in some of the kind of biggest cases that you've covered?

15:34Martin Brunt:It resonates particularly with me because I did cover it in my early Fleet Street days. But I think once Sky had started, and Sky began three years after Susie disappeared, and it was still a big story then. And I do remember going to the family house in West London and talking to her dear mum, Diana, who was absolutely, I mean, she was very sweet, very friendly, always welcome reporters into her home. We'd make you a cup of tea. I particularly remember her telling me she liked the fact that my shoes were always so polished. I mean, little things like that. I remember from covering this case. And of course, you know, you've got a sense of, you know, the distraught that she and the family were feeling, but also how they were turning it into something positive in the launching of the Susie Lamplew Trust that is still going strong today.

16:38Martin Brunt:So, and as I said earlier, there are very few cases of missing women that aren't solved. So throw all of that in, give, you know, my 40 years of covering this case means that it is one of the most important cases that I've covered. And, you know, like everybody else, I hope that the Philip that this anniversary is giving to the investigation will produce results because, you know, I've spoken to Susie's mum and dad over the years. I mean, they're no longer with us and and recently I spoke for the first time to her two sisters and you absolutely get a sense and why wouldn't you of you know how not desperate there's not a desperation about them but you know how they would dearly love to find out not so much what happened to her but where she is and if they can recover her remains.

17:37Martin thank you for your time. Pleasure. Don't forget to email us at why at sky.uk with your suggestions for future episodes. And this is Why. We'll be back tomorrow.

18:12Martin Brunt:And in each episode of my new podcast, Stuff Matters, I take an object, crack it open and reveal the world-shaping forces hidden inside. This is economics told through the things we think we understand. Search Stuff Matters on your podcast app to listen and follow.