Police will return to Claudia Lawrence’s house soon – but there are no plans for a new forensic investigation.
Officers confirmed the proposed visit after Claudia’s mother reacted to finding a ‘secret loft’ in her daughter’s home.
The loft hatch was opened as part of the podcast Answers For Claudia. Joan has been working with journalist Tom McDermott to see if they can find answers to the mystery of Claudia’s disappearance in 2009.
A new episode of the podcast saw Tom and Joan, 81, discover the small loft, accessed from a wardrobe in Claudia’s bedroom on Heworth Road.
Joan fears it may never have been searched by North Yorkshire Police. Officers told the podcast they hadn’t been in the loft but used a camera device to look inside.
Now she says if police want to search her daughter’s home again, she will only give permission if she’s allowed to go inside with them. “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 Mirror.
North Yorkshire Police confirmed that Det Supt Jon Sygrove has taken over from Ch Supt Wayne Fox as senior officer for the investigation.
He has told Joan he wants to meet Joan then go to Claudia’s house.
However, YorkMix understands a new forensic examination of the home is not imminent. There was such an examination in 2013.
A North Yorkshire Police spokesperson 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.”
Claudia was 35 when she failed to arrive for work as a chef at the University of York on 18 March 2009.
Police believe she was murdered, although her body has never been found and no charges have ever been brought.
She would have been 51 today.