UK UK - Claudia Lawrence, 35, Chef, York University, 18 March 2009 #16

[CocktailQueen]

I've always thought the toothbrush there was weird. But, she did live alone, so, I dunno. It was easy? She ate and always brushed, toothpaste and brush right there?

Or it was moved.

Odd to me, too.

The bathroom was downstairs and just off of the kitchen, I believe. She could have started brushing in the bathroom but was in a hurry (maybe she went out again that evening or someone turned up at the back door) and just absent mindedly put it in the kitchen as she walked past.

 

[crander]

A couple of questions i have please....in 'Gone' book SC states Claudia had lodgers in the past.....aside from JK for 11 months anyone know about the others- i am assuming to be before her time in heworth ?
Also i am puzzled as i always thought and reconstruction showed claudia leaving work on 18th and on walk home posting a letter at melrosegate and very shortly after a female work colleague spots her and gives her a lift home. After which claudia goes back out to where we dont know then back home soon after
However 'Gone' suggests after being given the lift home she then went out to post the letter? I dont see how this was the case as didnt cctv timed her at 2.57 pm which would tie in with leaving work cctv 2.31 pm and she walking in direction of home?

 

[RachelZachary]

In the tv documentry by Donal MacIntyre Gerrard Tubb Sky reporter said newspaper journalists themselves were having problems getting to the bottom of just what these relationships Ray Gallaway had elluded to were, some of the people we wanted to talk didnt want to talk to us. some of them had lifestyles that werent necassarily compatible with openly answering questions from journalists or from the police and I was threatened on this investigattion and I was and warned off on this investigation, which is pretty unusual for a murder enquiry of a solicitors daughter in rural market town in North Yorkshire.

Later in the programme he goes on to say that one of the officers involved in the case described some of the men she was involved with as a rogues gallery.
no link avail programme screened on CH5

These are important details about the type of 'some' of people Claudia was or had previously been associating with. Claudia was a grown woman and could associate with whoever she wanted to but to dismiss details like this is a grave mistake when searching for answers to what may have happened to her.

JMO

I think you have to take channel 5 documentaries and comments by journalists with a pinch of salt. JMO.

There’s no doubt that the people in Claudia’s life should be explored. But the media victim shamed Claudia to sell papers which had, and continues to have a negative impact on the investigation.

 

[Tellytebbie]

No one looking at the picture of the ‘breakfast dishes’ in the sink would say they are breakfast dishes. So it’s confusing why the police would say that’s what they are and say it indicated she had had breakfast before she left for work. Very unlikely she would have breakfast when leaving that early for work - she would have breakfast at appropriate time at work surely.

there also looks to be an ash tray by side of sink? And wine glasses indicate she had someone round for a drink. Did police look through her bins I wonder - did they find wine bottle?

 

[Lawly]

The bathroom was downstairs and just off of the kitchen, I believe. She could have started brushing in the bathroom but was in a hurry (maybe she went out again that evening or someone turned up at the back door) and just absent mindedly put it in the kitchen as she walked past.

I believe it was an electric toothbrush. The scenario in my head is that she brushed her teeth in the bathroom then plugged it into the kitchen to charge,with the bathroom being just off the kitchen.
]

 

[Pinkizzy]

A couple of questions i have please....in 'Gone' book SC states Claudia had lodgers in the past.....aside from JK for 11 months anyone know about the others- i am assuming to be before her time in heworth ?
Also i am puzzled as i always thought and reconstruction showed claudia leaving work on 18th and on walk home posting a letter at melrosegate and very shortly after a female work colleague spots her and gives her a lift home. After which claudia goes back out to where we dont know then back home soon after
However 'Gone' suggests after being given the lift home she then went out to post the letter? I dont see how this was the case as didnt cctv timed her at 2.57 pm which would tie in with leaving work cctv 2.31 pm and she walking in direction of home?

Look at the timeline map on the nyp website - CLs last sighting was at 3.05. There is no mention of a lift or leaving the house after she returns home.

 

[Lawly]

Look at the timeline map on the nyp website - CLs last sighting was at 3.05. There is no mention of a lift or leaving the house after she returns home.

3.05 was when an acquaintance saw her returning home for the second time that day. She had been dropped off home by a work colleague 15 minutes earlier. It was explained in the Crimewatch reconstruction.

 

[Pinkizzy]

3.05 was when an acquaintance saw her returning home for the second time that day. She had been dropped off home by a work colleague 15 minutes earlier. It was explained in the Crimewatch reconstruction.

Sorry, i dont agree with you on this. The Crimewatch reconstruction is out of date and the NYP microsite is updated regularly - the bit about the lift was deleted during the last 12 months. @Blonderabbit can confirm this point

 

[Lawly]

Sorry, i dont agree with you on this. The Crimewatch reconstruction is out of date and the NYP microsite is updated regularly - the bit about the lift was deleted during the last 12 months. @Blonderabbit can confirm this point

Fair enough. It was reported until then at least that the witness who spoke to her was a child minder who I knew her and spoke with her briefly. Do you think she was nistaken? Perhaps she had her days mixed up? It's a real shame NYP don't keep the public informed with regards to changes like these.

 

[Popejohn3]

In the tv documentry by Donal MacIntyre Gerrard Tubb Sky reporter said newspaper journalists themselves were having problems getting to the bottom of just what these relationships Ray Gallaway had elluded to were, some of the people we wanted to talk didnt want to talk to us. some of them had lifestyles that werent necassarily compatible with openly answering questions from journalists or from the police and I was threatened on this investigattion and I was and warned off on this investigation, which is pretty unusual for a murder enquiry of a solicitors daughter in rural market town in North Yorkshire.

Later in the programme he goes on to say that one of the officers involved in the case described some of the men she was involved with as a rogues gallery.
no link avail programme screened on CH5

These are important details about the type of 'some' of people Claudia was or had previously been associating with. Claudia was a grown woman and could associate with whoever she wanted to but to dismiss details like this is a grave mistake when searching for answers to what may have happened to her.

JMO

Yes association is a much better word to relationship.

 

[Popejohn3]

Surely there's Dna on the dishes/cutlery if someone ate with her

Yes and these could what the police are referring to as ‘unknown’

 

[Lawly]

Fair enough. It was reported until then at least that the witness who spoke to her was a child minder who I knew her and spoke with her briefly. Do you think she was nistaken? Perhaps she had her days mixed up? It's a real shame NYP don't keep the public informed with regards to changes like these.

Just read the NYP website. It does indeed mention she was seen returning home at 3.05 but mentions nothing about the lift. If fact it only says she was seen as she was walking home. That could have been on her walk home from work.It's a very interesting point. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Disappearance of Claudia Lawrence

 

[Popejohn3]

A couple of questions i have please....in 'Gone' book SC states Claudia had lodgers in the past.....aside from JK for 11 months anyone know about the others- i am assuming to be before her time in heworth ?
Also i am puzzled as i always thought and reconstruction showed claudia leaving work on 18th and on walk home posting a letter at melrosegate and very shortly after a female work colleague spots her and gives her a lift home. After which claudia goes back out to where we dont know then back home soon after
However 'Gone' suggests after being given the lift home she then went out to post the letter? I dont see how this was the case as didnt cctv timed her at 2.57 pm which would tie in with leaving work cctv 2.31 pm and she walking in direction of home?

Claudia could have posted 2 letters ! The last one could easily be a misdirected letter she found when she got home .My postman is always doing this to me .

 

[keep-it-real]

I think you have to take channel 5 documentaries and comments by journalists with a pinch of salt. JMO.

There’s no doubt that the people in Claudia’s life should be explored. But the media victim shamed Claudia to sell papers which had, and continues to have a negative impact on the investigation.

We all knew from a very early stage that the media had blown her personal relationships out of proportion by the media. Anyone who has researched the case will have a good undrstanding of whats what and whats not.

Gerrard Tubb like most journalist has contacts within the police force, its not something that is unusual and benefits both journalists and police when the need arises.
For someone like me who has an interest in crime I sat up when I saw Clive Driscoll a former Detective Chief Inspector for the Metropolitan Police who investigated some of Britain's most high-profile cases and Nicola Tallant Nicola Tallant is a three time winner of Crime Journalist of the Year in Ireland would be appearing on the programme.
Its worth taking time to look at their backgrounds and the cases they have covered particular Nicola her extentensive knowledge of Irish criminals has been gathered from 16 years working in the field ... it might come in useful later.

Where tv programmes covering crimes can have many restrictions placed upon them in what can actually be said particularly open cases like this, when a journalist like Gerrard Tubb says he was threatened and warned off the case it suggests to me that he was getting close to finding out certain details of this case that someone didnt want made public. We can discuss what that could have been was all day long with no resolve. But the key question is who was doing the threatening and the warning. An Authority, a legal representative, a criminal?

 

[Yozzer]

I've always thought the toothbrush there was weird. But, she did live alone, so, I dunno. It was easy? She ate and always brushed, toothpaste and brush right there?

Or it was moved.

Odd to me, too.

Her house had a downstairs bathroom at the end of the kitchen. Common in terraced houses from the period. She had an electric toothbrush and the bathroom would not have had an electric point (again common in older UK properties) so it was kept on charge on the kitchen worktop. No doubt she would have brushed her teeth in the bathroom.

 

[Pinkizzy]

Fair enough. It was reported until then at least that the witness who spoke to her was a child minder who I knew her and spoke with her briefly. Do you think she was nistaken? Perhaps she had her days mixed up? It's a real shame NYP don't keep the public informed with regards to changes like these.

The childminder saw CL walking home from work after posting a letter at Melrosegate PO. She hadn't returned home yet. @Blonderabbit pointed it out to me

 

[keep-it-real]

Her house had a downstairs bathroom at the end of the kitchen. Common in terraced houses from the period. She had an electric toothbrush and the bathroom would not have had an electric point (again common in older UK properties) so it was kept on charge on the kitchen worktop. No doubt she would have brushed her teeth in the bathroom.

Ive always had a question mark over the toothbrush and who may have used it.
Unfortunately we didnt get a photo of the bathroom as a whole so not much help to look at things further.
I just made note that it was an interchangable head electric toothbrush if the reason it was in the kitchen was because of the charger why wasnt it plugged into the charger?
There is a glass of water? on the left hand side drainer some people do rinse with water after brushing. It opens up a whole load of scenarios about teeth brushing habits I know some people multi task brushing their teeth and doing other stuff like general tidying up before leaving for work depends how a person feels about things being tidy.
If who ever used the toothbrush used it at the kitchen sink then its likely the dishes would have been placed in the sink afterwards.

Be interesting to know if the fingerprint they lifted from inside the house was a left hand one though.

 

[Lawly]

The childminder saw CL walking home from work after posting a letter at Melrosegate PO. She hadn't returned home yet. @Blonderabbit pointed it out to me

Yeah, sorry, I was a bit slow with that. I figured it out after reading your post. 3.05 would be when she would return home of she'd walked the whole way. It's such an interesting point. Was the person who was reported to have given her a lift home ever named?

 

[saztina]

I've never posted before but was just curious, does anybody know if the drivers of the white Astra van parked outside of her house around 9pm and/or the car seen braking just outside of her house at the time she would have been walking to work were ever IDed? If not, what do you think of these vehicles? Do you think they're both red herrings or that they could be significant to the case?

 

[crander]

So if she posted letter on way home from work....at 2.57 pm as per the cctv which would fit in with leaving work at 2.31pm....she got a lift home almst immediately after lets say 2.58pm arrived home approx 3.05pm.....sadly no one ever came forward about receiving a letter from her....it if were a utility bill payment or similar presumably would of been found out but as far i know still a mystery.....why didnt she post it in the morning on way to work....maybe just forgot?......and did she or not go back out shortly after arriving home from the lift after 3.05pm?...i thought i knew the events but the book hasvthrown me out