Claudia Lawrence’s family seek police reassurances

9:50am Monday 15th March 2010

By Megi Rychlikova

THE family of missing York woman Claudia Lawrence have called for police reassurances over the year-long investigation into her disappearance.

Relatives want to know that everything possible is being done to find Claudia after a well-known TV investigator raised questions about the police inquiry into the missing chef.

Claudia’s father, Peter Lawrence, supports the actions of North Yorkshire Police since his daughter disappeared almost a year ago and has no criticism of detectives, according to his friend and spokesman, Martin Dale.

But he welcomed an investigation by TV journalist Donal MacIntyre published in a national newspaper yesterday.

In it, the journalist claimed it took the police nine months to contact drivers who had used a Shell garage on Claudia’s route to the University of York and that they had failed to take a full inventory of her house’s contents until about three weeks ago. He suggests both courses of action should have been carried out earlier.

Mr MacIntyre also claimed that Claudia did not reply to a text message sent to her at 9.12pm, only hours after she was last seen. She was a frequent texter.

And he asked if the fact that her bed was made when her father went to her home after her disappearance meant she had spent the night elsewhere.

Also yesterday, Claudia’s sister Ali Sims asked if police had interviewed the partners of those who had relationships with Claudia.

She raised the suggestion that a jealous woman could have been responsible for Claudia’s disappearance.

“Peter welcomes a fresh view by someone coming in from outside,” said Mr Dale.

“At the end of the day we want to find Claudia. Donal MacIntyre is a highly-regarded investigative journalist with credibility.”

He said Mr Lawrence would like to hear the answers to the questions, which were of legitimate concern to her family and to the public.

He also suggested that North Yorkshire Police could ask another force to look at the investigation, with the hope that more fresh eyes could see something that those closer to the inquiries may have missed.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “This coming Thursday (18 March) is the first anniversary of when Claudia Lawrence was last seen alive.

“Both the police and her loved ones will be using this sad occasion to keep Claudia at the forefront of the public’s mind in the hope that somebody, somewhere, will come forward with information that could help to explain her disappearance. The police will also give an update on the intensive investigation.