A new book argues that Steven Wright, the serial killer known as the Suffolk Strangler, may be responsible for the deaths of at least five other women, including estate agent Suzy Lamplugh. Wright, 68, is currently serving a whole life order for the murders of five women in Ipswich in 2006 and the 1999 killing of 17-year-old Victoria Hall.
Author Karen Bryans, who wrote The Suffolk Strangler, spent months examining evidence and accounts from Wright's family. She says the story of Wright will not be complete "until the name of every woman he has taken from this world is finally revealed".
Possible victims named
The book raises the possibility that Wright, a former fork lift truck driver with an obsession for gambling and sex workers, may be linked to a series of unsolved murders going back decades. Among those named are Jeanette Kempton, a 32-year-old mother of two teenage boys, who vanished from a street in Brixton in 1989 and was found strangled 16 days later near Southwold, Suffolk. At the time, Wright had a job in a pub near where she vanished.
Wright may have also murdered Amanda Duncan, 26, who disappeared from the red light district in Ipswich in July 1993. Her body was never found. A year earlier, 16-year-old sex worker Natalie Pearman was discovered strangled on the outskirts of Norwich. Kellie Pratt, 28, vanished without trace in Norwich in June 2000, and the body of Michelle Bettles, 22, was found a few days after she disappeared from the Norwich red light area in March 2002.
Suzy Lamplugh case
The most high-profile case discussed is that of Suzy Lamplugh, who vanished in July 1986 after leaving her office in Fulham, west London, to meet a client known as 'Mr Kipper'. Wright had worked as a waiter on the same cruise ship as Suzy, the QE2, when she was a beautician. Wright's ex-wife Diane, who also worked on board, recalls seeing him trying to chat her up. She says: "I don't think she was interested in him, but he was [interested] in her."
Although police have never formally linked him to the case, Wright was also on shore leave when Suzy vanished. Karen says: "Wright is incarcerated, but he remains a suspect in other cases that await evidence to break them wide open."
Background and investigation
Wright was convicted in February 2008 of the murders of five women in Ipswich over a period of just a few weeks in 2006. The victims were Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Anneli Anderson, Annette Nichols and Paula Clennell. The police manhunt, Operation Sumac, involved 300 officers from 40 forces, who examined 7,500 CCTV exhibits and took 13,000 calls from the public.
In 2019, Suffolk Police reopened the case of Victoria Hall, who was snatched off the street in Felixstowe and found suffocated in a watery ditch 25 miles away. New DNA analysis pinned Wright for the crime, and he pleaded guilty to kidnap and murder in February this year. Wright, held at HMP Long Lartin, Worcestershire, has never offered a motive for his murders.
Karen describes Wright as a man "no one could remember until his face was on the front page of every newspaper". She adds: "Middle-aged men do not wake up one morning and decide to become serial murderers. They do not kill for the first time at almost 50 years old, in a frenzy."
Ultimately, Karen is determined to put his victims front and centre. "It is about the price they paid for simply being a woman in a world where the Steve Wrights and his ilk exist, where they could be any one of us." The Suffolk Strangler by Karen Bryans, published by Mirror Books, is available now, price £10.99.
