Could SnapMail have saved Suzy Lamplugh?
Her body has never been found and next year it will be 30 years since a young, intelligent and beautiful estate agent vanished in broad daylight from a busy street in an affluent part of Fulham, South-West London. The date was 28th July 1986.
Suzy Lamplugh was only 25 years old when she was reported missing after going to an appointment to meet someone who went by the name of "Mr Kipper". Witnesses reported seeing her arguing with a man outside the house she was due to show him and then getting in to a car.
Her Ford Fiesta was found one and a half miles way on the evening of her disappearance, but despite a massive search by police no trace of Suzy has ever been found.
Sadly, her mother, Diana Lamplugh, passed away in August 2011 at 75 years of age.
Real estate agents, and indeed anyone who meets strangers for personal of professional reasons, are exposed to risks of this nature on a daily basis. Thankfully, very few people go through what must be unending suffering for the Lamplugh family as a result of an engagement with a stranger, but there are ways in which a person can reduce further the risk of this type of thing happening.
The SnapMail app is one such tool that every real estate agent should have in their tool-box. By taking a quick snap of the person they are meeting, either overtly or discretely, an estate agent is dramatically reducing the risk of assault or worse. What attacker is going to follow through with an attack if he knows that his photo is sitting on a third party, secure server, even if, in a really worst case scenario, that he kills the person and steals the phone.
It doesn't bear thinking about but SnapMail is the sort of mobile phone app that could have saved Suzy Lamplugh.