Lamplugh team DNA test bodies

Suzy Lamplugh disappeared after going to meet a client

Police looking for the body of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh are testing hundreds of unidentified bodies found since her disappearance.

Miss Lamplugh vanished after arranging to show a client around a house in west London in 1986.

The Forensic Science Service has taken DNA samples from her parents in the hope of finding a positive match with unidentified remains found since their daughter's disappearance.

Suzy's parents have given DNA samples

They will create a national DNA database of unidentified remains as a by-product of their efforts to discover whether Miss Lamplugh's body could already have been discovered but not identified.

Police following tip-offs have searched a number of sites over the last 15 years - most recently near Nether Stowey in Somerset's Quantock Hills - but have so far drawn a blank.

Miss Lamplugh, who was 25, has not been seen since she left to show a mystery man calling himself Mr Kipper around a property in Fulham, south west London.

Her Ford Fiesta car was recovered the same day about a mile away.

Caller appeal

She was declared dead in 1994.

Police are also appealing for a woman who called in with information around the time of the Quantock Hills search to get back in touch.

The woman, who identified herself as Mrs Butterworth, made her call to another agency, not the police, at 1345BST on 23 April this year.

Last May the investigation was reopened and an appeal was made on the BBC's Crimewatch UK programme.

The operation to check unidentified bodies to see if they are Miss Lamplugh's was begun by police with the Forensic Science Service a year ago.

National database

Around 800 bodies found around the UK since 1986 remain unidentified.

The team looking for Miss Lamplugh will rule out the bodies of men and women aged over 30.

They will then use samples of DNA taken from the Lamplugh family to check if any of the remaining bodies are Suzy's.

Once a DNA sample has been taken from tissue from one of the bodies it will be placed on a new national database.

Anniversary upcoming

Samples can then be taken from the families of missing persons and checked against the database to see if there is a match.

That would allow the families to know that the body of their loved one had been found.

The 15th anniversary of Miss Lamplugh's disappearance is on Thursday.

Anyone with information can call police on 020 7321 9251 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.