18 March 2024 , 18:58
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Fifteen years on today from her daughter’s disappearance, Joan Lawrence has vowed: “I will never give up looking for Claudia.”
As police issued a fresh appeal for information, Joan, now 80, insisted: “I will find a way to keep going.” Claudia Lawrence, a university chef, was 35 when she was reported missing after she failed to show up to work in 2009.
Cold case detectives yesterday called for people with information to break their silence and end the family’s suffering. Joan said: “The not knowing is unbearable. Every morning I wake up with a range of emotions and my heart never stops aching.
“I am constantly asking myself, where is she and what happened. It’s a nightmare. It feels like a lifetime, but even worse, a life sentence. The suffering is unbearable.” She added: “I can’t grieve or lay flowers at Claudia’s grave because I don’t know where she is. All I want is answers.
Joan Lawrence mother of Claudia Lawrence back at Claudia’s house in Heworth, York (Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)“A lot of support out there is around bereavement, but not for those living in a state of not knowing. Fortunately I have my faith and I have so much support from people who stop me in the street or contact me to say how much they feel for me. Someone out there knows what happened to Claudia and I won’t leave a stone unturned to find her.”
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Last month Claudia would have celebrated her 50th birthday. Tragically her father Peter passed away three years ago, without finding out what had happened to his daughter. It remains one of the most high-profile unsolved crimes in the past 20 years.
North Yorkshire Police have treated the case as a murder inquiry and believe someone knows what happened to Claudia, who lived in Heworth, York. In 2021 police searched Sand Hutton Gravel Pits, a wooded area eight miles outside York.
Wayne Fox, the senior investigating officer, said: “For such pain and despair to continue for 15 years without knowing where your child is, or what happened to them, well that is far beyond what any mum or dad should have to live with.”