- The Observer, Sunday May 5 2002
She left behind her parents and two adoring younger sisters. Now the family of Suzy Lamplugh has finally been told by police that she was murdered.
Officers will brief the family within weeks on the fate that befell her. 'We still await final details,' said Diana Lamplugh. 'I'm actually looking forward to hearing exactly what happened. It will be a huge relief when I know. We have now been told that Suzy was murdered.'
Suzy, then 25, was last seen soon after leaving her office in Fulham, west London, on 28 July 1986. She had arranged to show a client, who called himself Mr Kipper, around a vacant property.
Her disappearance sparked a nationwide search. Her family always believed it unlikely that she had willingly left her life behind, but in the absence of any clues every possibility had to be considered by police.
Forensic teams have since searched sites around the country in the hope of finding remains. On one occasion, animal bones were thought to be Suzy's body.
'Time and again we've been told she's been found and then you find out it's not true,' said Mrs Lamplugh, 70. 'It can be terribly distressing.
'It must have been terrible for the parents of missing Milly Dowler to see all those headlines only the other day saying that a body had been found. Then it was not hers.
'Quite frankly, we're not so keen to actually find Suzy's body now because we don't think she'd like to be found in the state she must be in.'
Last summer, after a new appeal on BBC1's Crimewatch, police arrested a serving prisoner. He was returned to jail without charge.
'We understand that a file has been passed to the Crown Prosecution Service and that's where things are now,' said Mrs Lamplugh. 'I can give no further details. I don't want to say anything that might prejudice the case at all. We expect to know everything in the near future.'
The Lamplugh case, now called Operation Phoebus, was reopened late in 1999. It is one of hundreds which police believed might benefit from developments in DNA testing.
Six new detectives were allocated to the Lamplugh investigation. However, 4,000 lines of inquiry had already been pursued and there were a million words on file about it. It left doubt that further key clues might emerge.
'The police have been so good to us,' said Mrs Lamplugh. 'Truly excellent.'
At Scotland Yard, a spokesman for the investigation team, based at Belgravia station in central London, said: 'We have nothing further to say at this time.'
Suzy's sisters have waited nervously to discover what happened to her. Tamsin was 24 when her 'mother hen' disappeared; Lizzie was 16.
Tamsin revealed last January that she still talks to a picture of her lost sister daily. She also disclosed that she still suffers 'horrific nightmares - lots of death and stabbing, always happening to her'. She said then: 'The big thing is still to find out what happened.'
Lizzie has explained that she is always mindful of what happened to Suzy. 'When I was at boarding school, the teacher told us it was bad luck to wave goodbye. It was probably a ploy to stop pupils crying when their parents left, but since Suz disappeared, I always say my goodbyes properly.
'I never end a phone call on a bad note, or leave my husband without looking him in the eye. You never know when you'll see people again.'
In the year of Suzy's disappearance, Diana Lamplugh set up the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to promote personal safety. 'What happened to Suzy need not have happened,' she said. 'That's why we focus on helping people to learn skills which can help prevent them becoming a victim.'
The trust has campaigned for safe travel in minicabs and better protection for members of the public on trains and at railway stations. It also researches and advises on a range of issues from missing persons to the treatment of sex offenders.
Lamplugh has advised members of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy on how to deal with loss in the wake of events such as the 11 September bombings. In 1992 she was awarded an OBE for her work with the trust.
'If something like this happens to you, you never actually get over it,' said Mrs Lamplugh last night. 'You become accustomed to it. However, it's an amazing legacy that Suzy has left me. It has been very, very difficult but in a way quite remarkably fulfiling.
'Above all, I do believe that we shouldn't stop young people doing things. That's why we go into schools now to help young people deal with the wider world.
'I always remember when Suzy was 16 or so and I said to her "You're doing too much". But she said "No, mum. Life's for living". That will always stay with me.' ben.summerskill@observer.co.uk
