Video: End our torture, pleads father of missing Claudia

The chef, then aged 35, was last seen on March 18, 2009, when she finished her shift at York University. That evening she spoke to her parents and was thought to be at home in York.

Despite North Yorkshire Police launching one of the biggest investigations in its history and the case making headlines around the world, Claudia’s sudden disappearance that day has never been explained.

And speaking ahead of a renewed appeal for information by police today, Mr Lawrence said his state of mind had veered from “great hope” to despondency as he, his ex-wife Joan and Claudia’s sister Ali waited for news.

He said: “No-one knows unless they are in the same position, what it means every day and in fact most nights, waiting, worrying. ‘Where are you Claudia? Are you safe? Is someone holding you? Have you been hurt? And of course, are you alive?’

“It is now five years, which is 1,800 of those days and nights, it is an awfully long time to be in this position. It eats into you. It is a lot like a cancer and it gets worse and worse because there is no relief until we know what happened to Claudia.

“If you have information about it and you are reading this, please please do realise what it is doing to us. It just eats into you like a hole and it is torture.

“Whatever loyalties may have been there five years ago may have changed, but even if they haven’t, for the family’s sake please say something.

“This is really a torture, not just for me but for Joan and Ali, it is the same for other people who have a member of their family go missing. My plea is to see what it is doing, just imagine the torture and please say something. We still hope for Claudia’s safe return, five years is a long time but people have been missing for longer than this and have been returned safely, or at least returned, to their families.”

The mysterious disappearance of Claudia, who would have celebrated her 40th birthday last month, has become one of the highest profile missing-person cases this century. It is thought she may have been murdered but her body has not been found.

The officer in charge of the original investigation, Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, retired from the force last year with the case still unresolved.

But since then Mr Lawrence and his family have been given more reason to hope after North Yorkshire Police’s new and enhanced Major Crime Unit announced it would be reviewing the case in search of a breakthrough. Last October forensic experts spent weeks combing her home for fresh clues.

Officers will issue an update on their investigation today ahead of a special Crimewatch appeal airing tomorrow which will reveal new leads in the case.

Speaking to the media at Middlethorpe Hall in York yesterday, Mr Lawrence said he believed the new team should be given time to “thoroughly investigate”, adding: “If that takes a bit of time, in the context of five years it is worth it.”

“We have always said, and Superintendent Ray Galloway and the current senior investigating officer says, that someone out there knows what has happened to Claudia or at least has information about it.”

He added: “They have been very thorough, they have a completely new team, a very experienced team. I do hope that this is going to get somewhere but you can’t be too hopeful.

“I sense that they are determined to find out what happened, to find Claudia, which is the assurance the chief constable gave me before this started.”

Anyone with information should call North Yorkshire Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

A picture of missing Claudia will appear on national digital billboards this week to mark the fifth anniversary of her disappearance.

The appeal was shown first at Leeds train station from 10am yesterday and will continue to appear all week.

The scheme to show appeals about missing people in train stations and town centres was launched by Kate McCann, whose daughter Madeleine disappeared in 2007.

Jo Youle of charity Missing People said: “The billboards are such a powerful tool in searching for missing people and we hope that the digital appeal will help find Claudia on this sad anniversary.”