question is - why would Claudia come out to a vehicle - why wouldn’t they knock at the door and go in? Could it be she was off to his flat/house for the night after the calls to her mum and dad etc? an overnight stay elsewhere - a lift to work in the morning? An argument on Melrose bridge ? She gets back in and then another more heated argument at university road? Or are we thinking it all went down hill on the 18th? It’s obvious that there is activity here on the 18th at 9.01pm - looking at the images it’s highly likely she got into the suv - the images are so poor - it’s still a guessing game as to what happened next. I have played with the footage in light room and there is lots of detail here - I am surprised the police released this footage. Anyone on the footage if they are looking on social media now must be feeling hot under the collar - hope they like prison food.
my views have changed repeatedly on this since I read ML’s blog and previous WS posts.
My opinion as of this evening is that CL gets a quiet knock on the Door around at 8:45 - 9pm before she heads to bed. She gets up off the sofa to answer and is is frog marched
Straight out of the house by known person/s. She enters the SUV vehicle through the rear near side door and sits behind the drivers seat. She is joined by someone else who ensure she stays put. Possibly a little uncomfortable for her but she may feel it relates to a recent event that needs to be discussed. There is someone in her house and has been for a while so she becomes anxious. Looks over her shoulder at the site of vehicle lights behind her hoping to see someone familiar.
Her phone is used to send a text message to JK which will be used as a reason as to why she didn’t check in on her sooner.
Not sure what time the message to JK is sent but does this seem Feasible?
Her house is straightened up, possibly searched, and made to look as if she had headed to work the following morning. The question is, why would her phone remain on? Does it stay at her house or is it taken into the SUV? Phone data needed.
They head off into the night taking her rucksack and the SUV is spotted on bus CCTV.
The fact they have two SUVs of similar appearance would allow one to be a decoy. Police want to trace the owner, one willingly comes forward to claim it was him.... was it? Did they check his vehicle against the CCTV to realise it was in fact not the same? Did the sniffer dogs and forensics draw a blank as a result, possibly.
This would explain how she was removed from the area and no crime scene was made.The magnitude of the situation probably hit home as they were making their way out of Heworth but it was too late.
Quite a risk to pull a move like this next to a pub on a main road. But from seeing McIntyres report the area wasn’t well lit and if they did bump into someone they knew on HR there was no crime committed so could send her back indoors probably a bit shaken but unharmed.