UK UK - Claudia Lawrence, 35, York University, 18 March 2009 - Chef - #2

[koios]

I found another article about the "rusty white van" whose driver was seen on CL's route to work trying to talk to women in the days before CL disappeared.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/jogger-saw-mystery-van-on-claudia-s-work-route-1-2308940
It adds the useful information "smaller than a Ford Transit".
I think this means smaller than a standard size Transit- type van.
Therefore it could be any make of small van (including the Connect, which an ordinary person would describe as "smaller than a Transit").
Having discovered the colour (white) and the condition (old and rusty) and now the size (small) I am still seeking the make and model, and description of driver, which I cannot find anywhere.

 

[dotr]

Tried to find more info on the rusty white van til my eyes bled, lol, but no luck so far...

 

[Deleted member 102539]

to dotr and koios

“The re-consideration of the 2009 decision was undertaken by a specialist lawyer working in a dedicated Rape and Serious Sexual Offences Unit, which had since been established in the CPS Yorkshire and Humberside Area.

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/11521390.Five_year_wait_for_justice_of_rapist___s_earlier_victim/

Maybe this Unit should be responsible for the CL case. Don't know if they already are?

.-.-.-.-

Re. Claudia: MT attacked the women on the street as well as in their own home:

Same link above:

Thompson, a stranger, tried to pull his victim’s trousers down while holding a hand over her mouth near Coney Street but was stopped when two nightclub bouncers heard the victim's muffled pleas for help.

One had woken up in her bed to find Thompson standing over undoing his trousers just hours before he grabbed the student and bundled her into his white van.

The other was a woman Thompson tried to rape earlier in the summer who had pulled a knife on him. Only then did CPS decide to reopen the 2009 case.

The woman, now 29, who is from Malton but lives in York, said: “First of all I was in utter shock when they rang up. Then when I was told he had attacked all these other women I was infuriated.
-.-.-.-.-

https://theukaddress.com/postcode-phone-address-map/Doctor-Bird-Decorating-York-England-UK-21235440

Above link: address of Doctor Bird Decorating York (Thompson).

Perhaps a savvy Google maps expert (street view) is able to find an old white van parking in the vicinity of the address ...? (MT bought his white van when he founded his decorating business I learned somewhere.)

 

[Deleted member 102539]

I have driven my tires flat on Google street view: many white vehicles, sometimes vans around the address of Doctor Bird. I looked only for 2009/2011. As I said: a true expert has to do this, sorry.

Next thought: MT's Martial Art business and possible address. Maybe there is a rusty white small van on some streetview pic?
I don't know if MT is indeed the owner but I found one of 6 martial arts businesses in York and I think of 2 things to be very interesting: it seems no longer active (makes sense if it belonged to MT) AND it is located "7 Acomb Court" which rings my alarm bells loudly.

http://dojos.co.uk/York/

 

[koios]

@FromGermany martial arts was from home address with names "kilimanjarodojo" and "dragon heart general"

 

[koios]

I try to find exact date of the Feb 2009 attack and arrest. Best I find so far is a search result which says "in the early hours of February 22, 2009", although when clicking through to the press article that text is missing.
If the date Feb 22 2009 is correct, then the date the case was dropped (assuming that "less than a fortnight later" means about 12 days) would be somewhere around March 6 2009?

 

[jessie]

Another comparision or similarity call it what you want:
1, In 2009 CL possibly disappeared from the street, completely sober, in the early hours of the morning.
2. In 2013 a woman disappeared from the street, completely sober, in the early hours of the morning.

Could you provide more details of this second disappearance please?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Could you provide more details of this second disappearance please?

A man described by police as a "violent" rapist has been jailed for life for a string of attacks on women.
Mark Thompson, 37, of Hospital Fields, York, had abducted and raped a 20-year-old woman in the early hours of 29 October 2013 in York.
He also attacked a woman at a house he was staying at earlier the same day. He had attempted to assault two other women in 2009 and earlier in 2013.
Thompson was told he would spend at least 11 years and six months in jail

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-27297672

 

[jessie]

A man described by police as a "violent" rapist has been jailed for life for a string of attacks on women.
Mark Thompson, 37, of Hospital Fields, York, had abducted and raped a 20-year-old woman in the early hours of 29 October 2013 in York.
He also attacked a woman at a house he was staying at earlier the same day. He had attempted to assault two other women in 2009 and earlier in 2013.
Thompson was told he would spend at least 11 years and six months in jail

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-27297672

Thanks CmC. I was aware of this, but does it include the woman who "disappeared" in 2013?
Have I misunderstood somewhere?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Thanks CmC. I was aware of this, but does it include the woman who "disappeared" in 2013?
Have I misunderstood somewhere?

Oh I see what you mean, she was described as "abducted" in that article but I don't know how long she was gone for.

As far as I can piece together Thompson committed assaults in Feb 2009 (with the case dismissed just days before Claudia vanished), summer 2013 and then twice in October 2013. The last one was the one he got nicked for with the others being linked soon afterwards.

It could all just be coincidence but the fact is there was a known predator in the area around the time Claudia went missing who had previously snatched a woman off the street in the early hours of the morning. Question is, is he the same man who allegedly mentioned he knew Claudia (Co-op CCTV) but never came forward? Can anyone recall which Co-op that CCTV was from?

 

[koios]

Oh I see what you mean, she was described as "abducted" in that article but I don't know how long she was gone for.

As far as I can piece together Thompson committed assaults in Feb 2009 (with the case dismissed just days before Claudia vanished), summer 2013 and then twice in October 2013. The last one was the one he got nicked for with the others being linked soon afterwards.

It could all just be coincidence but the fact is there was a known predator in the area around the time Claudia went missing who had previously snatched a woman off the street in the early hours of the morning. Question is, is he the same man who allegedly mentioned he knew Claudia (Co-op CCTV) but never came forward? Can anyone recall which Co-op that CCTV was from?

In the 2013 case, the woman was abducted for about 5 hours. Fortunately she then managed to escape from the van.
A remarkable thing is that the man who attacked her did not disable or dump the victim's phone - he forcibly stopped her using it but failed to turn it off - police mobile forensics discovered it was on for the whole five hours.
Reading the reports of the trial, just in my opinion this irrational behaviour re the phone was caused by the attacker (currently in jail) having a psychological condition which includes delusional thinking, made even more delusional by the vodka and cocaine mentioned in the trial.

 

[Deleted member 102539]

Oh I see what you mean, she was described as "abducted" in that article but I don't know how long she was gone for.

As far as I can piece together Thompson committed assaults in Feb 2009 (with the case dismissed just days before Claudia vanished), summer 2013 and then twice in October 2013. The last one was the one he got nicked for with the others being linked soon afterwards.

It could all just be coincidence but the fact is there was a known predator in the area around the time Claudia went missing who had previously snatched a woman off the street in the early hours of the morning. Question is, is he the same man who allegedly mentioned he knew Claudia (Co-op CCTV) but never came forward? Can anyone recall which Co-op that CCTV was from?

Co-op store at Tang Hall in York

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-26632241

Mr Malyn said another new strand of the inquiry was focused on tracing a man who told staff in a Co-op store at Tang Hall in York that he knew Miss Lawrence or used to work with her.
This was on 1 April 2009, about 10 days after she was reported missing, said Mr Malyn.

 

[Deleted member 102539]

In the 2013 case, the woman was abducted for about 5 hours. Fortunately she then managed to escape from the van.
A remarkable thing is that the man who attacked her did not disable or dump the victim's phone - he forcibly stopped her using it but failed to turn it off - police mobile forensics discovered it was on for the whole five hours.
Reading the reports of the trial, just in my opinion this irrational behaviour re the phone was caused by the attacker (currently in jail) having a psychological condition which includes delusional thinking, made even more delusional by the vodka and cocaine mentioned in the trial.

bbm

Seems to be remarkable indeed (re Claudia's phone)!

 

[Deleted member 102539]

I bet Ha**iwell or Fo*d-Thom**on (rather the latter) will turn out to be "our man". Maybe one of them was a boyfriend for a short time, maybe not at all.

Ford-T.'s white van was caught on CCTV when he abducted the girl in 2013 for 5 hours. Hopefully the witnesses in case Claudia are able to remember the white van they had seen in the vicinity (and hopefully they will be asked).

I would like to know if the man in the 2 videos (CCTV around Claudia's home) has a similarity to a walking CH or Ford-T. .... :thinking:

 

[koios]

bbm

Seems to be remarkable indeed (re Claudia's phone)!

From the police release that CL's phone was turned off at about 12.10pm (lunchtime), it would be easy to build a hypothesis that she was for the whole morning voluntarily with someone she knew, and that something changed only many hours later, at lunchtime, which resulted in her non-return and the perpetrator turning the phone off. However that is not the only hypothesis buildable from it - the other is one of abduction by a stranger, with the greatly delayed turning-off of the phone being explained, not by any logical calculated thought process, but by delusional and/or drug-modified thought processes of the abductor.

 

[Deleted member 102539]

From the police release that CL's phone was turned off at about 12.10pm (lunchtime), it would be easy to build a hypothesis that she was for the whole morning voluntarily with someone she knew, and that something changed only many hours later, at lunchtime, which resulted in her non-return and the perpetrator turning the phone off. However that is not the only hypothesis buildable from it - the other is one of abduction by a stranger, with the greatly delayed turning-off of the phone being explained, not by any logical calculated thought process, but by delusional and/or drug-modified thought processes of the abductor.

bbm

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/19/claudia-lawrence-new-fingerprints-found-missing-york

Police announce new lines of inquiry on fifth anniversary of day Lawrence failed to turn up for work at York University


So, Claudia didn't spend the time with someone voluntary. Otherwise she hadn't been missing at work.

 

[koios]

bbm

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/mar/19/claudia-lawrence-new-fingerprints-found-missing-york

Police announce new lines of inquiry on fifth anniversary of day Lawrence failed to turn up for work at York University


So, Claudia didn't spend the time with someone voluntary. Otherwise she hadn't been missing at work.

I agree, if on the way to work that morning she met someone she knew and voluntarily decided to skip work, she would have phoned work to say she wasn't coming in.
Therefore it is probable that, by 6AM at the latest, someone physically prevented her from using her phone.

 

[koios]

I think a strong hypothesis is abduction by a stranger, into a vehicle, while walking to work.
Working on that hypothesis, then by carefully examining certain distinctive facts of the case, it is possible to build a tentative profile of the abductor.
But first, I need a small detail. Would it still be dark between 5AM and 6AM in mid-March?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I think a strong hypothesis is abduction by a stranger, into a vehicle, while walking to work.
Working on that hypothesis, then by carefully examining certain distinctive facts of the case, it is possible to build a tentative profile of the abductor.
But first, I need a small detail. Would it still be dark between 5AM and 6AM in mid-March?

Sunrise would be about 6:20am (I googled it!)

 

[koios]

Sunrise would be about 6:20am (I googled it!)

Thanks Cagney. This video incudes the well known CCTV footage of a man walking into and then out of Heworth Place at about 7:15PM on the 18th.
But it has also footage from same CCTV camera of what appears to be same man walking into Heworth Place at about 5:07AM on the 19th and then walking out of Heworth Place just 8 seconds later.
Why would a man walk into and then, after 8 seconds, out of that street so early in the morning?
It appears to be half-light at 5:07AM (assuming the CCTV clock is correct, maybe it is wrong or maybe it is on 12hr setting and PM?).
https://youtu.be/nQJVSy4wpDU