Claudia Lawrence’s mother, Joan, has lived with the agony of a lost loved one for 15 years but recently had to deal with the devastating news Lisa Welford was killed by her former partner
Missing chef Claudia Lawrence’s mother has described a 13-word remark made by a police chef on TV amid the probe as “a lot of crap”.
Joan Lawrence, 81, feels the comment made to millions on BBC Crimewatch deterred potential witnesses from coming forward in the suspected murder investigation. Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway said on the show: “Some of Claudia’s relationships had an element of complicity and mystery to them.”
Joan believes this was a form of “victim-blaming,” which drained the sympathy for the chef, who disappeared without trace in March 2009 and was later subject of the suspected murder enquiry. The pensioner is speaking out now in the wake of news of the murder conviction of Vincent Morgan, who killed Claudia’s best friend Lisa Welford.
Joan had said she “felt numb with shock” when was made aware of Lisa’s desperate fate recently. Morgan, 47, drowned Lisa in the river Derwent, just a few minutes from Joan’s home in Malton, North Yorkshire.
And it’s brought back all the grief Joan felt in 2009 as, though Claudia’s body hasn’t been found, authorities were confident the chef had been killed. No one, though, has ever established what happened to Claudia, or where she might be.
Recalling Det Supt Galloway’s comments on June 2009’s Crimewatch, Joan yesterday told Daily Mail: “It was a lot of crap that wasn’t true. He should never have said it. Everyone round here knew it wasn’t true – it was a small community and people know what’s true and what isn’t.”
Despite Joan’s anger, North Yorkshire Police did seem to leave no stone unturned. Over the next few months, they took 2,517 statements, checked 1,771 vehicles, searched 38 homes and business premises, examined 64 scenes and tested more than 200 items for DNA, all of which yielded no concrete evidence.
The assumption was Claudia had probably been abducted and murdered shortly after leaving home on March 19 by a local man known to her. The probe had all but stalled when, in 2013, under the remit of a newly-established Major Crime Unit, fresh eyes were put on the case under the supervision of Detective Superintendent Dai Malyn.
Joan added: “Someone out there knows what happened. We just need to find them… I don’t think any parent can recover from losing a child. It’s the wrong order of things. Someone knows what happened.”
