Detectives are planning to re-enter missing Claudia Lawrence’s home after it emerged that a hidden loft above her bedroom may never have been physically searched.
North Yorkshire Police are now aiming to conduct a fresh sweep of the still vacant home after some other potential evidence was also discovered after her mother Joan made a return trip for a recording of the ‘Answers for Claudia’ podcast.
In a fresh episode of the hit series the team make a visit to check on Claudia’s still vacant two-bed terraced home in Heworth, York, where they make some fresh discoveries of items that have sparked fresh police interest.
Acting on a tip-off to the podcast, they find some personal items in the pockets of Claudia’s jackets – two tissues and an opened packet of chewing gum- which could hold crucial DNA clues as to who the chef was with before she vanished without trace in March 2009.
On the eve of what would be her 51st birthday on Thursday, they also discover a loft hatch inside a row of fitted wardrobes which, it transpires, may not have been previously physically searched by police.
As a result of these findings, the case’s new Senior Investigating Officer is seeking permission from Joan to return to the house. This will be the first time in the best part of a decade that police have been inside Claudia’s home, and could herald a major development in the long-running mystery.
Claudia, then 35, was reported missing after she failed to turn up for work at York University on March 18, 2009.
Her disappearance has been treated as a murder inquiry by North Yorkshire Police almost from the start, and the case has become one of the best-known unsolved crimes of the past 20 years.
The force has so far conducted two major investigations and questioned nine people, but no charges have ever been brought. The last major operation in relation to the case was in 2021 when officers spent a number of days conducting an extensive search of flooded gravel pits at Sand Hutton, near York.
The force says the investigation has been in a “reactive phase” since 2017 but insist it remains an open investigation being reviewed by cold case teams.
added: “I again want to make it clear that the investigation is not closed.
The new podcast contains an interview with a potential witness who believes she may have discovered Claudia’s missing purple and blue rucksack days after her disappearance.
The lady, called Bev, revealed how she was walking her dog by the River Tees in Ingleby Barwick – around 40 miles from Claudia’s home – when she saw a purple and blue rucksack nestled in the hollow of a tree which she opened and found some cheese sandwiches wrapped in tin foil.
She says that when she subsequently opened up a newspaper on March 23rd and saw the then senior investigating officer Lucy Pope holding up a version of Claudia’s missing Karrimor bag she exclaimed: “That’s the bag I found.”.
She emailed North Yorkshire Police and then her own mother, who told her (in no uncertain terms” to go and retrieve the bag instantly. But when she reached the tree it had gone.
She never received a phone call from the investigation team.
A few days earlier on A1 near Wetherby – 16 miles west of York – a man named Dave was driving his van delivering and collecting cash to arcades, when he almost hit a distressed looking woman stood in the rain-lashed carriageway.
He said: “I was looking at the road and in-between lane one and lane two I saw a woman stood on the white line with her arms out. My colleague shouted ‘watch out’ and I was ready to pull around her and I just remember the face of this woman standing there. She looked absolutely petrified and I must have missed her by inches. It all went in slow motion and I saw the fear in her eyes.
This was the day before Claudia went missing and she subsequently attended work at York University that day.
Dave says he pulled over in case he had hit the woman but also to let the police know because he feared it might have been an attempt to get his van to stop as part of an attempted robbery.
He says he thought nothing else until days later news of Claudia’s disappearance popped up on his local tv station
He said: “I was just sitting there and I said to my wife ‘that’s her’” That’s the woman off the A1. I got goosebumps.”
He told police of the sighting but told the podcast that he didn’t hear anymore.
TV psychologist Kerry Daynes told the podcast that the potential sightings mean police must take a wider perspective on the case.
She said: “We have to take findings from outside the immediate surroundings as significant. The fact is Claudia operated in separate domains and that means we have to broaden the investigation.”
Claudia’s father Peter, who campaigned for his daughter to be found, died four years ago.
North Yorkshire Police have been approached for comment.
‘Answers for Claudia’, from Audio Always and 6Foot6 Productions, featuring contribution from Daily Express Crime Editor Paul Jeeves, is available on all good streaming platforms now.