Hope of new leads after four years as missing Claudia’s home searched

A team of forensic experts from North Yorkshire Police yesterday entered the terrace house where Miss Lawrence lived before she disappeared in March 2009 to conduct a painstaking search for vital clues in the hope of establishing what happened to the York University chef.

The decision to conduct the fresh forensic search has come about as part of a cold case review of the unsolved murder investigation. It is employing techniques which have been developed since Miss Lawrence was last seen walking near her home in Heworth Road in York on March 19, 2009.

Her father, Peter Lawrence, yesterday spoke of his hope that the new search and publicity surrounding the unexpected development in the police inquiry would lead to detectives receiving an invaluable tip-off about what happened to his daughter.

Mr Lawrence, a solicitor from York, said: “There must, as we know, still be somebody out there. If this new investigation sparks somebody’s conscience, the family really need to know.”

While the missing person inquiry was upgraded to a murder investigation the month after Miss Lawrence’s disappearance, detectives have found no trace of her. Police revealed she had been involved in relationships of “complexity and mystery”, which sparked lurid allegations about her private life.