Claudia Lawrence vanished without a trace after failing to turn up to work at York University and the disappearance has become one of Britain’s most well-known unsolved missing person cases
A dog walker has claimed she found a backpack belonging to missing chef Claudia Lawrence just days after she disappeared 16 years ago.
Claudia Lawrence was 35 when she vanished without a trace after failing to turn up to work and, despite an extensive investigation since, her case remains a mystery. Her horrified mum Joan, 81, told the Mirror this week she has “lost all faith and trust in the police,” following a remark made by a police chief on Crimewatch in the month’s after the disappearance.
But fresh information continues to come to light in what has become one of Britain’s most well-known unsolved missing person cases. A podcast called Answers for Claudia spoke to a woman called Bev, who claims she found a rucksack worn by Claudia when she went missing.
She said the purple and blue Karrimor bag was next to a tree stump near the River Tees at Ingleby Barwick – around 40 miles from York – and contained some sandwiches wrapped in foil. Bev said she discovered the bag in the days after Claudia was last seen – on March 31, 2009.
Bev initially left the rucksack alone but returned later to look for the bag after seeing DCI Lucy Pope, of North Yorkshire Police, mention it in a press conference. By then though, the rucksack had gone.
Bev told the podcasters: “It wasn’t until I seen the newspaper article that I then went, that is the bag I found. I distinctively remember turning the newspaper over and seeing the bag, knowing that is the bag I found.”
Claudia, a chef, was initially subject of a suspected murder enquiry. Despite the coverage on BBC June 2009’s Crimewatch and other media, no one has ever established what happened to Claudia, or where she might be.
The Answers for Claudia podcast also this week spoke to Dave, a van driver said he saw a woman about 20 miles away on the A1M near Wetherby, North Yorkshire, the night before Claudia was last known to have gone to work. When he saw the missing woman’s face on the news a few days later he said: “That’s the woman off the A1, that’s her.”
Joan this week said she discovered a hidden loft in Claudia’s home in Malton, North Yorkshire. However, as her confidence in the police is so low, it may never get searched.
She told us: “I don’t want the police to do it alone as they didn’t get it right the first time. I’d be happier with someone like the charity Locate International going in. It’s very hard as a mum to carry on each day alone and not knowing. If things had been done properly at the beginning of the search for my daughter, maybe we would have answers by now. I have no idea if the attic was ever searched but it wouldn’t surprise me if it hadn’t been.”