UK UK - Suzy Lamplugh, 25, Fulham, 28 Jul 1986 #6

[su5ie]

It could be the police simply weren't interested in the tennis thing because they weren't interested in any possibility other than she went to 37SR.

The blinkers were well and truly in place from the get go .Allowing the tail to wag the dog ensured no cold case investigation would get anywhere either . It's almost like any trait that made a good detective was absent enmasse . The one thing DL should have followed through with ,when she wanted to was hiring a private detective but that would not have ensured her with slots on prime time tv nor offered her a large portion of column inches or hotlines to those in power or a control over the narrative.
In general I've found the more media scrutiny and publicity a case has the less likely it will be solved .While I agree appeals can generate leads from members of the public but this turning of the missing person into a celebrity of sorts is ridiculous. The tabloids of past and present and in todays SM environment people start to focus on the" stardom of the case " and gossip and the important bits fall to the wayside

 

[su5ie]

Well, two possibilities. One, maybe she needed the diary back sooner because it had 'phone numbers in it she needed to use and did not have written down anywhere else. So then she might bring forward the visit. Two, supposedly she was playing tennis that evening after the 6pm viewing, which might leave no time until the next day. The trouble is that the first is conjectural while the only source for this tennis engagement was DL and she was not the most reliable.

The wider points against her going to the PoW are that the WJ sighting at 12.40 undermines it, and that DV hasn't shown the pub wasn't open normally and busy. He may have established this and not written it up, but all we have is his book and there's no evidence in there that the pub was still closed at 1pm.

This is the problem in my eyes with DV if he had of had knowledge of the missing links alluded to in his book he would have included them . No point in saying checkmate if your opponent still has moves on the board

 

[Cherwell]

If the Tennis arrangement was a valid one and not an excuse given by suzy to her mother for whatever reason or one of DLs spiels. This and only this would be a reason to grab her diary earlier than arranged .As you state if she wanted to call this person to say she couldn't make it or would be delayed getting there ,and hadn't got their number memorised. But the red flag for me is Why did this person not come forward?

Well, we don't know that they didn't. That goes for all sorts of things. Just because someone or something isn't mentioned or reported doesn't mean that they remained as a loose end.

Although I don't believe there was a tennis arrangement for that day. There's only that one fleeting mention and DL could have got the day wrong. Or it was cancelled without DL's knowledge.

 

[su5ie]

Well, we don't know that they didn't. That goes for all sorts of things. Just because someone or something isn't mentioned or reported doesn't mean that they remained as a loose end.

Although I don't believe there was a tennis arrangement for that day. There's only that one fleeting mention and DL could have got the day wrong. Or it was cancelled without DL's knowledge.

We don't know much tbh only what we have been allowed to know so you are right we don't know .But I thought the purpose of this thread was to extract details from the little we do know and speculate on that

 

[Cherwell]

A lot goes unreported in most cases, mostly negative results. So (to use the tennis example) if someone contacted the police and said,
"Yes, I had arranged to play tennis with SL on the Monday evening but something came up and I couldn't make it. We spoke on Sunday and rearranged the game for later in the week",
there's no earthly reason why that would be reported. It's a 'nothing to see here, move on'.
But people tend to assume that because they haven't been told about something, it didn't happen.

 

[Terryb808]

It could be the police simply weren't interested in the tennis thing because they weren't interested in any possibility other than she went to 37SR.

That makes the most sense, very single minded.

 

[WestLondoner]

One reason why SJL might have been anxious to retrieve the diary could be that she intended to cancel the tennis. Or she now needed to given the new, 6pm viewing. But suppose the (personal) contact number was in that diary - someon's extension number at their office. She couldn'tget that off directory inquiries. So she couldn't go and get it anytime that evening, because she needed it before then.

That is, there could be quite mundane reasons she wanted it back, unrelated to any "salacious" content.