Suzy Lamplugh disappearance: Police search land in Pershore

Police investigating the disappearance of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh are searching land in Worcestershire after receiving "new information".

The body of Ms Lamplugh, who disappeared from London in 1986, has never been found and her killer never charged.

Metropolitan Police officers are now searching areas of land in Pershore.

Ms Lamplugh's family has been notified and police will remain at the scene until a "thorough search" is complete.

The new information followed publicity about the search last year of a property in Sutton Coldfield which once belonged to the mother of prime suspect John Cannan.

Cannan, 64, who is serving a life sentence for the abduction and murder of Bristol newlywed Shirley Banks, was named as a suspect in Ms Lamplugh's murder in 2002.

Officers from West Mercia Police are supporting the latest search, which the Metropolitan force said was not connected to the owner of the land.

There have been searches for Ms Lamplugh - who was officially declared dead in 1994 - in Worcestershire previously, when police excavated a field near the former Norton Army Barracks in 2000 and 2001 and land near the village of Drakes Broughton in 2010.

The 2010 site is near to the latest area of interest but that search was called off after no evidence connected to the case was found.

The search in Pershore is expected to last about two weeks, a police spokesperson said.

There is a large police cordon along the main road, the B4084, on the outskirts of Drakes Broughton in Pershore, and a mechanical digging device was checking sections of the field along with a dog unit.

A neighbour who lives across the road from the site told the BBC the "whole area is in a state of shock" at the latest development.

Ms Lamplugh's parents, Paul and Diana, who died without finding out what happened to their daughter, set up the Suzy Lamplugh Trust four months after her disappearance to support victims of stalking.

In a statement, the Trust said: "We hope that the current investigations will be successful and provide some resolution to Suzy's case."

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