Claudia Lawrence: North Yorkshire Police say mystery floral tribute was left by a 'spiritualist'

At a press conference in York today, family spokesman Martin Dales said the bouquet had been found at an unnamed beauty spot with a note attached reading 'she is in the water'.

The discovery was made by a member of the public last month and handed in to the Find Claudia website - but police said that the person who left the item is known to them as a spiritualist and there are no links to the ongoing search.

Photo evidence of the tribute shows flowers attached to a photo of Ms Lawrence, who was last seen in 2009, alongside a note which reads “God bless her, she is in the water” and has two pointing arrows drawn on it.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “The person who left the item has been identified as a spiritualist and they have been spoken to by the investigation team. There are no substantive links to the inquiry.”

It is understood by the Yorkshire Post that the tribute was not found at Sand Hutton gravel pits, which were investigated last year in the first major lead in the case for years.

Police searched the gravel pits, just outside of York, for two weeks over summer 2021, but announced in September “nothing of obvious significance” had been found after draining one of the two lakes on the site.

Ms Lawrence, a chef at the University of York, was reported missing by her father Peter Lawrence on Friday 20 March 2009.

Aged 35 at the time of her disappearance, she would now be 47 years old.

The disapperance remains unexplained and is now treated by North Yorkshire Police as suspected murder.

After years of tirelessly campaigning both to find his daughter and to raise awareness of the turmoil of families with missing relatives, Peter Lawrence died in February 2021.

A press conference was held on Monday in York by Martin Dales to update on the search and to pay tribute to Mr Lawrence, with whom he had enjoyed a 40-year friendship.

He said: “It could be interpreted in all sorts of ways.

“There are clearly many parts that make up the jigsaw, and after 13 years it is high time the truth becomes clear and the public’s vigilance in reporting information is vital - something Peter said many times.

“Information is going to find the answers here. It’s really down to people to keep coming forward with information.

“I don’t know what to think. It’s an unusual situation for a member of the public to come across something like this.

Mr Dales disclosed that before Mr Lawrence died, they had had a conversation where he had asked his friend to keep Claudia’s name “in the lights.”

He said: “He asked me to do this - to keep his daughter Claudia’s name in public lights and not forgotten by the authorities looking for her.

“On a personal level, I miss Peter hugely after nearly 40 years of friendship and over 12 years of seeking out with him what has happened to Claudia.”