Both myself and in particular my wife worked for an estate agent back in the 90's and she has told me that many times she was required to attend property viewings on her own, occasionally with single male viewers, which only further brings home to us the tragedy of Suzy Lamplugh's abduction and almost certain murder in London in 1986.
Her office diary showed she that she was due to met a Mr Kipper, which we were chillingly informed could be seen either as a contraction of the word "kidnapper" or as a rhyme with "ripper", to view a flat. Her car was seen there, but she herself never returned to the office or was ever seen again and when her car was found abandoned a mile away soon afterwards, her case made the front page of the papers and the TV national news.
Her body was never discovered and it's now assumed that she was taken and murdered that day. This TV documentary revisits the case and makes a very pointed accusation of murder at a felon currently in jail for the murder of another young woman at around the same time as Suzy's disappearance, indeed, he was also strongly suspected but never convicted of a third murder of another similar victim. We were told that this suspect for Lamplugh's killing has never admitted any culpability and is in fact due to be considered for parole next year, which in itself makes it unlikely he would admit now that he was the perpetrator.
The film goes back to the beginning of the story and then moves forward to the present day as fresh reinvestigations have been carried out from time to time by the police. Initially, there was the odd coincidence of the lead of a Belgian man called Mr Kiper who drove a car suspected of being seen near the flat at the appointed time, but once this is discounted, the scent is picked up of the man who is very much the prime suspect. One police detective who interviewed this man recalls him once actually confessing Suzy's crime but soon recanting and not making any subsequent admission.
We are shown the full background of this man, who, remember, is a time-serving convicted murderer and before that also a convicted rapist, including a video he made for a video-dating agency and the words of his own brother who, along with a sister, seem likewise convinced that it was he who committed the crime. We learn that he was around the scene of the crime and indeed had only days earlier been released from jail for the brutal rape in her own shop of a young woman with her own child and mother in attendance.
The finger of incompetence is pointed at one particular senior police investigating officer, who decided to eliminate this suspect from enquiries, but while many of the other original members of the force who were on the case do share their recollections, this individual, who may himself be dead for all I know, is not represented even in historical footage.
Sadly, both of Suzy's parents died with their daughter's whereabouts still unknown and we also learn of her mother who tirelessly campaigned to change the laws regarding crimes against women, based on her own experience.
There appears to be no other suspect in this case but without a body and no confession it seems that the killer may never be brought to justice. It remains to be seen whether the incarcerated main suspect will soon be set free but we're left in little doubt by some commentators here that he should still be considered a dangerous man even if he is.
It very much seems however that this will remain an officially unsolved crime although one can only hope for the sake of her surviving family and friends that there is some future breakthrough in the case, enabling them to at last find and lay to rest her remains as well as putting behind bars the evil person who committed this foul murder.
