THE best friend of missing York chef Claudia Lawrence says she still cries every day without her “ally” by her side.

Suzy Cooper said she never dreamed in her worst nightmare that the case would drag on this long – and she begged anyone with fresh information to come forward.

Suzy admitted she found walking past Claudia’s home, which has lain empty since she vanished, “sinister”, and said she still believed the York chef had come to some harm.

While Suzy said she “had to believe” Claudia was still alive, she worried about the “different Claudia” that her friend would be, should she ever return.

“It is hard to say what I would do if Claudia walked through the door tomorrow,” she said. “She would be a different Claudia than she was nearly three years ago.

“In the time that has passed it would not have been a happy time for her. I still believe someone took her. It would be brilliant to have her back but it would be very different to how it was.

“I think about Claudia every single day. There is not a day goes by when I do not think about her and cry.

“What I miss the most is her understanding of me. We are just very similar in so many ways. She was never judgemental and was always there. I just miss having her around and know that my life will never be as good as when she was in it.

“It is just not going to get any better until we have proof about what happened.”