The prime suspect of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh’s murder is on his deathbed, it was revealed last night.
John Cannan, 68, is receiving end-of- life palliative care in prison.
The family of Suzy, whose body has never been discovered, will now be hoping Cannan will finally reveal what happened to her before he dies.
Police named him as the chief suspect in the disappearance of Suzy, 25, in Fulham, West London, in July 1986.
He is serving a life sentence for another murder and has always denied any link to Suzy’s case.
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Cannan, who is in Full Sutton jail, East Yorks, has been suffering from ill health for several years but would have been eligible for parole this year.
Suzy’s brother Richard was unaware of his medical condition but urged him to reveal the truth before he died.
He told the Mirror: “I would like Cannan, if he does know, to tell us what happened to Suze. After all these years, I would like him to finally let us know what happened.
“It would mean a lot to the family.”
Suzy went missing after going to meet a “Mr Kipper”, of whom a photofit was later released, to show him around a house in Shorrolds Road, Fulham.
Her white Ford Fiesta was later found outside a property for sale in Stevenage Road about a mile-and-a-half away.
The doors were unlocked, the handbrake was off and her purse was found in a side door pocket.
In 2002, police finally named Cannan as the prime suspect in Suzy’s disappearance and murder.
But the CPS said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute him. Officers have conducted a series of digs in recent years for Suzy’s body, including in Worcestershire in 2019.
In 2018, the garden at Cannan’s mum’s previous home in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, was also searched.
The former car salesman was given three life sentences for abducting and murdering Shirley Banks, 29, in 1987.
Cannan was handed a whole life tariff, later reduced to a 35-year minimum.
In 2019, Cannan spoke to the Sunday Mirror in a phone call from his cell ahead of an earlier parole bid.
He said: “I had no involvement in the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh.
“I am concerned the police will use Suzy’s disappearance to undermine my parole prospects.
"My concern is that smearing me has become the rule, not the exception.” At the time, Cannan also revealed he was suffering from partial paralysis and needed to use a wheelchair following a stroke.
He claimed the Met were “determined to use me as a convenient peg to hang the disappearance upon”.
Retired Det Supt Jim Dickie, who spent six years investigating Suzy’s abduction, said: “Cannan is still a suspect for the disappearance and murder of Suzy Lamplugh.
“He’s extremely manipulative and must not be trusted.”
In a previous interview, Suzy’s brother Richard added: “If he’s done it then I would like him to tell us her whereabouts and we can then bury her where we want to bury her, rather than where whoever killed her has buried her.
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“We’ve been through so many developments you don’t get your hopes up.
“You accept what comes and if you find her, so be it.
“Then we will have to cope with whatever comes of it.”
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said last night they were unable to comment on Cannan’s health.
