A missing person case sparking a £1 million manhunt, over 2,500 statements and still no one knows what happened to Claudia Lawrence when she left her home in 2009.
Claudia Elizabeth Lawrence was born on February 27 1974 in Malton, North Yorkshire to Peter and Joan Lawrence, she had an older sister named Ali. Peter Lawrence (died 11 February 2021) was a prosperous solicitor while Joan was a member of Malton Town Council and served a term as Mayor. Claudia enjoyed a good childhood and was educated at the private school, York College for Girls. Having a passion for food Claudia later attended a local catering college and qualified as a chef before getting started in her career working in several hotels and restaurants around York.
Soon Claudia tired of the unsociable hours and in 2006 got a job as a chef in the canteen at the University of York's Goodricke College, the main campus, Claudia was described as a punctual and reliable employee. Claudia was also a fan of Cyprus, having holidayed there several times and was believed to have looked into potential employment over there. In 2007, she purchased a terraced cottage in the York suburb of Heworth as it was roughly about three miles from her job. After moving to the area, Claudia would become a regular at a nearby pub, The Nag's Head, where she would meet men who she would begin relationships with.
35-year-old Claudia remained single for most of her life, enjoying a fun social life. She was reported to have had short term relationships and some of them involved married men but Claudia was very discreet about this and her family knew nothing of the relationships. It was these relationships that would spark the attention of the media and would influence the police after her disappearance.
At 6am on Wednesday 18 March 2009, Claudia started her shift at Goodricke College's Roger Kirk Centre, she completed her shift at around 2pm and was seen on CCTV leaving the campus on foot a few minutes later starting her three mile walk home. Around 3pm she was seen on CCTV again, this time passing a shop in Melrosegate near her home and was also spotted by a neighbour. A friend driving past saw her and offered her a lift to which she accepted and she was dropped off at home. Another friend said they also saw her posting a letter nearby. During the evening she spoke to her parents on the phone and was described as being normal and relaxed, there was no hint that something was wrong, Claudia and her mother discussed plans for the upcoming Mother's Day. During the conversation Claudia told her mother she was home and was planning on an early night as she had to get up at 5am the following day as she had to walk to work while her car was being repaired. She sent a final text message at 8.23pm and a final incoming text was received at 9.12pm. This is the last contact with Claudia.
Claudia was due to start her shift the following morning at 6am but failed to turn up. Her manager called her to see where she was and although the call connected the phone rang out and went to voicemail, the manager took no further action. Claudia had arranged to meet her friend, Suzy Cooper, at The Nag's Head later that evening but once again Claudia was a no show, Suzy tried calling her but there was no answer which surprised Suzy as her friend always had her Samsung D900 on her. Suzy tried again the next morning but again there was no answer, alarmed and concerned Suzy reached out to mutual acquaintances including the landlord of The Nag's Head, George Forman, to see if anyone had heard from Claudia, which no one had.
Suzy then called Peter Lawrence to inform him of her concerns. Her father called her manager and was told that Claudia had failed to turn up for work on the 19 and 20 March. Peter then used his keys to let himself into Claudia's home with George Forman, the house was in an orderly state, the bed was made and there were dirty dishes in the sink, suggesting Claudia had made breakfast. Her handbag containing her purse, bank cards and passport were inside the cottage, the only things missing were her mobile phone, a set of hair straighteners and a rucksack which she usually used to carry her chef whites to and from work. It seemed that Claudia had left the house to go to work as she had intended at 5am on the morning of Thursday 19 March but she had never arrived at work.
North Yorkshire Police were contacted at around 2pm on Friday 20 March to report Claudia as missing. Police were initially slow to act as Claudia wasn't classed as a vulnerable person and there was no obvious signs that pointed to violence, they initially assumed Claudia had gone off somewhere of her own free will and would turn up after a few days. Police did check her route to work and sent out a public request for information, the Lawrence family became very insistent that Claudia had been abducted and after five weeks police finally upgraded the case from a missing person to one of a suspected murder.
The initial line of inquiry that police followed were:
Claudia had left of her own free will with a new lover or to take up a new job or to just leave for a break. In recent years there have been an average of 3,500 missing person cases per year in North Yorkshire Police areas, the majority are solved quickly when the person reappears. However, the Lawrence family were insistent that if this were the case Claudia would have contacted them had she been able to do so and they said her vanishing was completely out of character. This theory was dismissed.
Claudia had suffered some kind of medical issue or accident while on her way to work. Her route to work was searched and no sign of her had been found so this was dismissed.
Claudia had been the victim of a chance encounter with a serial killer or another dangerous individual. There are reports of various people acting strangely in the area in the lead up to Claudia's disappearance. Cases of known serial killers in the area were investigated but have been dismissed. This theory has not been dismissed.
Claudia fell victim to a person known to her, due to her relationships with married men police felt it was a strong motive by either a scorned lover or angry spouse. This theory has not been dismissed.
A critical piece of evidence was Claudia's phone as it remained on until 12.10pm on Thursday 19 March until it was deliberately turned off. The phone had connected to a mast in the Heworth area of York throughout the morning of the 19 March until it was turned off, this shows that wherever the phone was it did not leave the local area. The only CCTV on the direct route of Claudia's journey to work was at Melrosegate Post Office and she was not picked up by it on the 29 March but this isn't critical as Claudia could have walked outside of its range or used a different route.
Detectives revealed there had been a reported sighting of Claudia and a man at Melrosegate Bridge at 5.35am on the day she vanished, the bridge is roughly just over halfway to her home. There is also the mystery man seen near an alley behind Claudia's home on the morning of her disappearance and the night before. Footage shows him walking into Heworth Place, which leads to the back of Claudia's home, before reappearing a minute later on both occasions.
There is apparently another sighting of Claudia on the morning of the 19 March thirty minutes after the bridge sighting, Claudia was seen arguing with a man outside the university, the man was described as skinny, 5'6 and wearing a dark hoodie.
Independent crime charity, Crimestoppers, offered a reward of £10,000 to anyone who could provide information on Claudia's whereabouts and the person or persons responsible. Police received over 1,200 calls and an appeal by the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, was made. In early 2009, a reconstruction of Claudia's last known movements were recreated in a Crimewatch appeal and in June, 100 days after his daughters disappearance, Peter launched a YouTube appeal for information and in late August 2009, the family used the annual Whitby Regatta in North Yorkshire to publicise her case.
In September 2009, police announced that the search had extended to Cyprus due to Claudia knowing several people there and had pursued employment there in the past. Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway stated that the people who had been interviewed had been "reluctant and less than candid" and that a team had been sent there to enquire further. It was reported that the last text message Claudia received was from a man in Cyprus who worked in a bar. Police have said the investigation has been difficult due to Claudia not using social media or owning a smartphone and that poor CCTV locations have made any possible sightings harder to find.
In late September, police conducted a search of the area that Claudia worked in, they don't appear to have found anything. In October 2009, police announced they were looking for the driver of a "rusty white van" who was seen trying to talk to women on the route that Claudia took to work in the days leading up to her disappearance. On March 24 2010, Police began searching multiple areas in the Heslington area of York due to new information obtained, an area of land near a children's play area was searched and then the search moved to a field near the university that is bordered by a playing field and student accommodation but nothing was discovered and the tip was thought to be a hoax.
The detective in charge of the original inquiry, Ray Galloway, stated it was the polices belief that Claudia's disappearance was due to her relationships with married men which he described as complex and mysterious and that the investigation had centred around a "rogue's gallery" of men she had been involved with. One Sky TV journalist stated:
"Claudia apparently lived a significant part of her life in secret. For a privately educated daughter of a country solicitor Claudia had some unusual acquaintances and this remains the only missing person case where I have been warned off or threatened - not once but twice."
The general theory for the case is that Claudia was probably abducted and murdered shortly after leaving her home on the 19 March, the killer is considered to be a local man that was known to her. Following the reveal of Claudia's relationships with men, the media became fixated with it and Suzy Cooper felt the need to defend her friend describing her as shy.
In June 2013, police announced the £300,000 creation of a new Major Crimes Unit (MCU) designed to ease the burden of day-to-day police work. Based in Harrogate, the MCU was tasked with dealing with more serous crimes such as rape and kidnap and the reviewing of cold cases. In July 2013, the force said the MCU would be looking into several cases that had seen set backs when it opened in October and announced Claudia's case would be included in reviews.
During the MCU's handling of the case they carried out new forensic tests on Claudia's home using new techniques that had not been available in 2009, her home had been left as it was since her disappearance. They found additional clues including, additional fingerprints and a mans DNA on a cigarette as well as working on the movements of Claudia's phone which showed she had spent time in the Acomb area of York in the weeks leading up to her going missing. On the fifth anniversary of her disappearance (19 March 2014) a new appeal was made on Crimewatch that showed CCTV footage of a silver Ford Focus hatchback manufactured between 1998 and 2004 driving along Heworth Road, the cars brake lights come on as it approaches the outside of Claudia's home.
This new evidence led to an arrest in the case, on May 13 2014, a 59-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of Claudia's murder, he lived close to her home and had been a colleague of hers at the university, the two were reported to be on friendly terms and he had often given her lifts to and from work. Searches were done at his house and his mothers home and he was released on bail the following day and then released without bail in November. In July 2014, the landlord of The Acomb Pub, Paul Harris was arrested for perverting the course of justice but Harris was quickly released without charge and he complained that police had excavated a section of the cellar in his pub. Harris stated that Claudia was a customer of his in the lead up to her disappearance but that he had only spoken to her briefly. There were other arrests but they also were released and not charged.
On March 8 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service refused to pursue a case submitted by police against four men they had arrested on suspicion of murder citing a lack of evidence. The suspects were all regulars of The Nag's Head and they all denied any involvement and the police complained about the lack of co-operation from witnesses. The second investigation ended with little more learnt.
In a new twist in the case a book was released in 2017 titled Catching a Serial Killer: My Hunt for Murderer Christopher Halliwell it was written by Senior Investigating Officer Stephen Fulcher and was about the murder of Sian O'Callaghan. He suggest there are similarities in the two cases and a witness came forward to say they had seen Claudia speaking to a man who matched Halliwell's description but Halliwell had been living in Swindon, Wiltshire at the time. Halliwell abducted and killed his second victim exactly two years after Claudia vanished. The two murders he has been convicted of have been in the Swindon area and both North Yorkshire Police and Wiltshire Police have stated there is no evidence linking Sian and Claudia's cases. Others think the North Yorkshire Polices fixation on Claudia's social life may have made them blind to other possibilities.
In January 2017, police announced they would be scaling back the investigation into Claudia's case leaving her mother devastated that she may never find out what happened to her daughter. Police have vowed to never give up until they bring Claudia's killer/s to justice believing that the suspect is someone in the York area.
Ten years after Claudia went missing in June 2009, the Government introduced the Guardianship (Missing Persons) Act 2017, informally known as Claudia's Law. The Act allows a guardian to be appointed to manage the financial affairs of a person who has been missing for 90 days or more. A guardian has the power to, for example, stop payments on bills. Previously, family could only take over the financial affairs of a missing person when they were declared dead under the Presumption of Death Act 2013. The Act was introduced after campaigning by Peter Lawrence with the support of MPs and came into force on July 31 2019.
At Apollo's Raven we feel sympathy for the Lawrence family who have yet to even find the body of Claudia, it must be awful to know your daughter has been killed but not to even have a body and know what happened must be truly awful. The lack of co-operation with police in this case is terrible as clearly someone local knows who is responsible for this crime. The fact that Claudia seems to have vanished into thin air while walking to work is a frightening thought and we can only hope that someone will eventually let the Lawrence family know what happened to their beloved Claudia.
If you have any information that could help in Claudia's case than you can call or text the charity, Missing People, confidentially and for free on 116 000 or online at www.missingpeople.org.uk/sightings or alternatively you can contact North Yorkshire Police on 101.
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