She Met a Client Who Didn't Exist — Then Never Came Back | Suzy Lamplugh

Most people wouldn't think twice about meeting a stranger in the middle of the day, especially when it was part of their job. There were co-workers waiting for her back at the office. The house was in a busy London neighborhood. And 25-year-old Suzy Lamplugh had handled appointments like this countless times before. But Suzy never returned from this one. Hours later, her car was found abandoned at nearly a mile away. Her purse was still inside. The keys were gone. And the driver's seat had been pushed back as though someone much taller had been behind the wheel. Suzy had left almost nothing behind to explain where she had gone. Only an address, an appointment time, and the name of the client that she'd gone to meet. Mr. Kipper. Susanna Lamplugh, known to everyone simply as Suzy, was born in Cheltenham, England. And by the summer of 1986, she'd built a life of her own in West London. She lived in an apartment in Putney [music] and worked as an estate agent at Sturgis, a small agency on Fulham Road. It was the kind of job that suited her perfectly. She was confident, outgoing, and naturally good with people. So, she could walk into a room full of strangers and make herself comfortable almost instantly. Before entering real estate, she'd worked as a beautician aboard the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship. A job that reflected her willingness to travel, meet new people, and try almost anything once. That confidence had been apparent from an early age. At school, teachers remembered her as bright, charismatic, and naturally inclined to take the lead. Friends described her as warm and sociable. The kind of person who seemed to move through life without hesitation. By the At 25, Suzy appeared to have everything going in the right direction. She had her own home, a steady career, a close circle of friends, and a family who heard from her regularly. There was nothing in her life to suggest that she was preparing to disappear. And yet, on July 28th of 1986, that's exactly what happened. The morning began like any other. Suzie ate breakfast, got dressed for work, climbed into her white Ford Fiesta, and drove to the Sturgis office. For the next several hours, she answered phone calls, spoke with clients, and filled her work diary with the day's appointments. At around 12:30 that afternoon, she prepared to leave for a property viewing. The client had given his name as Mr. Kipper. According to the note that Suzie left in her diary, they were scheduled to meet at 12:45 outside of 37 Sheralds Road in Fulham. Mr. Kipper was supposedly interested in viewing that property, and there was no obvious reason for Suzie to treat the appointment as anything other than usual. She gathered what she needed, she left the office, and she drove away. Her co-workers expected her back sometime shortly after the viewing. And at first, nobody paid much attention when she ran late. >> [music] >> Property appointments didn't always finish on schedule, and maybe the client had arrived late, too. Maybe the viewing had lasted longer than expected, and maybe Suzie was just caught up in traffic on her way back. There were plenty of ordinary explanations. But then another appointment came and went, and Suzie never showed up. As the afternoon continued, the mood inside the Sturgis office began to change. Suzie was dependable. She didn't simply abandon appointments or disappear in the middle of a work day without calling anyone. By 5:30 that evening, nearly 5 hours had passed since she left to meet Mr. Kipper, and there was still no sign of her. Her manager eventually contacted Suzie's mother, Diana, hoping that she might know where her daughter had gone. But Diana hadn't heard from her, either. That was when the concern became something far more serious. Suzy hadn't returned to work. She'd missed every appointment that followed. She'd not gone home. She hadn't contacted her family. It was as though she stepped out of the office that afternoon and just vanished between one appointment and the next. Later that evening, the police were called and 25-year-old Suzy Lamplugh was officially reported missing. But investigators knew exactly where they needed to begin. At that empty house in Fulham where Suzy had gone to meet a man calling himself Mr. Kipper. The police reached Fulham in record time and right away they got some interesting leads. I mean first of all, Suzy's car was found. It was parked about a mile away from the property that she was supposed to show to the client. But when the officers checked inside, there was nothing that could lead to any answers about her. It only led to more questions. Because see, the car was found unlocked. The keys were gone. Her personal belongings like her purse and other stuff were still in the car and as is always a telltale sign in situations like this, the driver's seat was pulled much further back than Suzy would have originally had it. Suzy was a fairly small woman, but the seat was far enough back for a very tall woman or man to have been driving. Also, why was the car found a mile away from the property and not on the property? It just didn't make sense to the police or anyone for that matter. The next best thing that the police could do was talk to the neighbors and the people who saw her at the time of the viewing. And luckily a number of witnesses came forward and they claimed to have seen her with a man. According to these witnesses, at around 12:50 p.m., she was seen with a quote "immaculately dressed man" at the front of the house and the two of them went inside. >> [music] >> Now, some claim that the man was holding a ribbon-adorned champagne bottle while others state that he had this private schoolboy vibe to him. But either way, he seemed to be in his 20s or 30s and a dark swept back hair. Basically, he [music] was polished to the nines and he may have had a champagne bottle with him, he may have not. The details are kind of all over the place, but some witnesses claim to have seen Suzy with this man who's presumed to have been Mr. Kipper and they got into a car together between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. The witnesses believed that the two were bickering while getting into the car and then another witness claimed to have seen the couple driving down a Shore Road erratically and a man and a woman were seen arguing in the car. The man bore the same resemblance to Mr. Kipper and the woman looked like Suzy. Now, some say it was a black BMW, some don't remember. So, we don't know for sure what kind of car the two got in, but regardless these witnesses were called in to help the police make a composite sketch of the man. And once that was done, that sketch was made public. It had now been a few days and there was no sign of Suzy and everyone was getting more and more panicked for her. She hadn't anyone during this time. She hadn't come to work or gone home. She was just gone with no explanation. The police launched a massive search in the area where she was last seen. There were many volunteers, search dogs, and parties who searched far and wide for any clue on Suzy and where she could be, but in the end it led to no promising leads. The police were highly suspicious of this mystery client, Mr. Kipper, but aside from a few vague descriptions of his looks and a composite sketch, it was going to be an uphill task to find this guy. But rather obviously, he was believed to be the last person who interacted with and saw Suzy in the flesh. So, he was naturally number one on the police's radar. The case was treated as a possible abduction right from the get-go and Suzy's family was hoping and praying for her safe return. [music] But Suzy would never come back. No clues were found and over the course of days, weeks, and then months, the investigation just hit wall after wall with no answers as to where she would have gone. Pretty soon, investigators and Suzy's family were terrified that the case had gone cold, and it did. But, it wouldn't stay that way for long. With a case like this, where there were limited leads and lots of questions and strange bits of evidence, there were theories circulating around the community. They were very concerning, and each of them was equally troubling for Suzy's family to hear. Even though they were still hopeful that Suzy would be found alive somewhere, the truth is, their hope was quickly dwindling. And after months had passed, there was more confusion than ever. A friend of Suzy's, Barbara Whitfield, claimed to have seen her with a man in a car driving up north on Fulham Palace Road at about 2:45 p.m. Another witness claimed to have seen a blond-haired woman inside a car, apparently distressed, with a man on Stevenage Road, which was the same road where the white Ford Fiesta was found abandoned. This car was a black, left-hand drive BMW, and the witness clearly heard the sound of a horn being repeatedly blared as an apparent attempt to attract attention. This statement was disturbing to hear, but it was dismissed by the police because they thought that Suzy had brown hair at the time of her disappearance, and the witness mentioned a blond-haired woman. But, what the police didn't know is that she had dyed her natural hair a blond color just a day before her disappearance. And the photos that law enforcement circulated were ones with her sporting brown hair. Even though the statement itself was quite convincing, it was still pretty vague. The witness had a hard time recalling if the woman that he saw was actually screaming or possibly just laughing. And just like the rest of the leads, this one died down as the investigation progressed. But, then the police came to learn about a very strange detail. It was something Suzy was struggling with before her disappearance. Apparently, she had a stalker. She would constantly receive red roses from a secret admirer at her workplace. Now, we don't know the full extent of the situation involving this unidentified admirer, but it was unsettling in hindsight. This just didn't happen once or twice, either. This was happening a lot. And then, there was a bizarre incident that occurred a week before she vanished. See, she frequented a local pub, The Prince of Wales in Putney. And on this particular evening out, she left her diary, her checkbook, and a postcard at the pub, clearly by accident. Now, she was extremely worried about her lost things after the fact, once she realized what she had done. But the bizarre thing was that the pub owner was contacted by two different people. A woman claiming to be Sarah told the landlord to tell Suzy to call her back. And then, another caller claiming to be a police officer also called the same place. The landlord was the one who eventually found the lost belongings and apparently kept them as keepsakes. It's weird, but okay. But when he heard of the woman's disappearance, he then handed those things over to the police. Now, this might not mean anything, >> [music] >> or it could mean something. But it was just weird for these things to happen the way that they did. For example, why did Sarah call the pub's landlord and not Suzy if she wanted to reach her personally? That seems odd. If this person knew Suzy, why not just call her directly? But also, who was the guy claiming to be a police officer? Because police knew nothing about one of their own contacting this pub. So, this was a lead for police to follow. But, it eventually led nowhere in the end. But soon after, the police decided to explore another possible avenue. They were dreading it, but they had to check just in case. They thought that her disappearance could have been the doing of a serial killer. The police checked all sorts of offenders in the area. [music] And then after some poking and prodding, they had a potential person of interest. And this man was a confirmed serial offender as suspected. And to top it all off, he'd recently been released from prison just 3 days ago to be exact before Susie mysteriously disappeared. The man's name was John Cannon, and he'd just been released from your 6-year sentence for a previous offense of attacking a young woman, much like what officers believed happened to Susie. So, John Cannon came from a middle-class family. But his family managed to send him to a private school when he was just four, although it wasn't for too long. See, John claimed that he was a victim of inappropriate misconduct by a teacher, and it took a toll on his mental health. And a downhill journey started from that point on. He was removed from school later on, which led him to temporarily join the Merchant Navy at the age of 17. And he ended up working as a salesman for his dad's company. But his criminal streak started when he was just 14 in 1968. And then he ping-ponged between committing crimes, being in prison for said crimes, having affairs, relationships with women, and then repeating all his offenses over and over. His MO was typically to approach a woman under different aliases, pretending to be either a successful businessman or a real estate agent. Now, he was very charming and eloquent when he wanted to be. He would show up to meet these women dressed to the nines, often with a bottle of champagne, which sounds pretty familiar. >> [music] >> He would also shower these women with gifts, with flowers, with attention, all in a bid to get what he wanted. But if they rejected him, well, that's when the tables would turn. He would then intimidate them, harass them, and just make their lives difficult, all because they didn't feel the same way as him. Long story short, this guy was trouble through and through. Considered a high-risk offender, he even earned a nickname during his countless prison sentences. And that nickname was Mr. Kipper. What are the odds? And on top of that, John, or Mr. Kipper, had multiple friends who mentioned he was interested in buying a house in Fulham, the same area where Suzy went missing. Now, we don't know for sure if he was truly interested in the specific property that Suzy was showing or not, but the similarities are striking. But also, remember the pub, Prince of Wales in Putney, the same place where Suzy lost her belongings? Well, John also visited that same bar all the time. And on top of this, the police sketch of the person last seen with her highly resembled none other than John. And if all this wasn't creepy and coincidental enough, a man matching John's appearance was seen peering into the Sturgis office, that same office that Suzy worked at. There were just too many coincidences and circumstances that overlapped with John and Suzy. And now, she disappeared and left so many questions for everyone. But there was one huge obstacle. There was no physical evidence against John to pin him for the disappearance. Sure, he was a suspicious guy, and by no means was he a model citizen. But there was just no physical evidence, like DNA or anything incriminating that pointed towards him being the one behind her disappearance. Everything so far was circumstantial, and this was why he was never formally charged with her disappearance, even though everyone was highly suspicious of him. Now, there was a single smudged fingerprint found on Suzy's car, but it wasn't able to provide any promising results, either. Over time, as years passed, her case began to go cold. Leads were popping up now and then, but they all led to the same dead end. No one knew what happened to Suzy or where she was. And her family was devastated by this. They just wanted to find their daughter and give her a proper goodbye. They wanted to have a place where they could go to remember but no sign of Suzy's body being found, the family endured years of uncertainty. They didn't know who had taken their daughter in broad daylight. They didn't know what happened to her. They didn't even know if by some miracle, maybe she was still alive. But in 1987, things changed. John Cannon's name was in the media again, a year after Suzy's disappearance and presumed homicide. It was now 1987, and John had finally been arrested, but not for the reasons you think. He was arrested in connection with another homicide. The victim in question was 29-year-old Shirley Banks, and she was a newly married factory worker living in Clifton, Bristol. On the fateful day of October 8th of 1987, she had been out on a shopping trip to Broadmead, and then [music] she was never seen again after 7:40 p.m. She was due to meet up with her husband after the fact, but he waited and waited, and she never showed up. This was extremely weird for him, and he immediately went into panic mode. He searched from place to place, and he couldn't get a hold of his wife. And that was when the police got involved, and she was reported missing. The search for Shirley was huge. 150 police officers and a total of 140,000 man hours were spent on this investigation. Officers were already on edge with the whole still unsolved Suzy Lamplugh case, and now another woman had gone missing under mysterious circumstances. But at the end of October of 1988, John Cannon was arrested in Leamington Spa after attacking a woman with a weapon. And after a brief cat and mouse chase, he was finally arrested by the police. His hand was seriously injured, and there was DNA on the knife, and his black BMW was also confiscated by the police, which contained restraints and a fake firearm. Three weeks following the disappearance of Shirley, the police searched John's car and found a tax document with Shirley's name on it. Her car, an orange Mini Clubman, was also found in a locked-up garage that belonged to John, and he also had no alibi for the night of her disappearance. He also borrowed a vacuum cleaner from a neighbor to clean his car on the afternoon of October 9th, a day after Shirley was last seen. Another elderly witness also came forward to the police and stated that while she was stuck in traffic near John's home by the woods, she heard a woman screaming, as well as seeing smoke billowing in the distance. And all of this was far too much for investigators to ignore. But the case came to a head almost a year into Shirley's disappearance, when in April of 1988, a woman's remains were found in an encampment at Dawsborough in the Quantock Hills. >> [snorts] >> Ironically, the place is known as Dead Woman's Ditch. The remains were positively identified as those of Shirley Banks, and her jewelry was also found nearby. A coat of John's, which he'd given to a cleaner, was then tested for DNA, and the police were able to conclude that the stains were linked to the attack on Shirley. In the end, John stood trial for her murder in April of 1989, about a year after her body was found, and he was charged with murder, assault, kidnapping, abduction, and indecent assault, to name just a few. The trial lasted 3 weeks, and the jury deliberated for 10 hours before announcing the verdict. John was found guilty on all charges, and he was given three life sentences for the murder, and was incarcerated at HM Prison Folsom. He was a category A offender, and he continues to maintain his innocence to this day in both Shirley's and Suzy's cases. But speaking of Suzy, in 1991, she was finally declared legally deceased, presumed to be murdered. And in 2002, the Metropolitan Police held a press conference in which John was officially named as a suspect in her disappearance. His parole hearing was held in October of 2023, in which he was obviously denied release considering he was a category A offender. A year or so later, in November of '24, John passed away in his prison cell at the age of 70 due to natural causes. But up to his last moment, he refused to admit to Suzy's disappearance. Her parents, Diana and Paul, also passed away in 2011 and 2018. And they left this world without ever finding answers to what happened to their daughter all those years back. But I'm sure where they may be now, those answers have been revealed to them. Now, Suzy's case is still technically unsolved, even after 40 years have passed. But considering all the evidence, I think we can all make an assumption about who likely did this. The evidence is clear. In the wake of this tragedy that completely changed the trajectory of their lives, Paul and Diana dedicated themselves to building the Suzy Lamplugh Trust, a charitable organization that helps to promote personal safety through programs and various training for people to be aware of their surroundings and protect themselves in times of [music] need. The trust also runs the UK's National Stalking Helpline. This trust was a way for them to remember and honor Suzy and provide protection to anyone and everyone who may need it. Something Suzy was unable to get at the time of her disappearance. The main goal is just to prevent situations of violence, aggression, and abuse through proper education, through counseling, through training, and it hopes to make the UK a safer place. Suzy's case was a public and media sensation during the time that it occurred. It aired on Crimewatch Daily. Many documentaries were made on the case, and even a book was written on the case by journalist Andrew Stephen in 1988. Although it was met with controversy later on. The bottom line is this case is one of the most baffling unsolved cases to have taken place in the history of the UK. To this day, Suzy's body still has not been found, even though countless searches, leads, and tips led the police to various areas, digging up the ground, but they came back with nothing. This case is as disheartening as it is mysterious, but I think we can all make a logical assumption about what happened here and who did it. But I just hope for the sake of everyone connected to this case that one day the full truth will be revealed, even if the culprit is revealed to have already passed away just a few years ago. >> [music] [music]