Claudia Lawrence’s mom missing ‘anxious’ as police launch new search for daughter UK News

Claudia Lawrence’s distraught mother says she is “stirred inside” for fear of what police might find while searching for her missing daughter in two fishing lakes.

Joan Lawrence, 78, whose daughter was reported missing in March 2009 when she did not show up for work at York University, said the search came “out of the blue”.

She told the Mirror: “It all happened very quickly which left me very upset and worried.

READ MORE:Claudia Lawrence: New police search in gravel pits for a university leader who has been missing for 12 years

“I was contacted by the police on Monday morning and told ‘not to worry’, but as a mom how can I not?

“I don’t know what to think. I feel very anxious and disoriented. It’s been 12 and a half years and I just need to know what happened to Claudia.”

North Yorkshire Police began searching the gravel pits at Sand Hutton, eight miles north of York, on Tuesday morning.

Specialized underwater teams scoured the steep-sided lakes, which are surrounded by woods that were taped up by police.

Seven agents using long sticks lined up to search the undergrowth at the edge of a track that runs alongside the lakes, old gravel pits that became fishing lakes in 1969.

Speaking from her home in Norton, 20 minutes away, Joan said she recalled talking about “strange activity” in the nearby woods when Claudia first went missing.

She recalls being upset because police failed to search them after several members of the public told her they saw suspicious activity.

Joan said of the police search: “It is very, very difficult as a mother to wonder what she is going to find, if she is going to find, then she tells you that there is no what to worry about.

“I don’t know where they got their information from, who transmitted it.

“Something must have happened to stir that up. I just have to keep praying and hoping that we get something. It’s just really, really hard.

“It’s not knowing all the time and it’s going on like everything is normal when it isn’t. My lifestyle and what I’m involved in – you look good, but at the inside, it’s very different. “

Superintendent Wayne Fox told a news conference in the woods Tuesday afternoon: “The search that began here today in the Sand Hutton gravel pits is linked to the disappearance and alleged murder of Claudia Lawrence he over 12 years ago.

“While I cannot say at this point how long the search will last today, we do anticipate that a number of specialist officers, personnel and underwater search teams will likely be at this location for some time. several days.”

He said police were unable to reveal what brought them to the lakes.

But he said: “I want to stress that the searches you will see in the next few days are just one of the many active lines of inquiry currently being investigated and being continued by the police investigation team. from North Yorkshire in our efforts to establish what happened to Claudia and to identify anyone who may have harmed her. “

Claudia, from Heworth, York, was 35 when she went missing in March 2009.

Nine people were questioned as part of the investigation, but no charges were ever laid.

Claudia’s father, Peter Lawrence, passed away in February at the age of 74, never knowing what happened to his daughter.

Last night his friend Martin Dales spoke about the lake research and said: “This is the first really real thing that has happened since Peter died in February, so this in itself is a milestone. .

“Considering this situation as well, I would like to hope that people could provide information.

“We hope that someone gave some sort of information and that it is not just a matter of sending the police to run down a garden path.

“It has been a long time since the police said anything new.

“Of course, if you don’t have the information, you don’t have anything new to say, really.

“I feel a combination of sadness and pleasure, I guess. Glad that this is happening, but sad that it has to happen in the first place. “

Joan, previously described not knowing what happened to her youngest daughter as “the cruelest pain”. She said she felt “forgotten” by police after the case officer retired last year.

She said last year: “I still don’t know where my daughter is. I don’t even know if there is a ‘grave’ somewhere.

“It makes me think her body is out there. I just hope 2021 brings some answers. It’s continued torture knowing that I wasn’t there for Claudia when she needed me most.”

The Sand Hutton Gravel Pits are two private fishing lakes owned by York and District Amalgamation of Anglers.

A public bridle path runs alongside and a science park is nearby.

The lakes, covering more than a hectare, are in the old park of …