Claudia Lawrence’s mum:
“I’ll do everything I can to find answers”
❛ I BELIEVE SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO HER ❜
When Claudia Lawrence failed to turn up for her shift as a chef at York University, and later missed plans to see a friend on 19 March 2009, her father reported her missing to the police, and the case soon became national news.
Within weeks, Claudia’s disappearance was treated as murder, despite no body being found. But even after several arrests, no one has ever been charged with her murder and, ten years on, her family are hoping their beloved Claudia is still alive.
Speaking exclusively to Closer, Claudia’s mum, Joan, now 75, says the pain of not having any answers has never gone away.
She says, “When Claudia went missing, my life as I knew it ground to a halt. It was as though a light had suddenly gone out. Now, ten years later, we’re still in the same heartbreaking state of turmoil.
“I can’t give up because, if I do, I won’t be able to get up each day and face the world. So, just like I have since the day Claudia vanished, I’ll carry on doing everything I can to find the answers we so desperately need, and pray one day by some miracle she may come home.”
Joan last spoke to Claudia, who was then 35, over the phone on Wednesday 18 March 2009.
INVESTIGATION
She explains, “We’d arranged a gettogether to celebrate a belated Mother’s Day the following week. I had no idea it was the last time I would ever speak to my daughter.
“Before we said goodbye, we told each other we loved one another, like we always did. I would give anything to hear those words once more.”
The morning after their phone call, Claudia didn’t turn up at York University, where she was worked as a chef. She’d arranged to meet her friend Suzi in her local pub that night, but never turned up. It was then Suzi rang Claudia’s dad, to ask if he had heard from her.
Peter went over to Claudia’s house to check if she was OK. When there was no trace of his daughter, he immediately called the police, who launched a missing persons investigation.
HARROWING
Joan says, “Those early days were the most harrowing of my life. Nobody could have warned me what lay ahead. Every time the phone rang, I prayed it would be news of Claudia.”
In the weeks after Claudia went missing, police released CCTV footage of her walking to work the day she went missing and claim she was last seen by a member of the public as she returned home from work just after 3pm.
Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, who led the investigation, said he believed Claudia may have come to harm after meeting someone she knew, and members of the public reported seeing someone fitting Claudia’s description with a man at several points on her route to work the day after she was last seen.
It was later claimed that Claudia had been having affairs with married men; a detail her family disputed. In 2010, police revealed they believed Claudia had had a secret boyfriend whom she visited two days before she went missing and were searching an address ten miles from her home, but later revealed they were scaling back the team investigating the case because there were no fresh leads.
Joan says, “I couldn’t and still can’t understand how a grown woman could disappear without a single trace. We had always been so close and I’d always believed she’d confided in me with anything.”
Claudia’s mobile phone and the rucksack she would have taken to work holding her chef whites have never been found, but records show her phone went dead later that night. It was assumed something had happened to Claudia on
her way to work. Her car was in the garage and she would walk the 1.5-mile route in the dark at 5am.
In 2014, the police reviewed the case again and began a forensic search of Claudia’s home. Over the next two years, five arrests were made, but no one was charged.
Joan says, “Whenever a body was found or an arrest was made, I felt as though another part of my heart had been taken away.
“Not a single day passed when I didn’t light a candle in my living room and literally pray someone could tell me what had happened to Claudia.
CAMPAIGN
“On her birthday, anniversaries and special occasions, I buy a bunch of purple tulips – her favourite flowers – and carefully place them in a vase she had bought for me. This year, I’d like to organise a church service to remember her.”
While Claudia’s father, Peter, has campaigned for the rights of the families of missing children – receiving an MBE for his work that helped the 2017 Guardians bill pass – Joan has found comfort in writing to the mothers of other missing or murdered children – including Kate Mccann, mother of Madeleine, who went missing while on holiday in Portugal in 2007, and Helen Needham, whose son Ben, then 21 months, went missing in Kos in 1991 – all of whom have offered support.
STRUGGLE
But daily life and landmark celebrations have remained a struggle without Claudia, who would have turned 45 this month.
Joan says, “When I turned 70, friends and family arranged days out and a meal, but it was hard to smile when there was an obvious missing place at the table. The only gift I truly wanted was to see my daughter again. Although I love spending time with Ali, Claudia’s sister, and my grandsons, there is always something missing.”
PRAYING
As Claudia disappeared more than seven years ago, she can now legally be presumed dead, but her family are still holding out hope for answers, even if it’s bad news.
Joan says, “I believe someone, somewhere, knows what’s happened to Claudia – they have to – there’s no other logical explanation. I pray someone will come forward and end our suffering as a family. I have to know what happened to my daughter, no matter how heartbreaking it may be to deal with.”