The Unsolved Disappearance Of Claudia Lawrence

i'm still convinced people are lying to us and so people convinced the people close to claudia have told us lies um and i'm determined to to make sure that we give them the opportunity to come forward with the right information if they continue to lie and we prove they lie and they'll be arrested on the 27th of february 1974 peter and joan lawrence welcomed their second child into the world a little girl named claudia peter lawrence was a highly respected and successful solicitor and the family lived comfortably in yorkshire claudia was educated at the prestigious york college for girls and by all accounts had a very happy childhood although her parents would later divorce claudia remained close to both of them she was sociable and friendly and had a great group of friends as she got older she discovered her passion for cooking and after attending a local catering college she quickly became a qualified chef she worked in various restaurants and hotels in york but soon grew tired of the unsociable hours and wanted a change claudia was a bubbly young woman who loved nothing more than being with family and friends so she changed employment and began working at goodric college at the university of york she was well liked and her employer described her as a reliable woman who was always on time a year later in 2007 she settled into the area and bought a cottage about three miles away from goodrich college life for claudia was seemingly going well close to her house was the nags head pub and she was a regular there becoming a well-liked patron of the business although she was close with her parents and older sister ali she kept some aspects of her life hidden she allegedly had a series of short-term relationships but did not share this with people wednesday 18th of march 2009 claudia clocked in at 6 a.m to start her shift at work at around 2pm it was time for her to finish and she was seen on cctv leaving work on foot [Music] around an hour later she was picked up again on cctv passing a shop close to where she'd lived and she was also spotted by one of her neighbors shortly after this sighting a colleague drove past her and offered her a lift home the colleague dropped her off outside her door at 2 50 pm throughout the evening she caught up with her friends and parents over the phone her mother said that during their conversation claudia seemed like her usual self she was chatty and relaxed mother's day was coming up and they discussed what they wanted to do to celebrate claudia told her mom that as her car was out of action and being repaired she would need to be in bed early as she had to walk to work the next day the following morning rolled round and as it approached 6 am the always punctual claudia failed to turn up her manager knew this was out of character and called her mobile to check on her although her phone rang it redirected to her voicemail her manager took no further action claudia also arranged to meet her friend susie cooper at the nags head pub near her house that evening susie turned up but claudia did not this was not like claudia and susie tried to contact her claudia was often on her phone as samsung d900 and susie became concerned when she heard nothing back from her the following morning friday the 20th of march susie tried again but she was met with no response she decided to get in touch with goodrich college to see if anyone had seen or heard from her she was deeply worried when they discovered that claudia had not been to work for the last two days suzy contacted claudia's father peter that day to let him know that she hadn't been to work and people couldn't get hold of her peter traveled to claudia's home where he and susie did a search of the house nothing was out of place and nothing was disturbed it looked like she had eaten breakfast as there were dishes in the sink and her bed had been neatly made some recently used hair dye bottles and gloves were also found but nothing of any real significance was there and everything was where it should be the only thing missing from the house was her mobile phone a blue rucksack which she would usually take to work and her hair straighteners when considering everything it appeared that claudia had left to go to work as normal that thursday morning and something had happened on the way which meant she never made it there at around 2pm on friday the 20th of march the call was made to north yorkshire police to report claudia as a missing person later that day officers came to claudia's house and met with her father but as there were no signs of violence and she wasn't considered vulnerable the police initially were not quick to act the police believe that claudia had probably chosen to go away for a few days and that she will come home soon but just to be sure they put out a request for the public's help and checked her usual route to work for any signs of her but claudia's family were adamant that she wouldn't leave without telling people they argued it was more likely that she had been abducted in the north yorkshire area around 3 500 people go missing each year the vast majority eventually turn up after taking a few days or weeks away and the police thought that this could have been what claudia had done but as time went on and no sign of her was found and she hadn't contacted anyone this was soon dismissed the police had several theories about what could have potentially happened to claudia one theory was that she hadn't been met with foul play but had an accident or other medical incident on her way to work this was soon ruled out by the police however as they thoroughly checked her roots and found no sign of her weeks were passed and with no sign of claudia five weeks after she vanished the police changed their inquiry they said it had escalated from a missing person's case to a murder inquiry another theory was that claudia had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time and fallen victim to a violent criminal or serial killer but a conclusive result couldn't be drawn from investigating these claims and cases of known serial killers who could have been in the area at the time were also looked into but ultimately ruled out statistically most murder victims are known to their killers the theory that police soon made the top of their priority to investigate was that she had fallen victim to somebody she knew with her different relationships making her potentially more vulnerable to an angry jilted partner or something similar the police checked the cctv cameras following her route to work but she wasn't found anywhere on the footage as the case began to escalate crime stoppers offered a reward of ten thousand pounds for anyone with information that would lead to an arresting conviction relating to claudia lawrence the police received over one thousand calls offering a plethora of information a witness came forward to say they had seen whom they believed to be claudia talking to a man on melrose gate bridge at around 5 35 am on the 19th of march the bridge was near to claudia's home he claimed that the man was smoking a cigarette in his left hand and had what they said was a skinny build he was wearing a dark-coloured hoodie with the hood up and dark coloured combat trousers the woman with him was described as smaller than the man with mousy brown hair she was wearing a blue waist-length jacket with buttons and pockets but nothing really came of this and to this day the police are still following up leads for who they dubbed the left-handed smoker the case brought the local community to a standstill and people from all over the country were desperate for any news on the missing claudia one of the leading figures in the anglican church the archbishop of york john centermou made an appeal for anyone with information to come forward to the police in june 2009 crimewatch featured a reconstruction of claudia's last known movements in a bid to generate more information well it's now 11 weeks since claudia disappeared there's been no proof of life i'm treating this investigation as one of suspected murder you see some people might think they're protecting claudia and they're protecting claudia's reputation but it's far far more important than that if indeed we are talking here about murder i mean you do want to hear from people who even have suspicions about other people that would be useful to you at this stage absolutely i'm not here to to judge claudia's relationships i'm here to investigate them i need people to share that information with me later that month her father peter launched a youtube appeal to try and help find his missing daughter the annual whitby regatta was also used to drum up publicity in the search for claudia lawrence claudia was an avid user of her mobile phone so this became a key piece of evidence for the police to investigate her phone records showed that in the weeks leading up to her going missing she had spent a lot of time in the acamaria of yorkshire claudia's phone was still on until just after midday on thursday the 19th it was then deliberately switched off cell phone tower data indicated that her phone had not left the local area during the time it was on after examining the records further they found that on the 18th of march a day before she went missing she received a text message at 8 30 which she replied to but just 45 minutes later at 9 15 she got another text which she did not respond to it was reported that the last text cord you received was from a man who lived in cyprus following on from the text message she received in september of 2009 the police revealed that they had extended their search to cyprus she had holidayed there several times and it was also believed that she had looked for job opportunities there too the man in charge of the investigation detective superintendent ray galloway said she knew several people who lived there and had received different job offers while visiting he said that some of the people who had been spoken to were reluctant to offer information several months will pass with still no sign of claudia lawrence christmas and new year's came and went and her family faced their first painful holiday without their beloved daughter and sister in march the following year the police began searching heslington and york based on information they'd received in the previous few days on the 24th of that month a muddy track near a play park was searched and the next day the search was moved to a field near the university of york these searches however would turn up nothing it was later considered that the search had been prompted by somebody providing false information detective superintendent galloway said that claudia's relationships and love life could provide an explanation into her going missing a journalist for skytv stated this was the only missing person's case they had covered where they had been threatened and warned to stay away not once but twice after an extensive initial investigation the most likely theory police believed probable was that claudia had left for work that morning and that she had been abducted and murdered by a local man she knew four years were passed and claudia's family was still no closer to finding out what had happened to her in june 2013 the north yorkshire police announced that they had formed a new major crime unit costing 300 000 pounds in october of that year they revealed they were opening several cold cases one of which was claudia lawrence the squad at the major crimes unit re-examined the case and also conducted new forensic searches of her house science had moved on since the initial investigation which allowed for more advanced techniques to be used during these further tests they found male dna on a cigarette butt in her car five years to the day after her disappearance crime watch ed cctv that had been discovered back in 2009 it showed a silver ford focus hatchback driving along the road she'd lived on the cctv showed that as the car approached claudia's house the brake lights came on [Music] another vehicle that the police wanted to track down was a white vauxhall astra van that had been picked up on a bus camera it was parked on the opposite side of the road across from claudia's house and was there for at least 30 minutes around 9 p.m on wednesday the 18th of march before long the case would take a surprising turn die malin was now heading the investigation and several arrests were promptly made all the men arrested were believed to have either had relationships with claudia or had insight into said relationships in may 2014 the police arrested a 59 year old man on suspicion of murdering claudia lawrence barely a mile from claudia lawrence's home a police forensic team is at work searching through a semi-detached house after arresting a 59-year-old man this morning on suspicion of murder but in november he was released from bale without charge in july 2014 another arrest was made paul harris was the landlord of the comb pub and was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice but he too was released without charge he explained that his only connection to claudia had been that she had had a drink in his pub in the weeks leading up to her going missing and apart from that he had no relationship with her it's almost six years since claudia a sheriff at york university vanished the man leading the case told me he's convinced some people police have already spoken to are holding back is everybody being honest with you i don't think people are being completely honest with us and those particularly closest to claudia and associates i still think there's information there they are not divulging at the minute for whatever reason i would encourage them to come forward police believe if something did happen inside claudia's house on a main road the back alleyway would have been the logical route out the focus on this alleyway brings the investigation back to where it began back to claudia's home officers say there can still be new leads and things to re-examine even after all this time on the sixth anniversary of her disappearance police released cctv that was spread through the media like wildfire at 7 15 pm on the 18th of march just a day before she was considered missing cameras near her home picked up some interesting footage the footage shows an area near an alleyway at the back of claudia's house a person is seen walking towards the alley just over a minute later they walk back out someone else is crossing the road ahead and the person walking pauses to let them pass the footage unsettled many and the police urged the public to help find who these two people were two key questions from police three weeks previously police had carried out a fingertip search of the alleyway looking for possible vital clues i'm convinced people have information that they are sat on or they've lied to us previously so there have been two previous arrests but you know and we will continue to arrest people if we believe that obstructing the inquiry come forward now it's too far too important for loyalty to someone to make you stop saying anything we just need to know on the same cctv camera around 10 hours later at 507 am someone is spotted again walking backwards and forwards from the same alley behind claudia's house the police wondered if this was the same person and what if any relevance this bore to the disappearance of claudia if it was of any relevance this could have been linked to the witness that claimed to see someone they thought may have been claudia talking to a male that was smoking on melrose gate bridge the timing was just 20 minutes apart and in the same location by her house in 2016 the north yorkshire police took the case to the crown prosecution service asking that four men be charged and put on trial for the murder of claudia lawrence the crown prosecution service refused saying there was a lack of sufficient evidence the foreman had drank at the nags head pub but denied being involved in claudia going missing the police said that witnesses had refused to cooperate and the second investigation was ended soon after stephen fulcher was the senior investigating officer into the crimes committed by notorious murderer christopher halliwell in his book detailing his work on that case he noted the similarities between claudia's case and that of shano callahan who was murdered by hallowell in 2011 he was also convicted of the murder of becky gooden in 2016. citing a phone conversation recorded in prison he claims in which halliwell was heard saying the police wanted to speak to him about eight murders a figure the police didn't recognize where did he get eight murders from it didn't come from me i've got no idea how many murders he's responsible for but clearly he made that indication and when you look at the everything we know about christopher hallewell eight is probably an underestimate christopher halliwell was interviewed about claudia in prison and flatly denied he had played any part in her disappearance and possible murder the witness's account of seeing a skinny male smoking a cigarette with his left hand on melrose gate bridge fit the physical description of hallowell despite many people's theories surrounding halliwell's possible involvement in the case both north yorkshire police and wiltshire police have said there is no evidence to link hallowell to the disappearance of claudia lawrence questions surrounding how the initial investigation was handled were asked and people wanted to know why things hadn't moved quickly enough after claudia's disappearance her father began a tireless campaign for a change in the law in july of 2019 claudia's law was passed which allowed for a guardian to be appointed if a person had been missing for more than 90 days it meant direct debits could be stopped and financial affairs managed in their absence tragically less than two years later her father peter died in february 2021 without ever finding out what had happened to his missing daughter friends and family remain hopeful that they will one day be able to answer the question what happened to claudia lawrence peter lawrence claudia's father set up a website with all the relevant links and contact information should you wish to leave a tip of any kind about claudia's case i've left a link to that in the description along with some other sites you can visit to help keep claudia's case as active as possible [Music] so to [Music] you

Channel: Truly Criminal

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Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 06 2021