TV appeal brings new lead in hunt for missing chef Claudia Lawrence

(pa)

Police investigating the disappearance of university chef Claudia Lawrence said today that they were following up a "potentially significant lead" after a national television appeal.

New CCTV footage of the missing 35-year-old was shown on the BBC's Crimewatch programme last night and a fresh appeal for information was made by Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, who is leading the inquiry for North Yorkshire Police.

Miss Lawrence was last seen near her home in Heworth, York, on March 18 last year and failed to arrive for work the following morning.

Police are treating the investigation into her disappearance as one of suspected murder.

Today, a North Yorkshire Police spokesman said the force had received a number of calls after the programme.

The spokesman said: "Following last night's appeal on BBC Crimewatch, in excess of 30 calls were received by officers investigating Claudia's disappearance.

"A potentially significant lead is being investigated; however, we are unable to give any further details at this stage due to operational reasons."

Friends and family of Miss Lawrence were gathering in the centre of York today for a special "awareness day" on the eve of her 36th birthday.

Speaking about the new lead on the Crimewatch Update last night, Det Supt Galloway said: "It's a lead that will call upon us to check a specific location but it is a highly credible piece of information and something that we intend to act upon quickly."

During the earlier Crimewatch programme, Det Supt Galloway said police wanted to trace a man seen on CCTV wearing a hoodie and walking along Melrosegate, on Miss Lawrence's route to work, just before 5am on the morning of March 18.

The programme also showed footage of a pale-coloured car, possibly a Mercedes C-Class, that police want to trace.

The car was seen pulling up on Melrosegate on March 18, 19 and 25 and waiting for two to three minutes before driving away.

Other new evidence released by police was footage of Miss Lawrence leaving work at Goodricke College at around 2.30pm on March 18 and walking home.

The footage, which contains the last known images of the chef, also shows her posting a letter at Melrosegate Post Office and Det Supt Galloway appealed for anyone who remembered seeing Miss Lawrence that afternoon to come forward.

Speaking about the investigation over the last 11 months, the detective said the force had put together a "comprehensive but definitely incomplete profile" of the missing chef and appealed for more information.

He said: "We have been as far as Cyprus and recently to southern Ireland and traced people that she either was a friend of or a partner of.

"But, frustratingly, we are also finding people who were on Claudia's route to work on Melrosegate and were waiting for police to come to them.

"My appeal is please, if you were in that area on 19 March, between 5 and 6am, please come forward."