Claudia Lawrence had a ‘hidden loft’ that was NEVER searched by police: Mother’s bombshell revelation 16 years after the chef vanished without a trace

A hidden loft in the home of missing chef Claudia Lawrence was never searched by police, her grieving mother has claimed. 

Claudia was 35 when she vanished without a trace after failing to turn up to work at York University on March 19, 2009.

Despite an extensive investigation, her case remains a mystery and has become one of Britain’s most well-known unsolved missing person cases. 

Her mother Joan Lawrence, 81, said she had ‘absolutely no idea’ the secret loft existed until she visited recently with a podcast crew, the Mirror first reported. 

Although she wants the new area to be searched after the bombshell revelation, she said she doesn’t want police inside the property as she has ‘lost all faith and trust in them’.

She has vowed ‘never’ to give North Yorkshire Police the keys to Claudia’s home saying the last time officers searched the property they left it a ‘mess’. 

‘I’m utterly exhausted. Every time I find something new it emotionally drains me and reminds me I have had absolutely no closure,’ she told the newspaper. 

‘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.’

Her mother Joan Lawrence (pictured) said her daughter’s home must be searched again after she discovered a hidden loft

Police officers outside the home of missing university chef Claudia Lawrence in Heworth, York

The hidden loft was found above clothing behind Claudia’s wardrobe doors. When the hatch was opened Mrs Lawrence said they could see bits of furniture and table legs. 

The discovery of the loft was featured in a new podcast Answers for Claudia. An opened chewing gum packet and two tissues were also found in the pocket of Claudia’s jackets which podcasters said could be ‘items of interest to the police’. 

A police spokesman said: ‘The new Senior Investigating Officer intends to visit Claudia’s home for familiarisation purposes only, this is not for the purpose of conducting any operational or forensic enquiries.’

It was claimed that police had previously looked inside the loft with a camera but may not have searched it in detail. 

The podcast also featured interviews with two potential witnesses. A woman, called Bev, claims to have found a purple and blue rucksack like the one missing from Claudia’s home when she walked her dog near the River Tees at Ingleby Barwick – around 40 miles from York – days after the chef’s disappearance.

The rucksack contained some sandwiches wrapped in foil. She left it alone but returned later to look for it again and it had gone.

A van driver called Dave also told the podcast he saw a woman about 20 miles away on the A1M near Wetherby the night before Claudia was last know to have gone to work. He recalled pulling over and calling the police.

When he saw the missing woman’s face on the news a few days later he said: ‘That’s the woman off the A1, that’s her.’

He said he believed the woman was wearing a leather jacket and that is why the podcast team and Joan Lawrence searched for jackets inside the Claudia’s house.

The search for Claudia was launched after her friend grew worried when she did not turn up at her local pub The Nag’s Head.

ITV’s television cameras were allowed inside Claudia’s home for daytime show This Morning

Her boxed belongings could be seen placed underneath the staircase

Claudia’s father, Peter (pictured together), died in 2021, never knowing what happened to his daughter

Following her disappearance police searched the inside of her York home for clues 

After a search, authorities said they were unable to find any clues from the property

The search for Claudia was launched after her friend grew worried when she did not turn up at her local pub The Nag’s Head

Friends informed Claudia’s father Peter the next day when she still failed to answer any calls. Peter visited her home in the Heworth area of York to find she was nowhere to be seen.

Five weeks after she was reported as a missing person, the case was escalated to a suspected murder investigation – despite her body never being found.

What ensued was a search costing more than £1.5million, with hundreds of officers working to piece together what happened to the chef.

Mrs Lawrence still harbours hopes her daughter is still alive and yesterday spoke of her fresh torment after Claudia’s childhood best friend was murdered by an abusive partner.

She said the killing of Lisa Welford – who suffered fatal brain injuries in April when Vincent Morgan held her down in the River Derwent – reopened old wounds.

‘I didn’t cope well,’ she said. ‘It brought all the pain back of when Claudia went missing. It’s such a crushing, all-consuming pain.

‘How could two children that had grown up together have such terrible things happen to them?

‘I also knew Claudia would have been devastated to hear about Lisa, as Lisa was when Claudia went missing. She would be crushed.’

Despite a court order banning contact, Morgan, 47, and Ms Welford, 49, spent the day together drinking and ended up by the river in Malton, North Yorkshire, the girls’ home town. In a violent attack he broke her leg and, as she lay prone on a riverbank, pulled her into the water and held her beneath the surface, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Paramedics revived Ms Welford, but she had suffered brain damage and died the next day. Morgan told police she had jumped in the river to ‘kill herself’.

A post-mortem examination revealed Ms Welford, who had known Claudia since they were four, had a fracture to her thigh bone, and two fractures to her upper arm, one of which was estimated to have happened one to three months prior to her death. She also had two fractured ribs, probably caused five to ten days before her death.

In 2021, a search was carried out at Sand Hutton Gravel Pits, near York. The family were left heartbroken after it found ‘nothing of obvious significance’

A man is seen lurking on Heworth Road in York near the home of missing chef Claudia Lawrence on the last night before she failed to turn up to work

The court heard Morgan, who was jailed for a minimum of 21 years, had 47 convictions for 86 offences including theft, taking vehicles, burglary, assaulting police officers, fraud and assaulting girlfriends.

It also emerged he had breached the two previous orders intended to protect Ms Welford from him.

Carmel Pearson, prosecuting, told the court she was terrified of Morgan, an alcohol and drug abuser, and frequently refused to ‘implicate’ him for a ‘myriad of injuries.’

A victim-impact statement from her mother, Rita, was read to the court. She told of ‘the black eyes and broken bones and countless excuses she made for him to cover up the pain he caused her’.

Mrs Lawrence, whose daughter has not been seen since March 18, 2009, aged 35, said she had enormous

sympathy for what Mrs Welford had gone through.

‘I was heartbroken for her. I couldn’t believe we had both lost our daughters,’ she told the Mirror.

‘In the months that followed, Rita often said to me ‘I think they will be together now’.

‘I completely understand but it’s hard. I can’t think of Claudia not being alive, but I know the thought of our daughters being together brings Rita so much comfort. I know Rita was just broken by how her daughter had died. I still haven’t walked past that section of the river. I can never walk there again.’

Mrs Lawrence still harbours hopes her daughter is still alive but has vowed never again to give police the keys to her daughter’s home  

Claudia’s childhood best friend mother-of-one Lisa Welford (pictured) was murdered by an abusive partner

Floral tributes left at the scene where Ms Welford was pulled from a freezing river 

Passing a mandatory life sentence, Judge Guy Kearl, KC, told Morgan he was ‘brutal and callous with an inability to control your desire for violence towards your partners’.

North Yorkshire Police has conducted two investigations and questioned nine people but no charges have ever been brought in regards to Claudia’s case.

Police believe that Claudia was murdered, yet her body has never actually been found.

A number of searches were conducted as recently as 2021 but to no avail.