The disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh remains one of Britain’s most enduring unsolved mysteries.
On 28 July 1986, the 25-year-old estate agent left her office in Fulham for an appointment recorded in her diary with a client identified only as “Mr Kipper.”
She never returned.
In Episode 2 of Crime Time Inc’s conversation with former Metropolitan Police detective Mike Barley, the investigation moves into one of its most significant and disturbing chapters: the emergence of John Cannan.
Cannan would eventually be convicted of the murder of another young woman, Shirley Banks. But it was what police discovered while investigating that case—and what followed—that caused detectives working on the Suzy Lamplugh inquiry to take a very close interest in him.
Among the details was a strange registration number:
SLP 386S.
And that was only the beginning.
The disappearance of Shirley Banks
In October 1987, more than a year after Suzy vanished, Shirley Banks disappeared in Bristol.
Later that month, police in Leamington Spa arrested John Cannan following a robbery. The arrest led officers towards evidence connected to Shirley’s disappearance and ultimately to a car belonging to her.
The Mini had been altered.
It had been crudely repainted.
And its original registration number had been replaced.
The new number plate read:
SLP 386S
For detectives already familiar with the Lamplugh investigation, the letters immediately stood out.
Could SLP have any connection to Suzy Lamplugh?
Cannan himself would later be asked exactly that question.
What he said—and what happened when Mike Barley eventually confronted him face-to-face—is one of the most remarkable parts of Episode 2.
Why John Cannan interested the Suzy Lamplugh detectives
As police examined Cannan’s background, more details emerged.
Mike explains that Cannan had been transferred to Wormwood Scrubs prison in early 1986 and placed in accommodation designed to help prisoners prepare for release.
Wormwood Scrubs is only a few miles from Fulham, where Suzy worked.
Detectives subsequently spoke to people who had known Cannan during that period. According to Mike, they learned that Cannan had talked about drinking in the wine bars of Fulham and Chelsea.
Then came another potentially important date.
Cannan was released on Friday, 25 July 1986.
Suzy disappeared three days later.
Police naturally wanted to know where Cannan had been during that weekend.
Mike describes in the episode how detectives attempted to test the account Cannan gave them—and what they discovered when they checked apparently ordinary details involving a cinema visit and a purchase from a department store.
It is one of several moments in the episode where a seemingly insignificant detail becomes important once detectives start checking it.
“Mr Kipper”
Then investigators received a statement from a woman who had been in a relationship with Cannan.
During a journey on the M5, she recalled a disturbing conversation.
The subject turned to murder, death and the concealment of bodies.
And during that conversation, Suzy Lamplugh was mentioned.
The woman was uncertain about the name of the mysterious man connected to Suzy’s disappearance.
Cannan corrected her.
According to the account given to police, he knew the name:
Mr Kipper.
What followed led detectives towards a derelict former military site known as Norton Barracks.
For Mike Barley, it became a lead that mattered enormously.
What exactly happened there, why Mike believed the location deserved further investigation, and what happened when he tried to pursue it form an important part of Episode 2.
We’re deliberately not giving away the answer here.
The prison interview
By 1990, John Cannan had been convicted of murdering Shirley Banks.
For Mike Barley and Detective Sergeant Simon Addie, that created another opportunity.
They wanted to interview him again.
And this time, Mike knew the approach had to be different.
Before entering the prison, he studied previous interviews and sought advice about Cannan’s personality and how best to communicate with him.
The resulting conversation eventually returned to Shirley Banks’s car.
To the changed registration.
To SLP 386S.
And finally to Suzy Lamplugh.
Mike describes the exchange in extraordinary detail.
He remembers Cannan’s movements.
His body language.
The eye contact.
The tone of his voice.
And then a question.
What happened immediately afterwards became one of the moments Mike Barley has carried with him ever since.
It is also one of the strongest reasons to hear the episode rather than simply read about the case.
What does Mike Barley believe happened to Suzy Lamplugh?
Episode 2 goes beyond the evidence gathered during the investigation.
Mike also explains his personal theory.
He is careful to make an important distinction:
belief is not proof.
But after years spent investigating Suzy’s disappearance, interviewing witnesses and eventually sitting across from John Cannan himself, Mike developed a clear view about what he thinks happened.
His theory attempts to explain several of the enduring mysteries surrounding the case:
Why Mr Kipper appeared in Suzy’s diary.
Whether Suzy may already have known the man she was supposed to meet.
Why her car was discovered somewhere other than the address recorded for the appointment.
How someone could have removed her from a London street without attracting immediate attention.
And ultimately, where she may have been taken.
Mike lays out that theory in Episode 2.
And it leads back to one location that he believes should have been examined far more closely.
Listen to Episode 2
More than forty years after Suzy Lamplugh vanished, the unanswered questions remain.
But Episode 2 offers something different from simply revisiting an old mystery.
It is the account of one of the detectives who was actually there.
Mike Barley explains how John Cannan came into the investigation, what detectives discovered, what Cannan told him when they finally sat face-to-face—and why Mike reached the conclusion he did.
Listen to Crime Time Inc: Suzy Lamplugh — Episode 2 at CrimeTimeInc.com, on Acast, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you normally listen to Crime Time Inc.
Real cases. Real detectives. Real talk.
Mike Barley & Russell Barnes — Suzy Lamplugh: The Inside Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Missing Person Investigation
UK: Amazon UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0GX81YK1N
Outside the UK: Search Amazon in your local country for ASIN B0GX81YK1N