Claudia Lawrence 01:00:15

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This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series Back in Crime. If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. He turned the gun straight at us and shot. Oh my God, the window went out. And the kid standing there with me, I think he got hit. Okay. Oh God. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.

In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.

Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

Today I'm discussing the case of Claudia Lawrence. In 2009, Claudia Lawrence lived in the idyllic city of York in North Yorkshire, England.

At 35 years old, she seemed to have a great routine going for her. She worked as a chef at the University of York's Goodrich College Roger Kirk Center, about two miles from her home. Every day, she woke up, went to work, and came home. But aside from that, several nights a week, she would meet with her regular group of friends at her favorite pub, The Nags Head, which was only four doors down from her two-story townhome. She was a very good cook, and she was a very good cook.

She kept her routine so tight that some likened it to the film Groundhog Day. But this routine was interrupted on March 19th, 2009, when she seemingly stood up her best friend, Susie Cooper, for a night at the Nags Head. Then Susie found out that Claudia hadn't shown up for work that day either. Of course, Susie could have never imagined that her best friend would go missing, or that the media pressure she and Claudia's family craved for her would quickly turn on them.

This is the case of Claudia Lawrence. Claudia Elizabeth Lawrence was born on February 27th, 1974 in Malton, a small market town only a few miles outside York. She's the youngest of the family, with her parents, Peter and Joan Lawrence, having one daughter previously, Claudia's sister, Allie.

Claudia played the flute and took horseback riding lessons, where she truly found herself. She continued riding until her disappearance, and lost her last childhood horse, Cobweb, only a few months before she was last seen.

Her father Peter described her as brave, adventurous, and always wanting to do things. Claudia began studying catering in her early 20s, and landed several kitchen jobs in her hometown of Malton after graduation. She worked as a chef at a pub, then got a job at the Gold Cup Inn. As she got older, she moved to York, only about 15 miles from her hometown, and worked at the Monk Bar Hotel.

Around 2006, she was hired as a chef by the University of York and went to work at the Roger Kirk Center at Goodrich College. This is when everything really began to come together for her. This is when she bought her house only a few miles away and began frequenting the Nags Head, where she met her two best friends, Susie Cooper and Jen King.

Claudia loved her job, but would get frustrated with university students who only wanted to eat things like cereal, even after she'd made them a nice meal. Really, by all accounts, she was extremely dedicated to her work. Her friend Jen describes her as someone who would go to work even if she was on death's door. And her mother said that she was the kind of employee who would work for people on Christmas so they could be with their children.

At 35, Claudia had no interest in settling down, getting married, or having children. But this didn't mean that she wasn't family-oriented. Her sister had two young sons, and she adored being their aunt. She was also close to both of her parents, even after they divorced.

Susie and Jen describe her as girly, saying if she were to pick a movie, she would always go for the chick flick. And as a teen, like a lot of us, she was obsessed with Dirty Dancing and Patrick Swayze. One thing that those close to Claudia all agree on is that she was drawn to the sunshine. They say that wherever the sun was, that's where she wanted to be. She even had a tanning bed in her spare bedroom. And when the sun showed its face for the first time after the winter, you could count on Claudia to be outside sunbathing.

Overall, her friends described her as being content with the life that she had. She loved her job and had no aspirations to be a celebrity chef. She was happy with the money that she made. She had enough to make her house payments, maintain her social life, and occasionally go on vacation. That was enough for her.

Like I mentioned in the introduction to this episode, Claudia's life has been described like the movie Groundhog Day. She just had this very solid routine in place that worked for her. But in March 2009, there was one thing about Claudia's routine that was out of the ordinary. Her car, a Vauxhall Corsa sedan, was in the shop having its engine replaced. Now, her father had offered to let her borrow his car to get to and from work, and her mom even offered to pay for a taxi.

But Claudia refused. She said walking would be good exercise. She actually hated going to the gym and figured that the extra steps would be good for her. Now, reporting on this case makes it unclear exactly how far Claudia's house was from the Roger Kirk Center. But I think it's safe to say that if she was walking, it would take her about an hour to get to work. She would leave around 5 a.m. to get there right before her 6 a.m. shift.

On the morning of Wednesday, March 18th, 2009, CCTV footage shows Claudia arriving to work and clocking in at 5.57am. That afternoon, she's seen on camera leaving work around 2.30, and she begins to walk back to her home on Hew Worth Road. But one of her co-workers stops her and offers her a ride home. She accepts, and by multiple accounts got home between 2.50 and 3pm.

She waves and says hello to a woman named Linda at the Nags Head as she walks from the car to her house. Another witness says that she saw Claudia mail a letter at the nearby post office around 3.

Claudia also speaks to both of her parents on the phone that night. She replied to a friend's text message at 8.27pm, then called her mom Joan at 8.30. Joan, of course, remembers this phone call. She says they were both watching the real estate show, Location, Location, Location. They actually had a friend who lived in the area the show was featuring that night. So, they discussed that and made plans for Mother's Day that following Sunday.

For those of you who don't know, because I did not, Mother's Day in the UK is recognized in March, not May like in the US. Either way, Joan says that Claudia seemed fine on the call, and seemed cheerful and relaxed. They said goodnight and hung up the phone. Claudia then receives a text message from her friend Steve at 9.12pm, which she never responds to, making that phone call with her mom the last known contact before going missing.

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6 a.m. on March 19th came and went, and Claudia did not show up for work. This was extremely out of character for her because she never really missed a day of work and was always on time. However, since this was such a rare occurrence, her co-workers weren't upset and figured she deserved a day off with no questions asked. Really, no one was jumping to the worst-case scenario here.

She was going to meet Susie at the Nags Head. When Claudia didn't show, Susie texts her joking that she'd been stood up. So Susie's just sitting there waiting for Claudia and eventually decides to give her a call. But her cell phone goes right to voicemail. Like Claudia's co-workers, Susie really didn't think much of this either. She assumed Claudia had fallen asleep on the couch after a long day of work, or maybe that her phone died.

The next day, Susie calls Claudia again and got her voicemail. This is when she knows that something is obviously wrong. The first person she calls is Claudia's dad, Peter, who was instantly alarmed. Peter wastes no time and goes right to Claudia's house. He even speaks with the landlord of Nag's Head, George Foreman, who was also a close friend of Claudia's. But George hadn't seen Claudia either.

Luckily, Peter did have a spare key to his daughter's house, so he went to take a look. But because this was so out of the ordinary for Claudia, he was terrified of what he might find. He imagined Claudia injured or even dead. But what he found was somehow more unsettling. Everything was perfect.

Her bed was made, her slippers were by the stairs, and there were dishes in the sink that appeared to be from breakfast. Her toothbrush set out to dry in the bathroom as if it hadn't been long since she'd used it. She had jewelry that she took off for work sitting on her vanity. It really looked like she'd gotten up and left for work that morning. The only items missing from her home were her cell phone, her gray and blue backpack that she always took to work, her hair straightener, and her chef's uniform.

But of course, Peter knows something is wrong, and he goes right to the police. And they act fast. Within an hour of calling, 150 to 200 officers were swarming Hewworth Road, Claudia's house, and her path to work. Soon, Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway of the North Yorkshire Police Department was assigned as lead detective.

Pretty soon, police got a tip that someone had seen a blue and gray bag matching Claudia's on the grass at the University of York around 1 p.m. on the 19th. But by the time the police got there, it was gone. Now, in addition to searching the area and talking to those who knew Claudia, detectives start digging into really the best lead they have at this point, Claudia's cell phone, or whatever they could trace of it. They find out it was switched off in the York area at 12.08 p.m. on the 19th.

Now, we don't really know how they came to this conclusion, but they do say that they think her phone was turned off deliberately versus the battery dying.

Of course, they also turned to that CCTV footage I discussed earlier. Now, it unfortunately didn't show Claudia on her way to work that morning, but it did show a few things that the police found to be of interest. At 5.07am, which, remember, would have been around the same time Claudia left for work, a man in dark-colored sweats with his hood up is captured on CCTV in the Hewworth Road junction by Claudia's home.

This is what investigators see. He appears on camera, disappears behind her house for a little over one minute, then appears again, walking the other way with a bag over his shoulder. Whether or not that was Claudia's bag, we just don't know.

Next, at 5.42am, a Ford Focus is caught on CCTV driving down Heworth Road, braking when it reaches Claudia's house. This made police wonder if it was possible whoever was in the Ford was there to give Claudia a ride to work. But unfortunately, the camera did not show her front door. So, we just have no idea if she left her house and got into the Ford.

But I do think it's worth noting that if she did, she would have been late to work, which is, again, extremely out of character for Claudia.

Now, in addition to the CCTV footage, two different witnesses came forward to report sightings of a man and woman along Claudia's route to work that morning. The first, a cyclist, claimed to have seen a woman and a man on Melrose Gate Bridge around 5.35am. Now, this timing is significant, because that would be approximately where Claudia would be if she left at 5am to walk to work.

This sighting has become kind of infamous in her case. According to the witness, the man was holding a cigarette in his left hand, earning him the nickname the left-handed smoker in the press. A second witness said that they saw a man and a woman arguing outside a car on University Way, just outside of where Claudia would have turned to go to work. The witness said that this occurred at 6.10 a.m., meaning that if it was Claudia, she would be late for work at this point.

Another woman came forward to say that she'd been stuck in morning traffic on Hewworth Road sometime between March 10th and March 13th, and while she was stopped, she saw two men outside of Claudia's home. Apparently, one of these men attempted to turn Claudia's doorknob, but it was locked.

This is a lot. There are a lot of leads coming at this police department really fast. I mean, surely it wasn't possible that all of these leads are connected to Claudia. It's literally impossible that she rode away in the Ford Focus at 5.42 and was also on foot on Melrose Gate Bridge at 5.35.

But investigators figure that surely one of these leads have to be relevant. And this was a huge investigation. In the first few weeks, hundreds of officers were working the case. They searched the Nags Head and interviewed its customers and employees. They also searched over a thousand student dorms and apartments at the University of York.

However, Claudia's mom Joan was not impressed with some of the early police work on the case, and I can see why. She says police did not contact her immediately after Claudia was reported missing, and that when Detective Galloway interviewed her days later, he didn't seem to care much about who Claudia was as a person. She also criticized the police for circulating a picture of Claudia with blonde hair, when her hair was brown at the time of her disappearance.

She told the BBC, quote, Ray Galloway came to see me a few days later. He never asked me what Claudia was like, what her hobbies were. He didn't want to get to know her. I told police that she didn't look like that when she disappeared, that her hair was much darker, but they carried on using that photo for a number of years, end quote.

Now, Claudia's case was pretty big with the local media at the time. And like we see in a lot of cases, this was a double-edged sword for her loved ones. While it seemed Joan and Peter didn't appreciate journalists showing up their homes unannounced to get the scoop on the case, they knew the media could work in their favor. And Peter especially began to utilize the media to help find his daughter.

His best friend, Martin Dales, was a public relations specialist, and immediately got to work helping them generate a website, create missing persons flyers, and schedule media appearances and interviews for Peter. Martin and Peter had actually been friends for decades, and Claudia babysat Martin's kids, so the case was personal to him as well.

Unfortunately, like we see, people took advantage of Claudia's disappearance and tried to capitalize on it. And it wasn't just the media. In the months following her disappearance, a webpage called the Claudia Lawrence Inquiry was posted.

and it requested credit card donations to support Claudia's case. The North Yorkshire Police even had to issue a statement warning people not to give money or information to this website. But luckily, eventually the man who posted it was found and made to pay a fine. Then, five weeks after Claudia was last seen, the North Yorkshire Police officially changed their investigation from a missing persons inquiry to a murder inquiry.

But we've seen this before, and it does appear to just be a technicality. They say they did this because, although they had no proof that Claudia was dead, they also had no proof that she was alive. And reclassifying the case allowed them to allocate more resources to the investigation, because the budget for murder inquiries is higher.

Now, there's a lot going on at the same time. So while all this is happening, Susie and Jen also hosted a benefit night for Claudia at the Nags Head on May 14th, and one of Claudia's favorite bands, the Dunwells, performed.

Her case appeared on the BBC's popular show Crime Watch for the first time in late May, which brought a lot more attention to the case. In the episode, actors re-enacted the scene the witness described on the Melrose Gate Bridge to jog people's memory. And on June 2nd, the case appeared in the show again. And this episode changed the public's perception of Claudia and her case forever.

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Of course, when investigating a disappearance, it's important to look into the people surrounding that missing person. But it's the way Detective Galloway presented the question on air that was ultimately detrimental to Claudia's public image. He said,

"...as the investigation has developed, it's apparent that some of Claudia's relationships had an element of complexity and mystery to them. I am certain that some of those relationships were not known to her family or her friends. Who was Claudia going out with? Who was she seeing? Who was her boyfriend? Who was showing her maybe some unhealthy interest?" The media took these words and just ran wild with them.

The next day, a popular tabloid's headline read, quote, Did Missing Chef Claudia Lawrence Have a Line of Secret Lovers? End quote. This was just a huge snowball effect. Soon after, a woman named Beth brought her story to the media, saying that Claudia engaged in a two-month affair with her husband, Lee Horwell, causing their marriage to dissolve and ruin the lives of their two children.

The narrative from then on was that Claudia prowled the Nags Head for vulnerable, usually married men, seduced them, then dumped them once they developed strong feelings for her. But Jen, who knew Claudia very well and worked at the Nags Head, said that this couldn't be further from the truth.

And really, even if it was true, which by most accounts it wasn't, this narrative of basically saying Claudia was asking for it is just sick. Not to mention, it takes two to tango. Another man who wanted to stay anonymous claimed to be one of Claudia's closest friends, and he sold the tabloid Mail on Sunday a story that, quote, Claudia Lawrence got a kick out of married men and had 40 mystery lovers, end quote.

That is a real headline that was published. And that bizarre claim of 40 mystery lovers went viral and is really still attached to Claudia's case to this day. Claudia's friends and family came to her defense. They said, yes, it was true that Claudia had been involved with some men who had a partner, but she didn't seek out married men.

One of Claudia's former boyfriends, Daniel Whitehand, came to her defense in the media. The couple had dated for about 18 months starting in 2005. And he said, quote, "'Claudia is a kind, beautiful girl who was desperate to be loved. There was a very romantic side to her, which made her naive about men, more naive than you'd expect for a woman of her age. She was quite gullible, in fact, and that's the concern, that she's now come to harm because of a guy she might have fallen for.'"

Daniel told police that he and Claudia remained friends after their split, and the last time he spoke with her was in the fall of 2008. Her father, Peter, also came out to defend her against Horwell's ex-wife, saying that the media got it wrong. He says that Claudia had met Lee a few times at the Nags Head, and that his relationship with his wife had dissolved by the time he began seeing Claudia. But it was too late.

The narrative in the press and word on the street became that Claudia deserved what happened to her because she was promiscuous. Someone even told Peter to his face that his daughter deserved what she got.

But Peter didn't back down. He was still making regular press appearances. And he repeatedly told reporters that Claudia would not have time to balance multiple complex relationships like some were accusing her of. She had a very strenuous job and spent most of her free time with her friends and family. He also said he didn't expect to know every acquaintance of his 35-year-old daughter either, which I think is extremely fair.

Even the police realized that this was getting out of hand. Galloway held a press conference a few days later and said that the words just didn't come out the way that he meant them, and he confirmed that Claudia was not involved in any kind of escort or dating agencies, as some outlets were falsely reporting.

Now, I'm sure you will not be surprised when I tell you that the media circus around Claudia's case did not end here. That June, the Nags Head was searched for a second time, this search focusing on the bed and breakfast part of the building. Police removed a bed sheet that had a small drop of blood on it. This spot was apparently so small that it could have been easily formed from somebody, like, nicking themselves while shaving.

but according to the press a quote blood-soaked bed sheet end quote was removed from the pub then landlord george foreman became implicated with the mirror stoking rumors that he'd been arrested after claudia's body was found in the pub which could not have been further from the truth

Salacious stories about George being responsible for, or at least knowing more than he let on about Claudia's disappearance ran for weeks. This caused so much harm for him and his wife that he eventually quit managing the nag's head. Again, this just becomes a huge snowball effect. In July, a man from Selby drunkenly called police to report that he'd found Claudia's body under a bush.

This was, of course, false, and he had to pay court fines for misleading a police inquiry. But of course, while all of this was happening in the media, the real investigation was still ongoing in the background. As summer turned to fall, with no leads bringing answers, police turned their investigation in a new direction, to the island of Cyprus, all the way in the Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece.

Cyprus was one of Claudia's favorite vacation spots. She'd gone on her first trip while she was dating Daniel and had fallen in love with it. He told investigators that it became like her second home. And remember that text message Claudia received at 9.12pm that she didn't respond to? It was from her friend Steve Sammons in Cyprus. She'd met Steve in York, at none other than the Nags Head Pub. He was a member of her friend group and she saw him there regularly until he moved to Cyprus. The

The text from Steve was asking when she planned to return. She'd been on five trips there since her first, the most recent being in October 2008. She reportedly planned to go back in April. Now, Jen had actually gone with her on one of these vacations and told investigators that every day they were there, someone at a bar or restaurant offered her a job if she moved there. So investigators formed a new theory. Maybe Claudia decided to escape to Cyprus.

It didn't make total sense, because her passport, other identification, as well as her bank cards were all found in her home. And again, there was barely anything missing from her home. Certainly not enough to start a new life in a new country. But still, the North Yorkshire Police pursued the lead.

Multiple officers were sent to Cyprus to conduct interviews with people who Claudia may have interacted with there. Of course, their first step was to interview Steve Sammons, not as a suspect, but to get his help in identifying who may have offered Claudia jobs while she was there.

He worked as a bartender and was connected within the industry. In a press conference, Galloway stated that one of the people they wanted to speak to in Cyprus was actually in England on March 18th, but nothing came of their interview with this person. Overall, Galloway stated that many of the people in Cyprus were not eager to talk, but from the work they did, they ruled out that Claudia was there.

With really no trace of where Claudia may have gone, investigators went right back to focusing on her love life. In October, Galloway issued a statement asking men who had been involved with Claudia to come forward, and also warned them that if they didn't, to expect a knock at their door. He theorized that many of them were not coming forward for fear of their relationship with Claudia being exposed. He basically promised them that they could be interviewed confidentially if they willingly came forward,

but if they maintained their secrecy, they were forgoing that option. Basically, come to us or we're going to expose you. It's unclear exactly how this worked out for investigators, but another potential leak came to light when two different women reported stories of a rusty old white van in the area. The first witness had come forward in June, saying she saw a suspicious white van on Melrose Gate.

She said the mail driver got out and attempted to talk to her, but she could not provide a physical description of him.

A second witness told police that she'd seen a white van parked along Melrose Gate several times in the days before Claudia's disappearance while she was on her morning jogs. She, too, said that the man once got out of the van and attempted to speak with her, but she continued jogging and did not engage with him. Although this detail was left out of her interview with police for some reason, this witness reportedly told other sources that she never saw the white van again after the day that Claudia went missing.

Galloway released an inquiry for information on a white van, but stated that the two witnesses described different vans. In November, a comment was posted to the Finding Claudia Facebook page, reading, quote, Hi everyone. Just let you be aware that I am okay, and I am safe and sound. Speak to you all soon. Claudia XXX. End quote.

Now, Claudia's loved ones were quick to say that this was a hoax, because according to them, Claudia was not social media savvy. She didn't even own a computer, and never had any social media accounts. And they were right. The comment was traced to a teenage boy in Oxfordshire. He was arrested, then released, and given community service as punishment.

As the first holiday season without Claudia passed, there weren't many reports of progress being made in the investigation. In February 2010, police took a step that many felt was long overdue. They inventory the items in Claudia's house for the first time.

On February 26th, on the eve of Claudia's 36th birthday, a National Day of Awareness was held to bring attention to her case. This event was just one of the many efforts by Peter and Martin to keep Claudia's name and face in the media. Around this same time, Galloway announced that they had traced a man in the Irish Republic who had at one point been in a relationship with Claudia, but say he had denied it repeatedly until they went to visit him in person and confronted him with evidence.

He was cleared of any wrongdoing, but Galloway stated that this had happened multiple times. People had denied being in a relationship with Claudia until provided with overwhelming evidence that one had occurred.

Then in March, a potentially crucial piece of information comes to light. One of Claudia's co-workers comes forward a year after her disappearance to say that he recalls on Tuesday, March 17th, Claudia came into work looking extremely tired. He says he asked her if she was alright, and she told him that the night before she'd gone out with a man until around 5am. Considering she had to be at work at 6, she hadn't gotten any sleep.

Police released a statement saying that they wanted to speak to this man. While police were waiting for this man to hopefully come forward, they continued physical searches for Claudia that spring, beginning with an area near the university known as the Outgang. This is apparently an open, outdoor space with fields and pathways. People often jog or walk their dogs there. Police used three tracking dogs in this search, but didn't find anything matching Claudia's scent.

Around this same time, police got a tip that Claudia attended a house party in 2007 in Ellerton. This resulted in a two-day search of the property, but nothing was found.

While it seemed like they were reaching a bit at this point, at least they were trying to find Claudia. But not everyone agreed that this was a good thing. By July 2010, the North Yorkshire Police began facing criticism from the National Policing Improvement Agency for how much time and money they'd spent on Claudia's case, especially because they'd failed to produce a solid lead into where she was, or identify a single credible suspect.

After this, Galloway announced that while the inquiry into Claudia's case was still very much alive, they were having to scale it down significantly due to department resources. Another blow to Claudia's friends and family came in October, when Crimestoppers withdrew their £10,000 reward for information.

When Peter and Martin asked about it, Crimestoppers told them that police had not requested for it to be renewed. When they asked the police, they blamed it on Crimestoppers. But this created a larger issue, because all the widely circulated flyers for Claudia listed the reward on them, and now they all had to be removed.

These flyers were on police cars and buses, and Peter and Martin had to pull several ad campaigns that featured the reward. Eventually, Crimestoppers did reinstate the reward for a few months, but pulled it again for good in February 2011, saying that they had limited funding and needed to give other cases a chance. And the hits just kept coming.

To make matters worse, it was determined that the tip that led them to search the outgang at the university was another hoax. The man who submitted the tip was jailed for 18 months for wasting the police's time and resources.

On Claudia's 37th birthday in February 2011, a candlelit vigil was held to raise awareness for her and other missing people in England. Peter had become very involved with the British charity Missing People and began advocating for other cases too. Kate McCann spoke at the event in support of Peter and Claudia, as well as to honor her missing daughter, Madeline McCann. She said, quote,

End quote.

In his work with missing people, Peter advocated for legislation that made things easier for families of the missing. He shared that only a few weeks after Claudia's disappearance, he realized how difficult it would be to maintain her house payments and other bills. There was no system in place to allow him to take over her financial affairs, because there was no proof that she was deceased.

In 2011, Scotland and Ireland both had a presumption of death law in place that allowed for a guardian to become a trustee for that missing person's affairs. No such law existed in England or Wales, and Peter began lobbying Parliament to establish one. The English Ministry of Justice initially responded that this was not a priority, because the cost of developing a proposal for a presumption of death act far outweighed the number of people who would benefit.

The head of missing people, Martin Hewton Brown, responded saying, quote, as it stands, if your house is burgled, you're automatically offered emotional, practical, and legal support. If your child goes missing, you get nothing, end quote.

Finally, in late 2011, the government introduced legislation that supported issuing certificates of presumed death. But the battle for the rights of families of the missing was far from over. Peter said in a statement, "...I was amazed and disgusted to find in my discussions with other families in similar positions that there is no mechanism in this country to enable families to deal with the practical, financial, and legal issues of the missing person."

End quote.

In early 2012, Facebook issued new provisions to prevent trolling on their platform. However, when these regulations went into effect, it reset the member count of a Facebook group dedicated to finding Claudia that had over 22,000 members. This was, of course, devastating to Susie and Jen, who had spent nearly three years building a community of people who supported Claudia.

Meanwhile, the investigation seemed to stall, but the police were still putting forth efforts to draw the public's attention to the case. On the third anniversary of her disappearance, they created new posters and attached them to every North Yorkshire police vehicle. In late 2012, a former private investigator reached out to Martin Dales to say that he'd seen a woman in Amsterdam that he swore was Claudia.

Now, he didn't try to speak to the woman, but this ignited rumors that Claudia could have been a victim of sex trafficking, though this was never ultimately confirmed. Claudia's case seems to go stagnant for a while, until it heats right back up and fast. For the first time ever, the North Yorkshire Police make not just one, but several arrests in the case.

In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that

Everyone has a different version of events. Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. In 2013, the North Yorkshire Police established a major crimes unit with the intention of investigating cold cases that were presumed to be violent and involve kidnapping, rape, or murder. In 2014, Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway retired.

Detective Superintendent Dae-Mei Lin was then assigned to be the senior investigator on Claudia's case. And this guy was determined to find the culprit. In May 2014, officers searched a home about a mile from Claudia's. Following the search, to everyone's surprise, they actually make an arrest. 59-year-old Michael Snelling was arrested on suspicion of murder.

Now, we don't know what was found in the house that led to that arrest, but Snelling was tracked down and taken into custody while visiting a family member in North Shields. He was released from jail on bond the following day.

While Snelling was waiting to find out if he'd be charged with Claudia's murder, Malin's team dug up the cellar of a pub in the O'Comb area of York. Claudia's cell phone data showed that she'd been to this pub a few weeks before her disappearance. Police then arrest the pub's landlord, 46-year-old Paul Harris, on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

He also posted bail shortly after being taken into custody. Harris recalls that he was interviewed in 2009 because he willingly told the police that Claudia visited his pub shortly before her disappearance, and he remembered speaking with her briefly. He consented to interviews, gave police access to his phone records, and submitted a DNA sample. So five years later, he was confused as to how he was considered perverting the course of justice.

When this pub was searched, he said it was one of the hottest days of the year, which caused him to lose significant business. He also said that this was a devastating time for his children, age 15 and 13, because rumors were circulating that their dad killed Claudia. He said, quote, I don't condemn them for bringing me in for questioning at all, but it's the way they've gone about it, end quote.

Ultimately, Harris was not charged with any crime, and was left to repair the damages left to his business and reputation. In November, Michael Snelling was also cleared of suspicion and released from any charges related to Claudia.

But Malin's team did not stop here with the arrests. In March 2015, another 59-year-old man who frequented the Nags Head was arrested on suspicion of murder. His name was not released to the public. Following this arrest, a group of three men, all in the building and construction industry, sat around a table at the Nags Head, joking that they were placing their bets on which one of them would be arrested next. At this point, a lot of people felt that police were just arresting random patrons of the bar.

But word about this got around to Mei Lin, and he was not laughing at the joke, because all three men were then also arrested on suspicion of murder in April. All four men remained in jail until they were allowed out on bail in September 2015. Nearly a full year after their initial arrest, in March of 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service announced that there would be no charges filed against the four men due to a lack of evidence.

After this, Malin concluded his investigation into Claudia's case. He says that he firmly believes someone close to her was responsible. He just didn't know who. From this point, the case was placed in a reactive phase, meaning further investigation would only take place if a new lead came to light.

Meanwhile, Peter Lawrence was still working hard to advocate, not only for Claudia, but for rights of missing people's families in the UK. After the Presumption of Death Act was passed, Peter was determined to have a guardianship program established. This would allow the families of those presumed to be dead to appoint a guardian to handle the missing person's financial and legal matters. It would also legally allow payment to stop for services such as utilities and mortgages.

All of this was outlined in the Guardianship Missing Persons Act 2017, informally known as Claudia's Law. Although the act was presented in 2017, it didn't pass until July 31st, 2019. By the time Claudia's Law passed, Peter was well-recognized by the British government. In 2018, he was awarded the status of OBE, meaning Officer of the Order of the British Empire, in the Queen's birthday honors.

In 2021, leadership on the case changed hands again when Detective Superintendent Wayne Fox took over the case. The most recent action taken to search for Claudia by law enforcement was in 2021 when they searched the sandhut and gravel pits. This is a fishing area about eight miles outside of York. A small fishing lake was drained and a fingertip search was conducted. But unfortunately, like the times before, it just didn't result in any closure for Claudia's family.

So what happened to Claudia Lawrence? When Claudia's car was searched, police found a cigarette butt in the vehicle despite Claudia not being a smoker. This led many to question the supposed left-hand smoker on the bridge the day that she went missing. However, multiple rounds of testing on the cigarette didn't result in any matches. Fingerprints from her car were also tested multiple times without a match, the same with DNA from her home.

And what about the man seen outside of Claudia's home that morning? Well, police now believe the man seen on CCTV could be 57-year-old landlord Richard Cartwright. He owned property in the area. According to his friends, he often woke up early and went for walks around his properties to check them.

and his appearance on camera was not indicative of anything sinister. Cartwright, however, died of natural causes on April 9th, 2009, just a few weeks after Claudia was last seen. While police do not suspect that he was involved, they can't formally rule him out without being interviewed. As for the other two men, including the one who supposedly turned the handle to her front door, they were never located, or if they were, that information was not released to the public.

The same goes for the rusty white van and the man Claudia supposedly stayed out with all night two days before she went missing.

Now, there are two theories that I haven't discussed yet. The first has been rumored as long as Claudia's been missing. At the time of her disappearance, the Ron Cook Hub was being built on the University of York campus, and the construction site was active when Claudia went missing. Because it was so close to her home and her walk to work, as well as rumors that she'd been on dates with men in construction, it's been long theorized that she's under the building.

I wasn't able to find any reporting that confirms or deny if any kind of sonar search has been done of the ground beneath the facility. So for now, the theory just sits.

The next theory is that Claudia was the victim of a potential serial killer, Christopher Halliwell. He's a taxi driver who was convicted of the 2011 murder of Sian O'Callaghan, who he abducted outside a club in Swindon. Sian, unfortunately, wasn't his only victim. In fact, while being interviewed in relation to the case, he confessed to the 2003 murder of Becky Godden Edwards, who was 20 at the time of her death and also taken from a Swindon nightclub.

Hallowell even told investigators where Becky was buried, and they found her remains there. However, there was controversy surrounding this confession, because the lead investigator on the case, Steve Fulcher, had tracked Hallowell down and interviewed him without his lawyer being present. Initially, he was not charged for Becky's murder because his confession was deemed inadmissible.

However, after being found guilty of killing Sian, a judge ruled that his confession in Becky's case was admissible, and he stood trial for her murder in 2016 where he was found guilty.

You may be wondering what any of this has to do with Claudia's case. These women were taken from clubs in Swindon, and as far as investigators knew, Claudia hadn't visited the area prior to her disappearance. But there was one detail that investigator Steve Fulcher couldn't ignore. Sian was murdered on March 19th, 2011, exactly two years to the day since Claudia's disappearance.

The thing is, this date is significant to Hallowell, because in the 1980s, his girlfriend had broken up with him on that day, March 19th. Now, of course, this could all be a coincidence, but it's worth noting that the theory was furthered by a shocking discovery police made about Hallowell when they found Sion's remains. He apparently had a collection of over 30 articles of women's clothing and accessories. Police called it a trophy store.

In this collection, they found Becky's cardigan and Sian's high-heeled boot, leading investigators to believe that Sian and Becky were far from his only victims. In 2017, the Wiltshire Police, who preside over Swindon, released a statement saying that they'd been working with the North Yorkshire Police, and that neither agency believed that Hallowell was connected to Claudia.

But one person who strongly believes that he may be involved is Claudia's mother, Joan. She told the Mirror, "...something has always bothered me about Hallowell, and leaves me feeling very uneasy. The police may not have proved he had anything to do with my daughter's disappearance, but they haven't disproved it either. I still don't feel the police have investigated the link between Claudia's disappearance and Christopher Hallowell." End quote.

Now, Joan was shown pictures of the articles of women's clothing and accessories that Hallowell had, and she couldn't identify any of them as Claudia's. But she says she only saw photos, not the actual items, and added that the photos were old and messy, so she couldn't be sure. Joan shared in an interview that when she continued to press the North Yorkshire police for answers about Hallowell, an officer told her that she could always go visit him in prison and ask herself.

In 2021, former police intelligence officer Chris Clark and true crime writer Beth Truman released a book called The New Millennium Serial Killer, in which they try to link Hallowell to 27 different murders, including Claudia's. No matter what theory you subscribe to, in the end, police still have not declared any formal suspects nearly 15 years later, and Claudia remains missing.

Peter Lawrence passed away on February 11th, 2021. Peter's best friend, and the man who fought so hard for over a decade to keep Claudia's name and face in the spotlight, Martin Dales, passed away in May 2022.

The website dedicated to finding Claudia that Peter and Martin started in 2009 now bears a message on its homepage reading, quote, Following the death of both Claudia's father Peter and his friend Martin Dales, this website will close in mid-2024. Thank you for your interest, and let's hope that one day this mystery will be resolved. End quote.

This just breaks my heart and is a huge reason why I decided to cover Claudia's case. Peter devoted his life to finding his daughter and died without knowing what happened to her.

But it's not too late. Joan is out there still doing interviews about Claudia, and she says that she refuses to give up on finding her, because to her, that would be giving up on life itself. She said, quote, You have to keep going. If I stay in bed all day looking at four walls, what good will that do? I will not give up hope. One day I will find out what happened to my daughter. End quote.

She's right. It's not too late to bring Joan and all those who loved Claudia answers. Which brings me right to our call to action. Of course, if you know anything about the disappearance of Claudia Lawrence, please contact the North Yorkshire Police. And please share this case. The power of a share can move mountains in these cases. And all it takes is for one person to see Claudia's picture and remember something they may have forgotten.

There is always hope. As a reminder, Claudia Lawrence was last seen in York, England on March 18th, 2009. She is white with brown hair and brown eyes and is 5 feet 6 inches tall. At the time of her disappearance, she was described as having a slim build and was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, blue jeans, and trainers.

If you have any information about Claudia Lawrence and are in the UK, call 101 for the North Yorkshire Police non-emergency line. If you're calling from abroad, dial 44-1904-933-043. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode contains writing and research by Brooke Haynes. If you love what we do here, please don't forget to follow, rate, and review the show on your podcast player. It's an easy and free way to help us and help more people find these cases in need of justice.

For even more content, or if you just want to support the show, you can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com slash voices for justice. Welcome to the Secret After Show. Our emotional support dogs are in the room, and let's talk about Claudia's case. I think it's hard to say what happened to Claudia, but I think it's really clear that we know that the irresponsible media led to a lot of crap in this case.

I think it really led to the public not taking her case seriously, in addition to, of course, all the victim blaming, which, ooh, really got me in this episode, especially like, because they just pretend as if one person having an affair, there's only one person to blame, right? Versus, like I said, it takes two to tango. Now, I'm not saying that, you know, engaging in relationships with people who are already taken is correct, but

I'm just saying if that did happen, if that's true about Claudia, it's not entirely her fault. And also, never in any craziest sense of leaping to a conclusion would that lead to her deserving whatever may have happened to her.

And I will always go back to this too, because people are always going to judge, right? I mean, that's just life. People will always judge these victims as much as I wish that they didn't. But it goes back to also depleting police resources. They have to go back and correct this misinformation. They have to discuss these cruel hoaxes like that teenager claiming to be Claudia on Facebook. I

is ridiculous, and resources did come up in this case. They were scaled back because people felt like they were spending too much money on Claudia's case, which is a different subject altogether that I'm not going to get into in this aftershow, but I just want to say that media speculation, when it gets insanely out of hand like it did in this case, has a huge ripple effect.

And of course, I can't help but talk about how I got emotional at the end. It's really hard to tell these stories. One, in the first place, full stop right there. It's hard to tell these stories. But two, to tell these stories when you're talking about these people who work so hard to try to find their person, or even if it's not their person, they just work so hard to try to find some type of conclusion, and then they don't. And oof,

the website coming to a close. I mean, that's why I did it. That's why I did it. Please share Claudia's case because I don't really know where it goes from here.

Onto what is happening with me. Not a lot. Not a lot, which is nice. I've been, my voice is obviously going out, oh my gosh, again. But I've been focusing on self-care, especially after talking to my dad. Other than that, I will say that I have a new episode of Talking to Death that is out. I interviewed with Payne Lindsay, and that was wonderful.

a really interesting conversation. And like I told him, I was excited to showcase more of my personality. I feel like outside of this secret segment that we don't talk about,

I get kind of seen as this like robot for justice, which is fine. I don't think it's like the worst public perception to have or whatever. But I know that people enjoy, or at least they tell me they do. They enjoy getting to see a bit of my personality. So I was excited to do that. And I think it showcased that. So go check out Talking to Death. I just did an interview and it was pretty cool.

Moving right along to our segment of hope. Now,

I had to pause because I had like the worst coughing fit. So now my voice is even worse than before. But we're going to make it through this. We're going to make it through this after show. So for this segment of Hope, it is older. It's from 2022. But I just found it on TikTok. It was just like popped up on my For You page at like 2 a.m. or whatever. But essentially, Paisley Scholtes was kidnapped at age four from her parents' home near Ithaca, New York in July 2019.

Now, her biological parents, but non-custodial parents, Kimberly Cooper and Kirk Schultes Jr., were the primary suspects. But after searching their homes several times, nothing was found. My voice is really going out. I'm sorry, guys. Um...

But then around Valentine's Day 2022, police get a tip that Paisley is alive and in her paternal grandparent's house. So, I'm sorry, paternal grandfather's house. So they do another search. This time, one of the officers notices something like really strange about one of the basement steps. So he begins investigating with his flashlight. And between the steps, he saw what he thought was a blanket.

So they just start prying apart these steps, and then they see a set of little feet. They find Paisley alive, along with her biological mother, under the stairs. Now, luckily Paisley was in good health, and she was released to her legal guardian and her older sister.

But her mother, Kimberly Cooper, Kirk Schultes Jr., and Kirk Schultes Sr. were all charged. The two men were charged with felony custodial interference and endangering the welfare of a child. Her mom, Kimberly Cooper, was charged with custodial interference in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child. She also had an outstanding warrant, apparently, out of Ulster County Family Court.

Now, apparently just a few days after getting out of custody for this crime, Kirk Jr. was arrested for a string of burglaries in his area. So I think it's safe to say that it's a good thing that Paisley is safe, healthy, home with her sister, and away from these parents, which is why it makes this segment of Hope. Also, because it came from a tip that

Somebody called in a tip, and you guys, this is why I always have these calls to action. You see something, you say something, and it may just result in a four, now a six-year-old, I guess, maybe, I guess actually now eight-year-old since it was about two years ago, but coming home safe. This is what it's all about. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.