Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of Wives and Knives a true crime podcast with your hosts Dani & Kelly.
Please remember that we mean no disrespect to anyone mentioned in this episode, or across any of the wives and knives platforms.
We have an interest in true crime and related topics and whilst we may offer our own personal views on certain items it is meant to be educational and as lighthearted as possible. The information we present is collated from research gathered from the internet and we reference and credit our sources wherever possible.
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Congratulations to all who survived January, now if we could all make it to the end of lockdown in one piece that’d be super.
Thank you to all of you who persevered with ‘Marty’.
“I’ve almost finished with Marty” has been a constant theme since the last episode and it certainly highlighted to me how much I waffle; and to Dani too as this week she is at the helm and much more focused.
There has been a consensus (three of us) out there in our little community that we should go ahead with our “it’s never a mannequin” merchandise. Ask and you shall receive lovelies – leave it with me.
Once again because we are playing by the lockdown rules, the recording is a bit sketchy in places. We can only apologise, we truly are trying our best to provide a ‘professional’ experience whilst working on a non-existent budget with non-professional equipment. We couldn’t see each other, and the connection waned a little at times, so I hope you don’t hold that against us.
This week we are discussing the case of Claudia Lawrence, Thirty-five-year-old Claudia went missing on the 18th of March 2009. from Heworth in York.
Claudia was born and raised in Malton Yorkshire, which is about 6 miles from York; on the 27th of February 1974, she was the youngest daughter of parents Joan & Peter Lawrence. (Claudia’s parents divorced in 1999.) Claudia and her sister Alison/Ali, who was three years her senior, had a good & ‘comfortable’ childhood. On Saturdays, the sisters would go for riding lessons in nearby Rillington. Horses where a main stay of Claudia’s life and she continued to ride until the time she disappeared. Pete, who was a respected solicitor up until retiring just a couple of years ago. is quoted as saying that the girls liked school although Ali was more academically minded while Claudia was brave, adventurous, and had a lot of friends.” Claudia was privately educated and went to the York College for girls, She later attended a local catering college and qualified as a chef. Claudia gained experience working in several hotels and restaurants in York but is said to have not liked the unsocial hours this entailed and in 2006 found employment at the University of York, where she worked in the Goodricke College canteen and more regularly in the Roger Kirk Centre cafe: as a chef. With help from her parents and a small inheritance she had bought her first home, a nice house on Heworth road, a few doors down from the Nags head pub.
Claudia was a popular local girl whose social life revolved around her local pub and the friends she had made there. That is a ‘Nice’ life - she has her own home; she works Monday- Friday 6.00am - 2.30pm and the rest of her time she’s going to the local with her friends or she’s partying in town. As someone considerably younger than me put it – Vibing & Thriving! let’s go over what we know happened. On the 18th of March 2009, 2.31pm Claudia left work and a few minutes later walked through the campus on her way home. It’s about a 3 mile walk from the university to her house. At 2.47pm she is seen posting a letter into a letter box on Melrosegate, it has never been discovered what she posted or why. She chats to a woman with a pram before walking past the Nags head pub, four doors down is her house. Dani went for a wander, back when we could travel without restrictions and visit lovely places. She sent a frantic message to the group chat asking - Which was Claudia’s house? I’ll post these photos’ s when I can. It’s not exactly known what Claudia did with the rest of her day, but telephone records show she spoke to her father at 19.27pm that evening and then texted her friends between 20.08pm - 20.27pm What do you do when you get home from work? I’ve forgotten what with working from home -Trying to put it into context. Hair dye was found in the house, what looks like a brown hair colour and some bleach - I think police thought she had maybe been doing someone’s hair, but her mother informed them that Claudia who was usually blonde had recently gone brunette so was more than likely using it on herself. It’s worth noting that this hair change is alleged to have impacted the case later as missing persons posters that were put up portrayed Claudia as having blonde hair instead of the brunette or brown with highlights that she had at the time of her disappearance. The last contact she had with her family was via a phone call with her mother Joan. The conversation revolved around what they would do together for the upcoming Mother’s Day. Joan states that Claudia was in her bedroom at the time of the call and she could hear the same television show she was watching in the background. It was around 20.04pm - 20.14pm. At 21.01pm a white Vauxhall Astra van is seen parked on the road near to Claudia’s home. And at 21.12pm a text is received on Claudia’s phone but go’s unanswered. The text is from a friend, a bar worker in Cyprus. Claudia is known to have holidayed there and made contacts, friends. Claudia starts work at 6am in the morning so she could have just gone to bed early or just thought she’d reply the next day. (As Dani raised though the first thing, she and I both do when we wake up is check our phones.) I say this because the following day, Thursday the 19th of March Claudia failed to show up for her shift at work. CCTV was checked along the route she would have taken to work and outside of Claudia’s home. At around 7.15pm on the night of Wednesday 18th of March a man wearing dark clothes is seen entering the alley way behind Claudia’s home, he disappears from the cameras view for around a minute before reappearing with what appears to be a bag on his back. At this point another man appears, passing by the top of the road and the man with the bag freezes and watches him. You need to see the cctv or at least the stills of this because there is some debate as to if the man with the bag in fact even had a bag at all or if he did have one then perhaps, he had it all along and it was just obscured by view from the camera. What you believe then impacts on what he could have been doing - i.e., did he nip down the alley for a pee and then froze thinking he was going to get busted? Did he go down the alley to collect the bag? And if he did what was in the bag? Was it a drug pick up or the like? And then ultimately did this man have anything to do with Claudia and her disappearance. At around 5am on the Thursday morning we see the man wearing dark clothes again, he repeats the same as he did the night before moving into the alley only to emerge again a minute later. They’ve never officially been confirmed as the same person, but the build and the height are similar. (*also not necessarily a man) Could this be buy-to-let homeowner and Railway carriage cleaner Richard Cartwright? Cartwright owned properties in the same row as Claudia. According to a Websleuths commenter there had been a spate of burglaries in the area in the weeks leading up to Claudia’s disappearance. Was Richard Cartwright just being a diligent landlord, checking the back gates of his currently vacant student properties in the morning and evening for signs of recent tampering or theft? His numerous evidenced strolls into the alleyway running between the back gardens on Heworth Road and East Parade in the days and weeks leading up to Claudia’s disappearance could be just that but sadly we will never know for sure because he died of a heart attack a month after Claudia disappeared. (he was ruled out of the investigation regardless.) The police believe that Claudia left for work at around 5am for a 6am start, usually she would drive but her car, a Vauxhall Corsa, was in the local garage for repairs. The walk to the college would take about 30 mins approximately and she would have walked via melrosegate. We’ll put a map up for you and some pictures, but it’s worth noting that it would likely be quite dark at that time in March and she would have walked through some areas where someone could perhaps jump out, there’s a small bridge as well. It isn’t a particularly busy area, quite isolated, I would imagine at that time of day particularly. The only CCTV camera on Claudia’s route to work was at the Melrosegate Post Office on the main road and the recording from the morning of the 19th did not show Claudia passing. Although she may have passed on the opposite side of the road out of camera view At 05.35am a man is seen arguing with a woman on melrosegate bridge, this information came from an appeal in 2009 a passing cyclist who was travelling from rawthorn avenue towards Heworth road. The man and woman were on the cyclists left hand side near to the substation. The woman fit Claudia’s description with the man described as 5ft 6" tall, skinny and wearing dark-coloured combats and a hoody. 05.42am an old-style light coloured Ford Focus is seen braking outside Claudia’s house on Heworth road. There is an alley way there, a slim one, did the driver see something? Or is it’s just one of those things? 06.00am - Claudia doesn’t show up for her shift at the college. 06.10am a man and woman are seen arguing outside the university of York. 06.45am - 06.55am a man is seen outside of Claudia’s house; he’s seen by a passing cyclist on his way to work. He is said to have medium length scruffy or windswept grey hair and is wearing a cream-coloured Mac style coat. At 12.10 Claudia’s mobile phone is turned off. This is a critical piece of evidence; it was determined that the phone had been connected to a mast in the Heworth area of York throughout the morning of 19 of March and up to the point it was switched off. This indicates that the phone itself did not leave the local area. Claudia’s manager has tried to call her once and then left a message, was this seen by Claudia or the person who was in possession of the phone? Did it cause them to turn it off? Claudia is due to meet a friend, Suzy Cooper at the nags head that evening, remember that’s the pub four doors down from her house. When she doesn’t show, Suzy tries to call her and then later leaves, Suzy sent her a text, joking about being “stood up”. When she called and it went straight to voicemail, she chalked it up to Claudia falling asleep and leaving her phone uncharged. Neither of the girls who are in the pub go the four doors down to check on their friend, what would you do? Concerned Suzy calls Peter Lawrence, he then goes to check the house with Claudia’s friend and nags head landlord George foreman (not the famous boxer and griller) George has a key for Claudia’s house. (*also, his name isn’t really George it’s Simon and George is his middle or nick name.) That must have been awful - imagine going into your daughter’s house expecting to find her body, what they find is nothing out of the ordinary, everything appears to be ‘normal’. the next morning Friday the 20th of March Peter reports his daughter missing to the police, When investigators entered Claudia’s home they discovered no signs of a struggle or anything out of place, they found all her bank cards and her passport in the house. Claudia’s bed had been made and there was an unwashed cereal bowl in the sink. It was also said that it looked like she had brushed her teeth downstairs due to her toothbrush being on the draining board in the kitchen. The only things noted as being missing were her work bag, a rucksack that would usually contain her work uniform, her chef’s whites and her hair straighteners, it’s unclear if they would usually have been in her work bag. Peter made an appeal for information at a press conference on the 23rd of March, describing his "living nightmare". Two days later, after the CCTV footage was released, Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway – who was leading the investigation – said he believed Claudia may have come to harm after meeting someone she knew. In April, a 10,000 reward is offered for information by crimestoppers, not sure if we’ve ever said that crimestoppers is a charity. Six weeks after she went missing Claudia’s case is being treated as suspected murder and by the 6th of May, police said they had received more than 1,000 calls from the public, taken 1,096 statements and searched 1,270 properties. On the 15th of May, the footage of the man with or without the bag is released, so the investigation is consistent as is the representation in the media. O, Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway went on the BBC's Crimewatch programme and Kirsty Young then pushed him to talk about the “areas of Claudia’s life that are delicate to say the least and definitely complex” which had not yet been touched on. He said Claudia was involved in relationships "of complexity and mystery". I’m not sure if this was just worded badly but this is where representation of Claudia changed in the media and so did the narrative of her disappearance. Mr. Galloway later said he “didn't intend for it to come out quite like it did.” Peter Lawrence appeared on the BBC’s Today Programme refuting the claims by Mr. Galloway that his daughter had suspicious relationships that were not known to her friends or family. Mr. Lawrence said: “We really wonder whether, certainly recently, she had time to form any relationships other than those about which we know. She saw her best friend, Suzy, and me very regularly and she worked in quite a strenuous job. We wonder about it.” Suzy also regularly disputed the claims and the ensuing publicity, describing her friend as “shy”. As per bloody usual, they depict Claudia as some home wrecker having affairs with married men, it’s not only an attempt to diminish her character but edging towards victim blaming. Dani and I both agree it was disgusting treatment of Claudia. If she were a straight man she’d be portrayed as unlucky in love, but instead she is said to have had a regular string of short-term relationships. Some have been said to have been with married men. Claudia was officially single, and she enjoyed an active social life, this social life revolved around the pubs and clubs of York, most notably her local The Nag's Head pub in Heworth where she was at the centre of a group of regular customers known as 'the Nag's crowd'. This group consisted of the co landlord Simon ‘George’ foreman, Jen, who also worked at the pub. Pete Ruane, Suzy Cooper, Alistair Cooper. One blog that contains a more personal view on the relationships here states that ‘George and Steve might have known Claudia longest out of the Nag’s Head crowd. She did seem particularly familiar with them anecdotally and had twice visited Steve and another friend in Cyprus. Suzy and Claudia were also close but even their friendship was relatively new. They met I think a year or so before I did them, so they’d have known each other for around two and a half years when Claudia first went missing. On the rare occasion that Claudia stood up Suzy I noticed Suzy would always text or try call her, but she would never make the thirty second walk down the road to knock on her door and see if she were at home.’ The full blog is linked below. Co-landlord Simon ‘George’ Forman tended to work most evenings; counterpart Jim Melson — who walked with a limp, as did long serving barman Dave — overseeing the morning/Sunday lunch side of the business. Which included B&B duties. Breakfast and Sunday Lunch were served by Jim and cooked by chef Ray who lived in one of the B&B rooms From what I’ve read about the pub it certainly comes across as a local pub for local people. And weekend lock-ins occurred amid George’s landlord-ship for his social circle which in turn is Claudia’s friendship circle. Again, the media and some locals make out that this is where sordid orgies and the like would occur but someone who worked there states that: ‘they can say with a degree of certainty adultery amongst the group was far from constant. But it did happen. However, I don’t think I saw Claudia being blatant with anybody, married or otherwise, the entire time I knew her, although I did George, Pete, Jen, Suzy, and many others.’ The same person offers that other circulated rumors regarding Claudia specifically are also inaccurate. ‘that Claudia would regularly invite men back to her house from the pub lock-ins but if she did so I didn’t notice, unless of course she asked by text, in which case how could I have.’ Claudia’s relationships and her social connections fueled the investigation which centered around construction of a "rogue's gallery" of the men she had been involved with. One journalist stated "Claudia lived a significant part of her life in secret. For a privately educated daughter of a country solicitor Claudia had some unusual acquaintances and this remains the only missing person case where I have been warned off or threatened - not once but twice” In September 2009, the police revealed that the search for Lawrence had been extended to Cyprus. Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway stated that Lawrence "knew several people who live on the island" and that she may have "received job offers" while there. Claudia was known to have frequented the island regularly, visiting over ten times; It was noted as being Claudia’s special place. DS Galloway also stated that some people who had been interviewed had been "reluctant and less than candid" when spoken to, including a guy who had been transporting vans to Italy when she went missing, which may be where the human trafficking and escape to a new life angle originated (*there have been multiple sightings of her abroad). A team of officers were sent to Cyprus to interview people whom Claudia had met there and Dan Whitehead, Claudia’s ex-boyfriend, has been vocal about his belief that Claudia’s abductor and probable killer had some connection to Cyprus, saying so in several interviews, citing an array of ‘shady characters’ he knew Claudia remained in contact with and had met whilst holidaying with him in Cyprus in 2006 and 2007. in September of 2009, detectives investigating the case made a search of an area of the university where Lawrence worked. In October 2009, NYP revealed they were looking for the driver of a "rusty white van" who was seen trying to talk to women on Lawrence's route to work in the days before she disappeared. On 24 March 2010, NYP began searching areas of Heslington in York, based on new information received "in the last few days". land near to a children's play area, near to a farm track, was searched, and on the 25th of March the search was relocated to a field near to the university, an area of land which is bordered by a playing field and student accommodation. North Yorkshire Police haven’t found any new leads from these searches and nothing of significance has been discovered. (*The search at Heslington was later considered to have been prompted by hoax information.) In June 2013, the police announced the £300,000 creation of a new Major Crime Unit. Based in Harrogate, part of their role would be the review of cold cases -including Claudia’s disappearance. The taskforce carried out new forensic searches at Claudia’s home on Heworth Road (Claudia’s dad Peter has been in the position of being able to keep the house as it was back in 2009.) Using what is described as "advanced techniques not available in 2009", the MCU found additional fingerprints and a man's DNA on a cigarette end in her car. This DNA has so far not proved useful to the case, whilst Claudia is known to not be a smoker and to even dislike smoking, she is also known to have let her friend Jen King smoke in her car. The cigarette butt could even belong to someone who works at the garage or even been transferred on the bottom of a shoe, it happens. Work surrounding her mobile phone showed cell site activity from the Acomb area of York in the weeks leading up to her disappearance. A fresh appeal in 2014 featuring CCTV footage that was shown on Crimewatch. recovered from 2009, showed a silver Ford Focus hatchback car, manufactured between 1998 and 2004, The car's brake lights come on as it approaches level with Claudia's house. The new investigation led by detective Dai Malyn made several arrests. The suspects concerned are all believed to have been men with whom Lawrence had relationships or who had some insight into those relationships. On 13 May 2014 Michael Snelling a 59-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of Claudia's murder. In 2014 Snelling was a project co-ordinator for the mental health charity York Mind. But until 2013 he had worked for the Biology department at the University of York where he and Lawrence were acquainted. The Police searched Snellings home and his mother's house in North Shields, Tyneside. Snelling was released on bail the following day and the forensic search of his York property ended on 21 May 2014. In July 2014 NYP arrested Paul Harris, the landlord of The Acomb pub in York on suspicion of 'perverting the course of justice'. Harris was quickly released without. charge. He complained that the police had used pneumatic drills to excavate the cellar floor of his pub. Harris stated that Lawrence had been a customer at his pub in the weeks before her disappearance and he had spoken to her. But that was his only connection with her. On 8 March 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service abandoned proceedings against four men who had been arrested on suspicion of murder, citing lack of evidence. Known as 'the Nag's four' or the ‘famous four’, the suspects had all been regular customers of The Nag's Head with at least two of them being in the ‘friendship circle’ with Claudia and the others known to her. The case against them reportedly relied on mobile phone and satnav tracking. They all denied any involvement in Lawrence's disappearance. They were Peter Ruane, 55. Shane Ruane 52, David Robinson 52 & Alistair Cooper 59. (*Peter Ruane was and still is in a relationship with Jen King.) Another suspect often mentioned in relation to Claudia is Christopher Halliwell. Halliwell is currently serving time for the murders of Sian O’Callaghan and Becky Godden it is reported that his father lived locally, and that Christopher had been in the area on the day of her death. The now 52-year-old Taxi driver will often come up if you search for Claudia Lawrence online however it has been proven that he was in hospital on the day of her attack, despite the date being of significance to Halliwell in terms of another crime. In June 2019, ten years after Lawrence's disappearance, the Government introduced the Guardianship (Missing Person’s) Act 2017, informally known as 'Claudia's Law'. The law allows for a guardian (like Peter) to be appointed to manage the affairs of a person who has been missing for 90 days or more. Such a guardian would have the power to, for example, stop direct debits for utilities. The law was introduced after campaigning by Peter Lawrence with the support of MPs. As of today, Claudia’s case is still unsolved and as Dani and I discuss in the episode, we hope that for the sake of the family and Claudia we one day see justice for her. There are so many different theories and so many rabbit holes you can become consumed by regarding this case, make up your own mind. What I will say is that there are some valid theories out there. There is a lot of information to sift through as well, some more helpful than others. There are a lot of connections, social and economic that I find interesting but there’s too much to mention here. The links used for the episode are listed below and we would love to hear from you so please let us know what you think. Until the next episode, stay safe & as sane as you can. Kx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Claudia_Lawrence https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3be3y/claudia-lawrence-missing-person-york https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/holiday-flings-could-hold-clues-419624 https://northyorkshire.police.uk/news/claudia-lawrence-investigation/ https://medium.com/@Krystyna.Sierbien/whenever-particularly-sozzled-claudia-lawrence-liked-to-play-the-same-elton-john-track-your-song-6cfce6f0834d https://youtu.be/cvPiWrVB9ao https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/what_happened_to_claudia https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/b1dnke/claudia_lawrence_coming_up_to_10th_anniversary/ https://coda.io/d/CL-Reddit_dw8s6WvOmd7/_suVpC https://youtu.be/1-jk7oc8MSQ
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