Shadowing Practice: She Met a Client Who Didn't Exist — Then Never Came Back | Suzy Lamplugh - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Most people wouldn’t think twice about meeting a stranger in the middle of the day—especially when it was part of their job. There were coworkers waiting for her back at the office. The house was in a busy London neighborhood. And 25-year-old Suzy Lamplugh had handled appointments like this countless times before.
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But Suzy never returned from this one. Hours later, her car was found abandoned nearly a mile away. Her purse was still inside. The keys were gone. And the driver’s seat had been pushed back as though someone much taller had been behind the wheel.
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Suzy had left almost nothing behind to explain where she had gone. Only an address, an appointment time—and the name of the client she had gone to meet. Mr. Kipper.
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] Susannah Lamplugh—known to everyone simply as Suzy—was born in Cheltenham, England. But by the summer of 1986, she had built a life of her own in West London. She lived in an apartment in Putney and worked as an estate agent at Sturgis, a small agency on Fulham Road. It was the kind of job that suited her perfectly.
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Suzy was confident, outgoing, and naturally good with people. She could walk into a room full of strangers and make herself comfortable almost immediately. Before entering real estate, she had even worked as a beautician aboard the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship—a job that reflected her willingness to travel, meet new people, and try almost anything once.
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That confidence had been apparent from an early age. At school, teachers remembered her as bright, charismatic, and naturally inclined to take the lead. Friends described her as warm and sociable—the kind of person who seemed to move through life without hesitation. By 25, Suzy appeared to have everything moving in the right direction. She had her own home, a steady career, a close circle of friends, and a family who heard from her regularly.
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There was nothing in her life to suggest that she was preparing to disappear.
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And yet, on July 28, 1986, that was exactly what happened.
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The morning began like any other. Suzy ate breakfast, got dressed for work, climbed into her white Ford Fiesta, and drove to the Sturgis office. For the next several hours, she answered telephone calls, spoke with clients, and filled her work diary with the day’s appointments.
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At around 12:30 that afternoon, she prepared to leave for a property viewing. The client had given his name as Mr. Kipper. According to the note Suzy left in her diary, they were scheduled to meet at 12:45 outside 37 Shorrolds Road in Fulham. Mr. Kipper was supposedly interested in viewing the property, and there was no obvious reason for Suzy to treat the appointment as anything unusual.
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She gathered what she needed, left the office, and drove away. Her coworkers expected her back sometime after the viewing.
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At first, nobody paid much attention when she ran late.
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Property appointments did not always finish on schedule. Maybe the client had arrived late. Perhaps the viewing had lasted longer than expected. Maybe Suzy had been caught in traffic on her way back. There were plenty of ordinary explanations.
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But then another appointment came and went, and Suzy never arrived.
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As the afternoon continued, the mood inside the Sturgis office began to change. Suzy was dependable. She did not simply abandon appointments or disappear in the middle of a workday without calling anyone. By 5:30 that evening, nearly five hours had passed since she left to meet Mr. Kipper, and there was still no sign of her.
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Her manager eventually contacted Suzy’s mother, Diana, hoping that she might know where her daughter had gone. But Diana had not heard from her either. That was when the concern became something far more serious.
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Suzy had not returned to work. She had missed every appointment that followed.
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She had not gone home, and she had not contacted her family. It was as though she had stepped out of the office that afternoon and vanished between one appointment and the next.
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Later that evening, the police were called, and 25-year-old Suzy Lamplugh was officially reported missing.
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But investigators knew exactly where they needed to begin: at the empty house in Fulham where Suzy had gone to meet a man… calling himself Mr. Kipper.
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THE INVESTIGATION The police reached Fulham in record time, and right away, they got some interesting leads. First of all, Suzy's car was found. It was parked about a mile away from the property she was supposed to show the client, but when the officers checked the inside, there was nothing that could lead to any answers about her.
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It only led to more questions. Because, see, the car was found unlocked, the keys were gone, her personal belongings like her purse and other stuff were still inside the car, and as is always a tell-tale sign in situations like this, the driver's seat was pulled much further back than Suzy would’ve originally had it. Suzy was a fairly small woman, but the seat was far enough back for a very tall woman, or man, to have been driving.
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Also, why was the car found a mile away from the property and not on the property? It just didn't make sense to the police, or anyone. Well, the next best thing for the police to do was to talk to neighbors and people who saw her at the time of the viewing. Luckily, a number of witnesses came forward and claimed to have seen her with a man.
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According to several witnesses, at around 12:50 pm, she was seen with an “immaculately dressed man” at the front of the house, and then the two went inside. Some claim that the man was holding a ribbon-adorned champagne bottle, while others state that he had that private schoolboy vibe to him.
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He seemed to be in his 20s to 30s and had dark, swept-back hair. Basically, he was polished and dressed to the nines, and he might have had a champagne bottle with him, although the details are a bit all over the place.
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Then, some witnesses claimed to see Suzy and this man, who is presumed to be Mr. Kipper, get into a car together between 2 and 2:30 pm. This witness believed that the two were bickering while getting in the car, and then another witness claimed to have seen the same couple driving down Shorrolds Road erratically, and a man and a woman could be seen arguing in the car.
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The man bore the same resemblance to Mr. Kipper, and the woman looked like Suzy. Some say it was a black BMW; some don't remember. We don't know for sure what kind of car the two got in. But regardless, these witnesses were called in to help the police make a composite sketch of the man they thought they saw with her, and once it was done, it was made public.
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It had now been a few days, and there was no sign of Suzy, and everyone was getting more and more panicked for her. She hadn't reached out to anyone during this time; she had not come to work or home—she was just gone without any explanation.
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The police launched a massive search in the area where she was last seen. There were many volunteers, search dogs, and parties who searched far and wide for any clue on Suzy and where she could be, but in the end, it led to no promising leads.
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The police were highly suspicious of this mystery client, Mr. Kipper, but aside from a few vague descriptions of his looks and a composite sketch, it was going to be an uphill task to find this guy.
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But rather obviously, he was believed to be the last person who interacted with and saw Suzy in the flesh, so he was naturally number one on the police's radar.
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The case was treated as a possible abduction right from the get-go, and Suzy's family was hoping and praying for her safe return. But… Suzy would never come back. No clues were found, and over the course of days, weeks, and then months, the investigation hit wall after wall, with no answers to where she had gone.
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Pretty soon, investigators and Suzy’s family were terrified that the case would go cold - and it did - but it wouldn’t stay that way for long.
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A LACK OF LEADS With a case like this, where there were limited leads and a lot of questions and strang ebits of evidence, there were theories circulating in the community. They were very concerning, and each of them was equally troubling for Suzy’s family to hear.
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Even though they were still hopeful that Suzy would be found alive somewhere, the truth is that hope was quickly dwindling, and after months had passed, there was more confusion than ever.
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A friend of Suzy's, Barbara Whitfield, claimed to have seen her with a man in a car driving up north on Fulham Palace Road at around 2:45 pm.
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Another witness claimed to see a blonde-haired woman inside a car—apparently distressed—with a man on Stevenage Road, which was the same road where the white Ford Fiesta was found abandoned.
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This car was a black, left-hand-driven BMW, and the witness clearly heard the sound of a horn being repeatedly blared as an apparent attempt to attract attention.
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This statement was disturbing to hear, but it was dismissed by the police because they thought that Suzy had brown hair at the time of her disappearance, and the witness saw a blonde-haired woman. But what police didn't know was that she had dyed her natural brown hair a blonde color just a day before her disappearance, and the photos that law enforcement circulated were ones with her sporting brown hair.
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Even though the statement itself was quite convincing, it was still very vague.
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The witness had a hard time recalling if the woman he saw was actually screaming or laughing, and just like the rest of the leads, this also died down as the investigation progressed.
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Then, the police came to learn about a very strange detail. It was something Suzy was struggling with before her disappearance.
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She apparently had a stalker.
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She would constantly receive red roses from a secret admirer at her workplace. Now, we don't know the full extent of this situation involving this unidentified admirer, but it was unsettling in hindsight. This didn’t just happen once or twice either - it was happening a lot.
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Then there was a bizarre incident that occurred a week before she vanished. See, she frequented a local pub, the Prince of Wales, in Putney, and on this particular evening out, she left her diary, checkbook, and a postcard at the pub, clearly by accident.
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She was extremely worried about her lost things after the fact, once she realized what she had done.
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But the bizarre thing was that the pub owner was contacted by two different people. A woman claiming to be “Sarah” told the landlord to tell Suzy to call her back.
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And then another caller, claiming to be a police officer, also called the same place.
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The landlord was the one who eventually found the lost belongings and apparently kept them as keepsakes..? Weird, but okay. But when he heard of the woman's disappearance, he handed the things over to the police.
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This might not mean anything, or it could mean something, but it was just weird for these things to happen the way they did. For example, why did “Sarah” call the pub's landlord and not Suzy if she wanted to reach her? That seems really odd, if this person supposedly knew Suzy. Also, who was this guy claiming to be a police officer? Because police knew nothing about one of their own contacting the pub.
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So, this was a lead for the police to follow, but… it eventually led nowhere in the end.
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But soon afterward, the police decided to explore another possible avenue. They were dreading it, but they had to check just in case. They thought that her disappearance was the doing of a serial killer.
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The police checked all sorts of offenders in the area, and then after some poking and prodding, they had a potential person of interest. This man was a confirmed serial offender, as suspected, and to top it all off, he had recently been released from prison—3 days ago, to be exact—before Suzy mysteriously disappeared.
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The man’s name was John Cannan, and he’d just been released from a mere 6-year sentence… and his previous offense… was attacking a young woman. Much like what officers believed happened to Suzy.
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THE SUSPECT So John Cannan came from a middle-class family, but his family managed to send him to private school when he was just 4, although it wasn't for too long.
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See, John claimed that he was a victim of inappropriate misconduct by a teacher, and it took a toll on his mental health, and a downhill journey started from that point on. He was removed from school later on, which led him to temporarily join the Merchant Navy at the age of 17, and then he ended up working as a salesman for his dad's company.
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His criminal streak started when he was just 14 in 1968, and then he ping-ponged between committing crimes, being in prison for said crimes, having affairs and relationships with women, and then repeating the offenses.
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His MO was to approach women under different aliases, pretending to be either a successful businessman or a real estate agent. He was very charming and eloquent when he wanted to be. He would show up to meet these women dressed to the nines… often with a bottle of champagne - which sounds pretty familiar.
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He would also shower these women with gifts, flowers, attention, all in a bid to get what he wanted… but if he rejected them… well, that’s when the tables would turn.
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He would then intimidate them, harass them, and overall make their lives difficult, all because they didn’t feel the same as him.
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Long story short, this guy was trouble through and through. Considered a high-risk offender, he even earned a nickname during his countless prison sentences… and that nick-name… was Mr Kipper.
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What are the odds? And on top of that, John, or Mr. Kipper had multiple friends who mentioned he was interested in buying a house in Fulham - the same area where Suzy went missing. Now, we don’t know if he was truly interested in the specific house that Suzy was showing or not, but the similarities are definitely striking.
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But also, remember the pub, Prince of Wales in Putney—the same place where Suzy lost her belongings? Well, John also visited that same bar all the time. On top of this, the police sketch of the person last seen with her highly resembled none other than John.
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Then, as if all of this wasn't creepy and coincidental enough, a man matching John's appearance was seen peering into the Sturgis office—the same office Suzy worked at. There were just too many coincidences and circumstances that overlapped John and Suzy, and now, she had disappeared and left so many questions for everyone.
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But there was one huge obstacle. There was no physical evidence against John to pin him for the disappearance.
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Sure, he was a suspicious guy, and by no means was he a model citizen, but there was just no physical evidence, like DNA, or anything incriminating that pointed towards him being the one behind her disappearance. Everything so far was circumstantial. This was why he was never formally charged with her disappearance, even though everyone was highly suspicious of him.
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Now, there was a single smudged fingerprint found on Suzy's car, but it wasn't able to provide any promising results either. Over time, as years passed, her case began to go cold. Leads were popping up now and then, but they all led to the same dead end. No one knew what happened to Suzy or where she was. Her family was devastated by this whole ordeal.
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They just wanted to find their daughter and give her a proper goodbye. They wanted to have a place where they could go and remember her, but with no sign of Suzy's body being found, the family endured years of uncertainty. They didn't know who had taken their daughter in broad daylight. They didn't know what happened to her. They didn't even know if, by some miracle, she was maybe still alive.
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But in 1987… things changed.
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AN ARREST..?
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John Cannan’s name was seen in the media again a year after Suzy's disappearance and presumed homicide. It was now 1987 and John had finally been arrested. But not for the reasons you think. He was arrested in connection with homicide.
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The victim in question was 29-year-old Shirley Banks, and she was a newly married factory worker living in Clifton, Bristol. On the fateful day of October 8th, 1987, she had been out on a shopping trip to Broadmead, and then… she was never seen again after 7:40 pm.
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She was due to meet up with her husband after the fact, but he waited and waited only for her not to show up. This was extremely weird for him, and he immediately went into panic mode. He searched from place to place, and couldn't get a hold of his wife. That was when the police got involved and she was reported missing.
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The search for Shirley was huge. 150 police officers and a total of 140,000 man-hours on this investigation. Officers were already on edge with the whole still-unsolved Suzy Lamplugh case, and now another woman had gone missing under mysterious circumstances.
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But at the end of October 1988, John Cannan was arrested in Leamington Spa after attacking a woman with a weapon, and after a brief cat-and-mouse chase, he was finally arrested by the police.
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His hand was seriously injured; there was DNA on the knife, and his black BMW was also confiscated by the police, which contained restraints and a fake firearm.
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Three weeks following the disappearance of Shirley, the police searched John's car and found a tax document of Shirley's in it. Her car—an orange Mini Clubman—was also found in a locked-up garage of John's. He also had no alibi for the night of her disappearance.
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He also borrowed a vacuum cleaner from a neighbor to clean his car on the afternoon of October 9th—a day after Shirley was last seen. Another elderly witness came forward to the police and stated that while she was stuck in traffic near John's home by the woods, she heard a woman screaming, as well as saw smoke billowing in the distance. All of this.. Was just far too much for investigators to ignore.
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But the case came to a head almost a year into Shirley's disappearance, when in April 1988, a woman's remains were found in an encampment at Dowsborough in the Quantock Hills. Ironically, this place is known as "Dead Woman's Ditch." The remains were positively identified as those of Shirley Banks, and her jewelry was also found nearby.
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A coat of John's, which he had given to a cleaner, was then tested for DNA and the police were able to conclude that the stains were linked to the attack on Shirley.
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In the end, John stood trial for her murder in April 1989, about a year after her body was found, and was charged with murder, assault, kidnapping, attempted abduction, and indecent assault, to name a few. The trial lasted about 3 weeks, and the jury deliberated for 10 hours before they announced the verdict.
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John Cannan was guilty of all charges. He was given three life sentences for the murder and was incarcerated at HM Prison Full Sutton. He was a category A offender in prison, and he continued to maintain his innocence—in both Shirley's and Suzy's cases.
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But speaking of Suzy, in 1991, she was declared legally deceased, presumed to be murdered, and in 2002, the Metropolitan Police held a press conference in which John was officially named as a suspect in her disappearance.
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His parole hearing was held in October 2023, in which he was denied release and was still classified as a Category A offender.
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A year or so later, in November 2024, John passed away in his prison cell at the age of 70 due to natural causes. But up until the last moment, he refused to admit to Suzy's disappearance or whatever happened to her.
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Her parents, Diana and Paul, also passed away in 2011 and 2018, and they left this world without ever finding answers to what happened to their daughter all those years back. But I’m sure, where they may be now, those answers have finally been revealed.
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Suzy's case is still technically unsolved, even after 40 years have passed. But, considering all the evidence, we can all make our own assumptions about who we believe did this. The evidence is clear.
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In the wake of this tragedy that completely changed the trajectory of their lives, Paul and Diana dedicated themselves to building The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, a charitable organization that helps to promote personal safety through programs and various training for people to be aware of their surroundings and protect themselves in times of need.
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The trust also runs the UK's National Stalking Helpline.
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This trust was a way for them to remember and honor Suzy and provide protection to anyone and everyone who needs it—something Suzy was unable to get at the time of her disappearance.
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The main goal is to prevent situations of violence, aggression, and abuse through proper education, counseling, and training, and it hopes to make the UK a much safer place.
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Suzy's case was a public and media sensation during the time it occurred. It aired on Crime Watch Daily; many documentaries were made on the case, and even a book was written on the case by journalist Andrew Stephen in 1988, although it was met with controversy later on.
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The bottom line is that this case is one of the most baffling unsolved cases to have taken place in the history of the UK. To this day, Suzy's body still hasn't been found, even though countless searches, leads, and tips led the police to various areas, digging up the ground, but they came back with nothing.
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This case is as disheartening as it is mysterious. But I just hope, for the sake of everyone connected to this case, that one day the truth will be revealed, even if the culprit is revealed to have already passed away.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “She Met a Client Who Didn't Exist — Then Never Came Back”. This video has 94 sentences and 3784 words to shadow. The speech runs for 21:41. The speaker talks at a natural 175 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| disappearance noun | /dɪsəˈpɪəɹəns/ | The action of disappearing or vanishing. |
| offender noun | /əˈfen.dɚ/ | One who gives or causes offense, or does something wrong. |
| disappear verb | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | To vanish. |
| unsolved adjective | /ʌnˈsɑlvd/ | Not yet solved. |
| blond adjective | /blɑnd/ | Of a bleached or pale golden (light yellowish) colour. |
| presume verb | /pɹɪˈz(j)um/ | To be so presumptuous as (to do something) without proper authority or permission [with to (+ infinitive)]. |
| investigator noun | /ɪnˈvɛs.tɪˌɡeɪ̯.təː/ | One who investigates. |
| landlord noun | /ˈlæn(d).lɔɹd/ | A person that leases real property; a lessor. |
| champagne noun | /ʃæmˈpeɪn/ | A sparkling white wine made from a blend of grapes, especially Chardonnay and pinot, produced in Champagne, France, by the méthode champenoise. |
| countless adjective | /ˈkaʊntləs/ | Synonym of uncountable. |
| abandon verb | /əˈbæn.dən/ | To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions. |
| sketch noun | /ˈskɛt͡ʃ/ | A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines. |
| belonging noun | /bɪˈlɔŋɪŋ/ | The feeling that one belongs. |
| suspicious adjective | /səˈspɪʃ.əs/ | Arousing suspicion. |
| diary noun | /ˈdaɪ.ə.ɹi/ | A daily log of experiences, especially those of the writer. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
| come forward verb | To offer help or information, especially about a crime. |
| die down verb | To become less virulent or strong; to subside. |
| dig up verb | To excavate something. |
| drive away verb | To force someone or something to leave |
| drive down verb | To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to decrease. |
| drive up verb | To cause or force a price, quantity, rate, etc. to increase. |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was found · was born · were scheduled |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | person who seemed · people who saw · person who interacted |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have finally been revealed · have passed · hasn't been found |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 22 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, don't, wasn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: champagne /ʃæmˈpeɪn/, suspicious /səˈspɪʃ.əs/, abduction /æbˈdʌk.ʃn̩/, vanish /ˈvænɪʃ/, sensation /sɛnˈseɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: disappearance /dɪsəˈpɪəɹəns/, investigator /ɪnˈvɛs.tɪˌɡeɪ̯.təː/, supposedly /səˈpoʊ̯.zɪd.li/, mysterious /mɪˈstɪɹi.əs/, similarity /ˌsɪm.ɪˈlæɹ.ɪ.ti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like disappearance, offender, disappear.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.