Witness saw suspect throwing case into canal just after her disappearance

Suzy Lamplugh

A new claim by a retired detective suggests there might have been a Brentford link in the disappearance 34 years ago of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh.

A report in the Sun newspaper states that a witness says he saw the prime suspect in the investigation, John Cannan, throwing a suitcase into the Grand Union Canal in Brentford three days after the estate agent vanished in 1986.

On July 28 1986 Ms Lamplugh left her estate agency office in Fulham, at 12.40pm to meet a client called Mr Kipper. At 10pm, her white Ford Fiesta is discovered in Stevenage Road, Fulham.

Jim Dickie was put in charge of a new enquiry into the case. He is saying he has been told that Cannan was seen disposing of the large case by a lorry driver on his way to work at 5am.

Cannan was reportedly seen wheeling a trolley and then running away when it had been deposited in the water.

There are a number of bridges over the canal in Brentford but it has not been specified which one is being referred to.

Mr Dickie told The Sun, 'I believe the canal sighting is the best piece of information to have emerged about Suzy’s potential whereabouts since she went missing more than 34 years ago.'

Cannan was jailed for 35 years in 1989 for the rape and murder of 29-year-old Shirley Banks in Bristol.

The former detective believes there are similarities between this two cases because Ms Banks' body was found in a rural location near a main road, while the Grand Union Canal is close to the A4 and M4.

He added, 'We think that after leaving the bail hostel, Cannan had a room somewhere where he took Suzy and murdered her before hiding the body.

'There were warehouses around that area at the time where he could easily have got a trolley.'

66-year-old Cannan is currently serving three life sentences at Full Sutton Prison but has never been charged in connection with Ms Lamplugh's murder.

In 2018 police searched and dug up the garden of a property in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, once owned by the mother of Cannan but failed to find any evidence .

November 6, 2020