THE mother of missing York chef Claudia Lawrence says her heart goes out to the York parents of Sarah Everard.

Joan Lawrence, whose daughter went missing in York nearly 12 years ago, said yesterday she was hoping to get in touch with Sarah’s mother "because I know exactly where she’s coming from and how she feels".

Serving Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, has been charged with kidnapping and killing former York schoolgirl Sarah, 33, who went missing while walking home from a friend’s flat in south London on March 3.

Mrs Lawrence told BBC Radio York she had been thinking about Sarah’s parents, and especially her mum, as it had been Mothering Sunday at the weekend.

“I’m just wondering how they are coping with it all,” she said. “At first I’m going to write. Because she comes from York it seems more significant for me and because her father works at the university, where Claudia was heading when she set out on that fateful morning and never got there.

“I understand her father has worked there [at the university] for a while and he may have known her [Claudia] or been aware of her, most people in York are.

“With lockdown you can’t give anyone a hug and Sarah’s mum, the thing she would want is a hug, wouldn’t she, from somebody who knows where they are coming from. I would just listen, just sit and talk and listen.

“They won’t be able to get their heads round it at all at the moment, it took me such a long time. Even now I think it’s a bad dream and it’s 12 years on Thursday since Claudia disappeared. My heart goes out to her parents.”

Her comments came as police officers investigating Sarah’s death combed a supermarket car park yesterday in the town of Sandwich, Kent, while specialist divers from Devon and Cornwall were seen searching a stretch of water.

Officers used sticks to search through a shopping trolley shelter outside a Co-operative supermarket, while others looked under vehicles.

Large portions of the historic town remained cordoned off with police tape as inquiries continued.

On the edge of the cordon, a few officers gathered for discussion as one showed their colleagues a piece of gold jewellery that was then put in an evidence bag.

The searches have happened after a body found hidden in Kent woodland was identified last week as that of Ms Everard.

Meanwhile in York, more flowers have been laid in memory of Sarah at York Minster and also on Walmgate Stray, close to the university where her father works.