It was missed by police when they first scoured the house after Claudia, 35, was reported missing in 2009.
She had failed to show up to work at York University on March 19 that year.
But the alarm wasn’t raised until friends noticed her absence from The Nag’s Head, her local pub, and told her father she wasn’t answering any calls.
Despite a £1.5million search, police found neither the hidden loft, nor any trace of Claudia.
It took her 81-year-old mother, Joan Lawrence, and a podcast team from the Mirror, to discover the hidden compartment during a recent visit to Claudia’s cobwebbed home in Heworth, York.
She told the Mirror: ‘It’s quite hard to see. You have to go into the wardrobe doors and it’s a tiny tiny loft opening above the clothes.
When we lifted the hatch you could see bits of furniture and table legs, it’s very very small. I didn’t know it existed.’
But having ‘lost all faith and trust’ in the police, she doesn’t want officers to take part in a search of the loft. Ms Lawrence would like to see it done without them.
She told the Mirror: ‘I’m utterly exhausted. Every time I find something new it emotionally drains me and reminds me I have had absolutely no closure.
‘I don’t want the police to do it alone as they didn’t get it right the first time. I’d be happier with someone like the Locate International going in.’
The property had initially been visited by Claudia’s father Peter after being called by his daughter’s friends in 2006. Peter died in 2021, a month shy of 12 years since his daughter disappeared.
Police launched two investigations into Claudia’s disappearance, even escalating it to a murder case after five weeks, despite no body being found.
Searches were conducted as recently as 2021, but this is the first time the hidden loft has been entered. During one of these, police say they had a look inside the loft using a camera.
Metro has contacted North Yorkshire Police for comment.
Comments
Leave a Comment