The disappearance of Lord Lucan on the night of 7 November 1974 ignited one of the most compelling mysteries in modern criminal history. This was a peculiarly British affair, in which the dying traditions of aristocracy and honour captured the imagination of an entire nation. The mystery and glamour of the Lucan world have kept the story alive ever since, and probably will do for decades to come.

It all began as a straightforward murder investigation. On the same night that Lucan disappeared, police were called to 46 Lower Belgrave Street – one of London's most fashionable neighbourhoods. There, in the basement, they discovered the battered and lifeless body of Sandra Rivett, nanny to Lucan's three children. Veronica Duncan, Lucan's estranged wife, had also been attacked, but she had managed to escape from the house and raise the alarm. Later, in her statement to the police, she identified the attacker as none other than her own husband.

Suspected of murder, Lord Lucan was on the run. He had arranged to meet friends at the Clermont Club that night but he never showed up. Instead he drove to the Sussex house of his friends Ian and Susan Maxwell-Scott. According to official statements, Susan Maxwell-Scott was the last person to see Lucan. When she woke the next morning he had vanished.

Days later, the Ford Corsair Lucan had borrowed from a friend was found abandoned in the Channel port of Newhaven in East Sussex. But a massive police search failed to uncover the man himself. So what happened to Lucan? Did he commit suicide? Or did he use his network of influential friends to help him establish a new identity abroad? It's a puzzle that remains unsolved to this day.

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