UK UK - Suzy Lamplugh, 25, Fulham, 28 Jul 1986 #8

[Lady Stoddart-West]

In these two Crimewatch reconstructions (the original one and a later one) of the day Suzy went missing, one thing that sticks out to me, that I've never heard before, is Suzy wore a hat the day she went missing!

Yes, the hat came up later it seems. Odd as not a particularly warm & sunny day. In fact, gloomy. As someone said upthread they stopped play on cricket due to gloom/visibility.

 

[WestLondoner]

the info is madness. he was in prison, so he cant be bristol businessman, and why travel over hundred miles to dispose of SL body.

Both good points. The affair with a Bristol businessman cannot possibly be JC but like the HFSR nonsense is trotted out to insinuate his guilt even though police know both to be quite untrue. If they're so sure it was him, why are they fortifying their public case with untruths? Who on earth does that when they've got a decently-constructed case?

The travel thing is also relevant. When before July 1986 had Cannan had the leisure to inspect routes between Bristol and Birmingham for deposition sites?

 

[Lady Stoddart-West]

this reconstruction was aired 14 yrs later. SL would not wear a hat for a viewing. it would be distracting to the client in my opinion. its the type a sloane would wear to ascot or wimbledon.

It’s a very basic hat for an event like that. I feel it’s a bit of a red herring, agree, although MJ’s early witness statement quite compelling - hat aside.

DL said SL loved a hat & I felt (understandably) clung to these small details. This very hat can be seen on the L’s hatstand in their porch in documentaries.

 

[Kasparthecat1]

yes, that is what i heard that GP retracted her statement. it would not surprise me if JC never even said it. info like this is not good strong evidence.

Yes I also recall reading about her retracting her statement, but do we know when and under what circumstances? She sold her story to the Sun at some point later didn't - I think 1989 following Cannan's conviction for Shirley Banks.

 

[Rookie D]

The GP account was really powerful, the haunting account & him driving down lanes. His eyes changing to those of a psychopath & flagging SL out of nowhere & her murder & burial. This makes me consider him more seriously somehow.

What's interesting here, is that GP talks about driving down lanes that are winding etc... but the Norton barracks was located just off of the junction M5 motorway at junction 7; the route to which from the motorway being a relatively quick and easy journey, that doesn't involve winding roads.

However, if Cannan instead took the earlier M5 junction 8, he could have travelled up towards the barracks via winding B-roads that run virtually parallel to the M5 on one side, and the Severn River on the other side.

This would take Cannan through the village of Clifton, which is also the name of an area of Bristol.

This route would have taken Cannan about 20 minutes.

So there may be a chance that SL (if Cannan was telling the truth) is buried somewhere between junction 8 and 7 of the M5 motorway, possibly near the stretch of the river Severn (that runs close to Clifton village) that runs south of Norton Barracks.

The "concrete" reference is odd, but it may explain why her remains have never been found.

 

[Kasparthecat1]

Barley said in recent podcast JC had raped GP. That does sound a very chilling account indeed.

This is something I'd never heard before that podcast. Odd.

 

[Rookie D]

What's interesting here, is that GP talks about driving down lanes that are winding etc... but the Norton barracks was located just off of the junction M5 motorway at junction 7; the route to which from the motorway being a relatively quick and easy journey, that doesn't involve winding roads.

However, if Cannan instead took the earlier M5 junction 8, he could have travelled up towards the barracks via winding B-roads that run virtually parallel to the M5 on one side, and the Severn River on the other side.

This would take Cannan through the village of Clifton, which is also the name of an area of Bristol.

This route would have taken Cannan about 20 minutes.

So there may be a chance that SL (if Cannan was telling the truth) is buried somewhere between junction 8 and 7 of the M5 motorway, possibly near the stretch of the river Severn (that runs close to Clifton village) that runs south of Norton Barracks.

The "concrete" reference is odd, but it may explain why her remains have never been found.

And of course, with a village called Clifton located just south of Norton barracks, and then JC moving to Bristol and living in a flat close to Clifton suspension bridge, could that be another one of his silly little games?

And be a clue to where he deposited SL?

 

[Kasparthecat1]

It’s a very basic hat for an event like that. I feel it’s a bit of a red herring, agree, although MJ’s early witness statement quite compelling - hat aside.

DL said SL loved a hat & I felt (understandably) clung to these small details. This very hat can be seen on the L’s hatstand in their porch in documentaries.

Agree the hat is a red herring. To me it looks like something you'd wear on a beach to keep the sun off, not something you'd conduct a house viewing in or go to a wedding in. And it was found on the parcel shelf of the Fiesta - how did it get there if SJL was wearing it? Did she return to the car later?

If MJ's couple did not come forward ( I don't think they did, did they?) then that makes the account of the couple interesting. Were they the same couple even that was supposedly seen knocking back champagne in Bishop's Park?

 

[Lady Stoddart-West]

Both good points. The affair with a Bristol businessman cannot possibly be JC but like the HFSR nonsense is trotted out to insinuate his guilt even though police know both to be quite untrue. If they're so sure it was him, why are they fortifying their public case with untruths? Who on earth does that when they've got a decently-constructed case?

The travel thing is also relevant. When before July 1986 had Cannan had the leisure to inspect routes between Bristol and Birmingham for deposition sites?

Just to play devil’s advocate, although you’re unfortunately seemingly right on untruths & exaggerations:

1. Bristol businessman - SL apparently said to Mum she was seeing one who was scary around May 86 - from Bristol. I do think it’s poss JC set himself up as one as he’d been jailed there (Bristol) & saw as aspirational place he wanted to live one day. Indeed, that’s where he went later in 86. Also AR link.

He conned ‘upmarket’ Sue near Peabody so was affecting businessman guise. Did he say he was a Bristol businessman? Possible. Deflects nicely on his London proximity.

She had an earlier affair with a Bristol or West Country businessman in 84 so there’s a confusion here which made DV etc rule out any link to Bristol.

2. Using a car to go out on trips

The fact JC took over Taggart’s HP on the red sierra meant he was getting goodcuse out of it. We know he went on a jolly to Poole in Dorset so why not his favourite places elsewhere (?) Home leave also super relaxed.

It did feel like this was a very lax halfway hostel (!) with unenforced curfews etc.

 

[Kasparthecat1]

Abduction serial killers often choose to travel a considerable distance in order to deposit their victim.

It's not just the act of killing that they enjoy, but rather the process of abducting, controlling, and spending some time with their victim before they kill them; all the while enabling time for the victim to feel fearful of their life, and even give them false hope that they will be spared.

Abduction and Deposition sites are often far enough away from each other for the police to have a tougher time in tracing the culprit.

By a killer travelling across jurisdictional boundaries, it makes the job of the police all that bit harder.

So one would expect that the man who abducted SL, is likely to have travelled outside of the local buffer zone in which the victim was taken.

It's important to differentiate between the abduction site, the kill site, and the deposition site, as they can all be vastly different in terms of geographical location.

If the killer did drive SL out of London then the obvious choice from Fulham, would be west via the M4...towards Bristol.

But the killer may have taken her to a lock up/bolt hole first, and then drove her to the deposition site later.

I think along similar lines. We know that JC drove Shirley Banks 40 odd miles to the Quantocks to (probably) kill and dispose of her body. Bristol is surrounded by water - the docks, the Avon and the Severn Estuary/ Bristol Channel. `She may never have been found if dumped in one of those locations. Yet he drove her - still alive presumably - probably in daylight - to a popular tourist spot.

If we follow the this rationale, JMO of course but it is conceivable that if JC is responsible he could easily have headed down the M4 towards Bristol - a familiar route alongside which there are plenty of sites, including large bodies of water to the south of Reading en route. It's around 40 miles.

Or possibly a slip road, like Melanie Hall. Her killer not yet found.

So plenty of options, assuming possession of a car.