A potentially crucial new clue has emerged in the case of missing chef Claudia Lawrence.
According to The Times, sources close to the investigation think she might have been killed by someone from within her social circle – and her phone could hold a vital clue.
The publication has reported that evidence suggests her mobile was active near where she lived four hours after she vanished.
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Claudia failed to show up for work at York University on March 19, 2009. North Yorkshire Police have treated the case as a suspected murder, despite no body ever being found.
Exactly what happened to the 35-year-old is still a mystery 10 years on, but detectives have a lead to follow.
After analysing mobile phone network data, investigators think Claudia wasn’t taken far from her home and might have been attacked by someone familiar to her.
The Times source said: “Her mobile phone never left the area of York. This is part of the reason why the police believe she fell victim to an attack by somebody that she knew who was familiar with the area.”
Claudia’s manager called her at 10am to ask why she hadn’t showed up for work.
Former detective chief inspector Colin Sutton, who investigated mobile phone data in the hunt for serial killer Levi Bellfield, told the paper: “What may have happened is that the phone rings out at 10am and goes to voicemail simply because there is nobody there.
“Then whoever it is, possibly the suspect, looks at the phone at 12.10pm, realises there is a missed call, realises the phone is still switched on and then switches it off.”
Speaking further, he said that Claudia’s abductor would likely “smash [the phone] or break it or throw it in the river”, which would give the network an “implicit detachment record”.
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But according to Mr Sutton, that never happened, as data points to an “explicit detachment”, which means the suspect was calm enough to switch the mobile off “in the normal way”.
Claudia’s phone data puts her in Acomb, a suburb of York, just weeks before she disappeared.
Police are looking for a “a person or persons” the chef might have been in contact with from that area.
ED! has contacted North Yorkshire police for comment.
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