A MAN suspected of murdering missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh’s has died in prison.
John Cannan, 70, was put behind bars in 1989 for the abduction and murder of Shirley Banks.
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The killer was later suspected in the murder of Suzy Lamplugh, 25, from London.
The estate agent disappeared in 1986 and her body has never been found.
The Prison Service confirmed Cannan’s death at HMP Full Sutton.
A spokesperson added: “As with all deaths in custody, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman will investigate.”
Suzy vanished after leaving her office to meet a client named “Mr Kipper” to show him two houses in Fulham.
She didn’t return to work after the appointment and was never seen again.
Over the decades, police have chased up a number of leads relating to the disappearance, but have continued to draw blanks.
The 25-year-old was declared dead, presumed murdered, in 1994.
Cold case detectives named Cannan as the prime suspect of her murder in 2002.
However, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to prosecute him.
A fellow prison inmate came forward after Cannan was named as the suspect.
He claimed that Suzy had been buried under the patio at Cannan’s mother’s house.
Police returned to the property to dig up a section of the garden in 2018 but nothing was found.
However, there were other clues which suggested Cannan was Mr Kipper long before this tip-off.
He was given the nickname “Kipper” by others at a bail hostel where he lived at the time of the murder — due to his fondness for the fish and a habit of having a “kip”.
Cannan was being held in Full Sutton prison, in East Yorkshire, at the time of his death for the murder of another woman, newlywed Shirley Banks, in 1987.
In 1989 he was convicted of rape, attempted abduction, murder and attempted robbery following a series of crimes against young professional women.
The evening before Shirley was killed, Cannan had attempted to kidnap a woman.
He was also found to have raped a third at knifepoint in Reading, Berkshire, a year earlier.
Cannan was handed three life sentences, and despite originally being given a whole life tariff, this was later reduced to a minimum 35-year sentence.
His attempts to appeal the mandatory 35 years had been rejected.
