Missing Claudia’s mum: “Kate helped me through my darkest days – I’m frightened for her”
Joan Lawrence formed a close bond with Kate McCann after her own daughter, Claudia, went missing in 2009…
Last week, police in Germany revealed they were “closely monitoring” a convicted paedophile who they believe murdered Madeleine McCann.
The news of a new suspect is the biggest breakthrough in the 13-year search for missing Maddie, who vanished while on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry, in Praia da Luz, Portugal, when she was just three.
When Joan Lawrence, 76, heard the news, her thoughts immediately turned to her friend Kate.
Joan’s own daughter, Claudia, was 35 went she went missing in March 2009. In the wake of her daughter’s disappearance,
Joan was desperate to speak to someone who understood her pain and reached out to Kate. The pair formed a bond that has spanned over a decade.
Now, Joan says she hopes her friend Kate will finally get some closure.
HOLDING ON TO HOPE
Joan, who lives in Malton, Yorkshire, told Closer,
“When I heard the latest developments about Madeleine, I just watched the news and cried.
“Kate and I have always held on to the hope that our daughters are alive – that they will one day be with us once again.
“But now, I’m frightened for Kate and Gerry. No matter how much they want and need closure, the scenario the authorities are suggesting is the worst possible outcome.”
Joan last spoke to her daughter Claudia over the phone on 18 March 2009 – 11 years ago.
She remembers, “We’d arranged a get-together to celebrate a belated Mother’s Day the following week.
“Before we said goodbye, we told each other we loved one another, like we always did.”
The morning after their phone call, Claudia failed to turn up at York University, where she worked as a chef.
And that night, she didn’t meet her friend Suzi as arranged. Worried, Suzi rang Claudia’s dad, Peter – who was separated from Joan – to ask if he had heard from her.
Peter went round to the house with a spare key to check on his daughter. When he arrived, there was no trace of his daughter. He immediately called the police, who launched a missing persons investigation.
Joan remembers, “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.
“Over the years I had watched news reports about missing people, including following what the McCanns were going through, with great sadness. Now, it was my reality.”
In the weeks that followed, police released CCTV footage of Claudia walking to work on 18 March. They said she was last seen by a member of the public as she returned home from work just after 3pm.
Claudia’s mobile phone and the rucksack holding her chef whites have never been found, but records show her phone went dead later that night.
Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, who led the initial investigation, said he
believed Claudia may have come to harm after meeting someone she knew on her walk to work.
In 2010, police revealed they were scaling back the team investigating the case because there were no new leads.
While Claudia’s father
Peter began campaigning for the rights of the families of missing children, Joan found comfort reaching out to the mothers of other missing or murdered children.
STRONG CONNECTION
That same year, via a journalist, she made contact with Kate McCann. Joan explains,
“I was feeling desperate and needed to talk to someone who knew exactly what I was going through. Our daughters disappeared in very different circumstances, but I thought, from one mum to another, we could help one another.
“We spoke on the phone at first. I didn’t have to explain anything to Kate. As two mums whose daughters had vanished without trace, we shared the same heartbreaking pain.
“And despite her own ordeal, she took the time to comfort me. She told me that despite Claudia going missing as an adult, she is still my baby.”
Joan and Kate have kept in close contact since that first telephone call.
Joan says, “We regularly send cards and letters. We have a strong connection that carries me through my darkest hours.
“When I read what Kate says, it’s like she’s expressing my own thoughts. She reminds me I’m not alone.”
The women have also both had to deal with negative speculation.
While Kate and Gerry faced false claims they were somehow involved in Maddie’s disappearance, Claudia was rumoured to have had affairs with married men – a detail her family dispute.
Joan says, “It’s helped knowing I’m not the only one who has to deal with these kinds of theories.
“The constant battles leave you utterly drained, wondering how you are going to get through the day ahead.”
In 2014, the police reviewed Claudia’s case again and began a forensic search of her home.
Joan says, “Whenever
I was told about a new line of inquiry, I’d spend night after night unable to sleep, or having nightmares that left me shaking in the dark, frightened of what was to come.”
Over the next two years, police would make five arrests, but no one was charged. Now, Claudia has been missing for 11 years and is legally presumed dead.
She says, “Kate wrote to me last year, just before the tenth anniversary of when Claudia went missing. It means so much to know
I’m in her thoughts.
“I wrote to her last week when I heard about the German suspect. I told her I was thinking of her and Gerry. I have mixed feelings about the news. Even if they get answers, it won’t ease their pain. They still won’t have Madeleine back.”
And when it comes to her own daughter’s disappearance, Joan is still hopeful. She 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 – just like Kate deserves to know too.”
AS TWO MUMS WHOSE DAUGHTERS HAD VANISHED, WE SHARED THE
SAME HEARTBREAKING PAIN