Claudia Lawrence was 35 when she vanished in March 2009 having failed to report for work at York University (Picture: North Yorkshire Police)
A dog walker claims she found a backpack belonging to missing university chef Claudia Lawrence days after she disappeared 16 years ago.
Claudia was 35 when she vanished in March 2009 having failed to report for work at York University.
Detectives believe she was murdered, although no body has ever been found. The case has become one of the UK’s most high-profile unsolved crimes.
Now, a new podcast – Answers for Claudia – is casting a fresh eye over the case in a bid to finally give her mother Joan some answers about what happened to her daughter.
Claudia’s disappearance and suspected murder has become one of the UK’s most high-profile unsolved crimes (Picture: PA)
The hosts spoke to a woman called Bev who told them she found a purple and blue Karrimor rucksack next to a tree near the River Tees at Ingleby Barwick – around 40 miles from York.
She said she spotted the bag, containing some foil-wrapped sandwiches, just days after Claudia vanished.
Having initially left it alone, Bev said she went back to try and find it again after seeing North Yorkshire Police’s DCI Lucy Pope mention it in a press conference asking the public for information.
‘It wasn’t until I seen the newspaper article that I then went, that is the bag I found. I distinctively remember turning the newspaper over and seeing the bag, knowing that is the bag I found,’ she said.
But she said the bag had also disappeared by the time she went back to look for it.
DCI Lucy Pope holds a bag identical to the one carried by Claudia Lawrence when she went missing (Picture: North Yorkshire Police)
The potential breakthroughs come after Claudia’s mum Joan revealed a hidden loft in her daughter’s home was never searched (Picture: ITV/REX/Shutterstock)
The podcasters also interviewed a van driver, Dave, who said he recognised Claudia from a TV appeal, and recalled saying: ‘That’s the woman off the A1, that’s her.’
He said he saw the woman in question on the A1 near Wetherby, around 20 miles away, the night before Claudia was last known to have attended work.
The potential breakthroughs come after Claudia’s mum Joan revealed a hidden loft in her daughter’s home was never searched.
She told the podcasters she had ‘absolutely no idea’ it existed until revisiting the address with them recently.
Police officers searching the land at Sand Hutton Gravel Pits near York in connection with the disappearance of missing university chef Claudia Lawrence (Picture: PA)
Joan initially said she did not want the police to conduct a search of it, saying she has ‘lost all faith and trust in them’, but later agreed to meet with officers.
North Yorkshire Police has conducted two investigations and questioned nine people in relation to Claudia’s disappearance and suspected murder, but no charges have ever been brought.
She told The Mirror: ‘I am willing to hear what they have to say. But they have had 16 years to find answers.
‘The anniversary is coming up. This is so hard for me. It takes me right back to the beginning.’
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