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

[Konstantin]

Re: other door slamming that was HR. For me HR just isn’t reliable enough as a witness. Not only did he deliberately exaggerate re: van bundling, but in Belgium he said that DR aka Kiper looked more like the man he’d seen & could well be him. Will find the article. Here is Kiper around when HR saw him

Well, Kiper, pronounced (though do correct me if I am wrong coz my Dutch is non existent) Keeper - does seem to have a broken nose. Maybe his face looks chubbier in photos (it happens).

Though I don't trust HR as a witness either. Unless he was curtain twitching, how much notice would he have taken? My neighbours are probably in and out all day as they are a family of 4, I don't notice them when I'm home during the day unless their teenage son practices his carpentry skills on his circular saw in the back garden.

The "photofit is a dead ringer for Cannan" is a prime driver in this case. Let's drop that, as it's also a dead ringer for lots of other people, and look at what else there is.

 

[WestLondoner]

But here…”At the time of the inquiry, police discounted the BMW sighting as irrelevant as it did not fit with their timeline of events”

It begs question what else was possibly dismissed as didn’t fit with the ‘correct’ timeline?

Quite so - which is why I am sceptical of claims that the police "would never have" done or failed to do this or that thing. The ruling theory was established on day 1, and what didn't fit with it was, in some instances at least, discarded. This seems unfortunately to have resulted in important stuff like the BMW and BW reports being dismissed out of hand.

 

[WestLondoner]

The "photofit is a dead ringer for Cannan" is a prime driver in this case. Let's drop that, as it's also a dead ringer for lots of other people, and look at what else there is.

Agree - IMO, Shakin' Stevens still has a *lot* of explaining to around what he was apparently doing at this ole house. He doesn't seem to have fixed the shingles, but he may have fixed the do', which could be why it shows no damage. Hmm.

 

[Lady Stoddart-West]

Well, Kiper, pronounced (though do correct me if I am wrong coz my Dutch is non existent) Keeper - does seem to have a broken nose. Maybe his face looks chubbier in photos (it happens).

Though I don't trust HR as a witness either. Unless he was curtain twitching, how much notice would he have taken? My neighbours are probably in and out all day as they are a family of 4, I don't notice them when I'm home during the day unless their teenage son practices his carpentry skills on his circular saw in the back garden.

The "photofit is a dead ringer for Cannan" is a prime driver in this case. Let's drop that, as it's also a dead ringer for lots of other people, and look at what else there is.

True on broken nose, the best likeness IMO I’ve seen is for VV that was socialising in Chelsea & Fulham at right time & in £ parts of London & his autobio outlines a 1986 date with a ‘Sloane’ he took out between the Kings & Fulham Rd: “I told the girl I was a dumb motor sports reporter who was studying English & living off my parents money”.

As you’ll note VV’s eyebrows also meet in the middle. They never found the ‘client’ doing this deal - VV was known to have at least 7 false identities. Could one of them be sitting in SL’s contact book?

 

[rvlvr]

Quite so - which is why I am sceptical of claims that the police "would never have" done or failed to do this or that thing. The ruling theory was established on day 1, and what didn't fit with it was, in some instances at least, discarded. This seems unfortunately to have resulted in important stuff like the BMW and BW reports being dismissed out of hand.

Exactly this. According to DV’s research police set about holding the press conference on the Tuesday before they’d even tracked down and ruled out Suzy’s lodger, NB. ‘An odd thing to do’, is how I think DV understatedly put it.

Whether she took the keys or not, the fundamental point, arguments from personal incredulity aside, is surely that she did not go into 37SR. Not taking the keys reinforces this point, as if it needed it. The only witness who said she was inside later admitted he might have heard the door of a different house being shut.

I think in the end this is right. The key(s) thing is interesting but not integral. The problem ultimately is that no one can really sketch out what happened that day with any certainty. Police decided around about the end of the last century that Cannan did it - but they don’t really know what ‘it’, is. They’ve reached a conclusion but have then had to work backwards, trying not particularly successfully imo to make the few bits of information they do have fit their man. Any time they open their mouths I become less convinced, not more.

 

[Konstantin]

True on broken nose, the best likeness IMO I’ve seen is for VV that was socialising in Chelsea & Fulham at right time & in £ parts of London & his autobio outlines a 1986 date with a ‘Sloane’ he took out between the Kings & Fulham Rd: “I told the girl I was a dumb motor sports reporter who was studying English & living off my parents money”.

As you’ll note VV’s eyebrows also meet in the middle. They never found the ‘client’ doing this deal - VV was known to have at least 7 false identities. Could one of them be sitting in SL’s contact book?

He looks much more like the Kipper photofit than Cannan, and was a much smarter criminal.

 

[Lady Stoddart-West]

Exactly this. According to DV’s research police set about holding the press conference on the Tuesday before they’d even tracked down and ruled out Suzy’s lodger, NB. ‘An odd thing to do’, is how I think DV understatedly put it.



I think in the end this is right. The key(s) thing is interesting but not integral. The problem ultimately is that no one can really sketch out what happened that day with any certainty. Police decided around about the end of the last century that Cannan did it - but they don’t really know what ‘it’, is. They’ve reached a conclusion but have then had to work backwards, trying not particularly successfully imo to make the few bits of information they do have fit their man. Any time they open their mouths I become less convinced, not more.

For me the biggest evidence for JC comes from his interview with Barley as transcribed by CBD in his book ‘Prime Suspect’.

JC is very clearly on the ropes at various points in this interview, he’s really struggling to sound plausible & innocent. He calls the man who killed SB, H - the same name coincidentally as SL’s most enduring love (source: AS).

More crucially, JC, when he’s not showboating but in some real conversational trouble, explains, H, the mysterious car dealer/ SB mini purchaser effectively kills both SB & SL ‘and another girl’ (odds are good for SC). If innocent & largely unaware of both SL & SC he really didn’t need to loop them in here.

I think it’s possible the SLP plate on mini was a coincidence. Or looking for notoriety (?) could he have wanted to take the credit for a crime/murder he didn’t commit.

 

[WestLondoner]

Was Suzy's car ever checked for Cannan's DNA?

Bizarrely it was MOTed until about 1993, presumably so it could be used on the road! - so it was clearly not preserved as a crime scene.