Family's lingering hope Suzy Lamplugh's killer has left a hidden message in a book

Suzy Lamplugh disappeared without a trace on July 28, 1986, and the mystery of what had happened to the estate agent, from Fulham, southwest London, captured the public’s imagination

The key to the mystery of an estate agent who vanished nearly 40 years ago may be in a book written by a murder suspect, her family claim.

Suzy Lamplugh's close relatives have longed to scatter her ashes at a place close to their hearts since she was officially declared dead, presumed murdered, seven years after she disappeared without a trace on July 28, 1986.

John Cannan – the man commonly assumed to have murdered Suzy – died earlier this month at the age of 70. He passed away in jail, serving a life sentence for killing another woman a year after Suzy went missing, having refused to acknowledge his guilt or help bring the Lamplugh family any closure.

And now Suzy's brother, Richard Lamplugh, believes Cannan's death extinguishes almost any hope of closure for him and his sisters, Lizzie and Tamsin. Yet, the family harbour faint hope Cannan may have written something incriminating in a book during his time in prison.

Richard, who himself has two daughters, said: "I gather that he was writing books in prison, so maybe someone could read them and have a look at it. But it won’t be me... There’s a lingering hope that maybe he left a hidden message or a note that would give a clue about what happened to Suze."

The last clue to Suzy's whereabouts an appointment in her diary to show a "Mr Kipper" around a house in Fulham, southwest London. Suzy’s car was found near the property in Shorrolds Road with her keys in the ignition, but there was no sign of the 25-year-old woman.

Suzy's family, including heartbroken parents Diana, a fitness club manager, and Paul, a solicitor, who are no longer alive, instinctively knew this within days of her disappearance Suzy had died.

Richard, who was in his late twenties at the time, said: "The thing that makes me sad....I felt I was quite close to Suze, and the one thing I do miss is that it would have been lovely to know what her family was like. She’d be a lovely mum. She was quite a mother duck, gentle. She had that warm nature."

Richard, now 64 and a school technician who lives in Aberdeen with his wife Christine, said he and his sisters have reluctantly come to accept it is unlikely they'll be able to scatter their sibling's ashes. However, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust was Diana’s "something good", a charity established in her daughter’s name to improve awareness of personal safety, for which she and Paul both received OBEs in 1992. It remains a potent campaigning force to this day.

Daily Mail reports today that clairvoyants from all over the world contacted the family in 1986 to claim they could tell them where Suzy was. It wasn't until October 1987 when Cannan, a Bristol-based former public schoolboy, was arrested in conjunction with the murder of factory manager and newlywed Shirley Banks – like Suzy an attractive 20-something blonde – for which he was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He was linked to Suzy's murder but never charged.