UK UK - Suzy Lamplugh, 25, Fulham, 28 Jul 1986 #3

[asyousay]

SJL likely didn't benefit in any way whatsoever from this exceptional met police stance, nobody has except the murderer. If indeed she was murdered. Because when cases are as unclear as this, we can't even be sure that SJL didn't decide to run off and start a new life with a billionaire - all possibilities are quite literally still open. So declaring someone murdered off the back of a hastily parked car is never helpful IMO and is probably completely unprecedented.

Well she was murdered so The Met were correct. Suzy was a responsible adult who had no history of simply leaving work and vanishing off the face planet. She was also close to her family and it was quite clear from the get go this was not typical behavior. In a case like this time is of a essence and unfortunately it was hours before they had even located the car and by then all trails were cold.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Well she was murdered so The Met were correct. Suzy was a responsible adult who had no history of simply leaving work and vanishing off the face planet. She was also close to her family and it was quite clear from the get go this was not typical behavior. In a case like this time is of a essence and unfortunately it was hours before they had even located the car and by then all trails were cold.

Was she? We none of us know what happened at all

 

[asyousay]

Was she? We none of us know what happened at all

So she is playing the worlds longest hide and seek game?


This is a murder inquiry end of!!

 

[Pinkizzy]

Yes this book was rightly criticised, our two polar opposite posters may actually agree too on their dislike of it! But it does contain info on the van swerving to avoid SLs fiesta @Cluesleuth !

Full book below ...

Searching for Suzy

This is a chronology of a private investigation into the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh, the London Estate Agent. It began on the 28th July 1999 and lasted for four years. The research revealed a direct link between Suzy and John West - the younger brother of Fred West. At first the research was...

books.google.co.uk

I thought the van swerve was near Bishops Park

 

[WestLondoner]

So she is playing the worlds longest hide and seek game?


This is a murder inquiry end of!!

Well, not really. Without a body we don't know what happened. ~2,000 people go permanently missing every year in the UK and they aren't treated as murders because absent a body we don't know they're dead.

Some people die and are found a year or more later having not even been missed.

Murder's clearly a strong possibility but it can't be the only one.

 

[Crusader21]

I thought the van swerve was near Bishops Park

The Graham Mcgredy-Hunt book describing the July 2000 Crimewatch footage, said it occured in Kelvedon Rd before it's junction with Fulham Road.

From memory this incident was quite distressing, it had SL in her fiesta grapling at the steering wheel with a male passenger. The white van then swerves to avoid a collision.

Obviously as it was on Crimewatch, the police have given weight and credibility to the van diver's statement. And obviously it reflects some type of abduction / car-jacking. This may have orginated in either in Radipole Rd or Shorrolds Rd, progressing into Kelvedon Rd.

Again be great if July 2000 Crimewatch was unearthed ....

 

[Crusader21]

Just to take a step back and reflect ....

I've always thought this case to be unique yet as we all know many others have disappeared over the years and presumed dead.

The sheer speed of escalation by the police to a murder hunt and the set of circumstances that led police to take the unprecedented step of officially naming 'JC as the only suspect' are both worth bookmarking by followers of this case.

 

[Cluesleuth]

I thought the van swerve was near Bishops Park

Bishops Park was the location of the jogger sighting of the arguing couple in the the BMW

 

[WestLondoner]

The Graham Mcgredy-Hunt book describing the July 2000 Crimewatch footage, said it occured in Kelvedon Rd before it's junction with Fulham Road.

From memory this incident was quite distressing, it had SL in her fiesta grapling at the steering wheel with a male passenger. The white van then swerves to avoid a collision.

Obviously as it was on Crimewatch, the police have given weight and credibility to the van diver's statement. And obviously it reflects some type of abduction / car-jacking. This may have orginated in either in Radipole Rd or Shorrolds Rd, progressing into Kelvedon Rd.

Again be great if July 2000 Crimewatch was unearthed ....

Was this one of those accounts that surfaced 14 years after the fact?

 

[Cluesleuth]

The Graham Mcgredy-Hunt book describing the July 2000 Crimewatch footage, said it occured in Kelvedon Rd before it's junction with Fulham Road.

From memory this incident was quite distressing, it had SL in her fiesta grapling at the steering wheel with a male passenger. The white van then swerves to avoid a collision.

Obviously as it was on Crimewatch, the police have given weight and credibility to the van diver's statement. And obviously it reflects some type of abduction / car-jacking. This may have orginated in either in Radipole Rd or Shorrolds Rd, progressing into Kelvedon Rd.

Again be great if July 2000 Crimewatch was unearthed ....

I had missed the name of the street so thank you for that.
My thoughts were the same as yours that this was the possibly where the abduction/car jacking had taken place.
I cant remember if the van swerve was reported by a witness or the van driver himself can you throw any light on this?

 

[Crusader21]

I cant remember if the van swerve was reported by a witness or the van driver himself can you throw any light on this?

Van driver himself ....

 

[Crusader21]

Was this one of those accounts that surfaced 14 years after the fact?

Yes but was it something that the police had 'up their sleeves' since the original investigation, I don't know ....

If this swerve did happen, imo it rules out SL nonchalantly nipping up to the PoW to collect her items .... especially as a male was beside her causing her to speed / drive erratically!

 

[Crusader21]

This is from Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh - Wikipedia

There was then a sighting of Lamplugh driving her car erratically away from Shorrolds Road, arguing with the man in the car, causing the witness to have to swerve his own vehicle out of the way to avoid a collision.


It appears the above info may have originated from the initial / original investigation, not 2000 (though AFAIK July 2000 was the first (and only) time it was made public)

 

[asyousay]

This is from Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh - Wikipedia

There was then a sighting of Lamplugh driving her car erratically away from Shorrolds Road, arguing with the man in the car, causing the witness to have to swerve his own vehicle out of the way to avoid a collision.


It appears the above info may have originated from the initial / original investigation, not 2000 (though AFAIK July 2000 was the first (and only) time it was made public)

Which is one of the reasons why LE are convinced she went to SR. They will know a lot more than us and have no doubt held a lot back.


IMO

 

[WestLondoner]

Yes but was it something that the police had 'up their sleeves' since the original investigation, I don't know ....

If this swerve did happen, imo it rules out SL nonchalantly nipping up to the PoW to collect her items .... especially as a male was beside her causing her to speed / drive erratically!

I smell a red herring - Kelvedon is between Sturgis and Shorrolds so it would appear to support a visit to Shorrolds; but if the abduction had already happened, why is SJL still heading towards Shorrolds? There is no reason to go there.

If this is another of those 14-years-later accounts, the obvious challenge is how does the witness remember the date and time, and why did he take 14 years to come forward with it?

It also undermines the idea that this was anyone SJL knew. If someone she knew and trusted inveigled his way into her car, why's she struggling with him at the steering wheel within two streets? Why no reports of her white Fiesta in Shorrolds? How did he get to Shorrolds and where is his car?

 

[WestLondoner]

This is from Disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh - Wikipedia

There was then a sighting of Lamplugh driving her car erratically away from Shorrolds Road, arguing with the man in the car, causing the witness to have to swerve his own vehicle out of the way to avoid a collision.


It appears the above info may have originated from the initial / original investigation, not 2000 (though AFAIK July 2000 was the first (and only) time it was made public)

AS doesn't mention it though, and he had contemporaneous access to the police files.

The Wikipedia article is extremely poor. It reads like it is based entirely on sensational TV documentaries.

 

[asyousay]

AS doesn't mention it though, and he had contemporaneous access to the police files.

The Wikipedia article is extremely poor. It reads like it is based entirely on sensational TV documentaries.

Does AS mention stuff that wasn’t in the public domain?

I wouldn’t of thought his book would be allowed to release stuff that would jeopardize a on going murder inquiry.

 

[WestLondoner]

Does AS mention stuff that wasn’t in the public domain?

I wouldn’t of thought his book would be allowed to release stuff that would jeopardize a on going murder inquiry.

Fair point, but I am pretty sure it wasn't ongoing by the time he published (1988). IIRC the inquiry was wound up at the end of 1987 and the book was part of a campaign to keep the matter in people's minds.

There is an oblique reference to JC in it, I think - he mentions that another force questioned a possible suspect, but that there proved to be no case.

 

[asyousay]

Fair point, but I am pretty sure it wasn't ongoing by the time he published (1988). IIRC the inquiry was wound up at the end of 1987 and the book was part of a campaign to keep the matter in people's minds.

There is an oblique reference to JC in it, I think - he mentions that another force questioned a possible suspect, but that there proved to be no case.

The case was closed in 1987?

 

[WestLondoner]

The case was closed in 1987?

I believe so. I'd need to check AS to be sure. If not outright closed it was certainly scaled back as having run out of steam.