A THREE decade long search for the missing estate agent Suzy Lamplugh has led officers from the Metropolitan Police to Pershore in a bid to solve the mystery of her disappearance.
Investigating officers, together with forensic teams began combing fields off the A44 on Wednesday (July 3) in a search which the Observer understands could take two weeks, though police chiefs would only say officers would remain until a ‘thorough’ search had been completed.
A vast cordon covers the site from the A44 across the B4084, on the outskirts of Drakes Broughton and a digger is being used as part of the search along with a dog unit.
Officers also look to be investigating the woodland on the site.
The body of Miss Lamplugh, who disappeared from London in 1986 and was declared dead in 1994, has never been found and her killer never charged.
In a statement on Wednesday, Metropolitan Police chiefs said the new search was sparked after the force received new information about Miss Lamplugh’s disappearance following the publicity around the search of a property in Sutton Coldfield last November.
The fresh information was thoroughly reviewed, leading to officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime Command to Worcestershire to make further enquiries in the area currently being investigated.
Police chiefs have stressed the owner of the land being searched is in no way connected to this operation or the investigation and Miss Lamplugh’s family had been notified of the development.
It’s the third time in the last 19 years the search for Miss Lamplugh has led to Worcestershire as Met chiefs excavated a field near the former Norton Army Barracks in 2000 and 2001 and land near Drakes Broughton in 2010.
The current search is located close to the 2010 site which was axed after no evidence connected to the case was discovered.
Former car salesman John Cannan, 64, was named the prime suspect in the case in 2002.
Cannan is currently serving a life sentence for the abduction and murder of Bristol newlywed Shirley Banks and the property searched in Sutton Coldfield in 2018 had previously belonged to his mother.
Miss Lamplugh’s parents Paul and Diana both died without knowing the truth about their daughters death but established the Suzy Lamplugh Trust in the late 80s.
In a statement, the trust said: “We hope the current investigations will be successful and provide some resolution to Suzy’s case.”
