About this episode

Former DCI Michael Barley revisits the unsolved case of Suzy Lamplugh, sharing insights from his investigation and the impact on policing.

Forty years after the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh, former Metropolitan Police Detective Chief Inspector Michael Barley returns to True Criminals to revisit one of Britain's most haunting unsolved cases. As the officer who established the original incident room on the night Suzy vanished and remained involved in the investigation for more than a decade, Mike offers an extraordinary insider's account of the decisions, frustrations and missed opportunities that shaped one of the UK's most notorious missing person investigations. In this exclusive interview, Mike reflects on the original inquiry, the emergence of prime suspect John Cannan, and reveals why he still believes a search of Norton Barracks could have changed the course of the case forever. He also discusses the realities of policing in 1986, long before CCTV, mobile phones and modern forensic techniques transformed major investigations, and explains why, after four decades, he felt it was finally time to tell the full story. Mike also talks about the emotional process of writing his new book with True Criminals producer Russell Barnes, sharing never-before-told insights into the investigation, the…

People in this episode

Host: Audio Bleach Global

Guest: Michael Barley

Topics covered

• missing persons
• true crime
• police investigation
• unsolved cases
• historical crime
• personal safety

Keywords

• Suzy Lamplugh
• Michael Barley
• John Cannan
• missing person investigation
• 1986 policing
• forensic techniques
• Norton Barracks

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Metropolitan Police

Books & works: Susie Lamplugh: The Inside Story of Britain's Most Notorious Missing Person Investigation

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