Claudia Lawrence’s loved ones have been left devastated after ‘nothing of obvious significance’ was found in a major search of a lake and woods.
It’s believed the university chef, 35, was murdered as she vanished 12 years ago, although no body has ever been found.
Teams of police, search dogs, divers and forensic archaeologists have spent two weeks scouring Sand Hutton Gravel Pits.
A ‘small number of items’ were discovered, but they have not been linked to Ms Lawrence’s disappearance so far.
Her heartbroken mum Joan said today the family was ‘no further than day one’.
She said: ‘That’s how it feels to me. It’s been a terrible fortnight, absolutely dreadful.
‘I spoke to my daughter and she didn’t even build her hopes up at all, she said, “Mum, we’ve been down this road before”.’
Meanwhile, a friend of Ms Lawrence’s father Peter described it as ‘a never-ending nightmare’.
Martin Dales said: ‘This is very sad news that, despite these recent detailed and extensive searches by the police, there remains no further information on the whereabouts of Claudia Lawrence for the 150 months she has now been missing.
‘This is totally unsatisfactory and grossly unfair and cruel on all who care about Claudia.
‘How many more times have family, friends and police got to appeal for the information needed to be with the police, to bring closure, good or bad, for this seemingly never-ending nightmare.’
Detective Superintendent Wayne Fox, who is leading the enquiry, has urged anyone with information to ‘help end the torment of Claudia’s family’.
He said: ‘You cannot fail to be moved by the ongoing suffering of a mother who does not know what has happened to her daughter.
‘I again repeat the request to those who know what has happened to Claudia to do the right thing, come forward and help end the torment of Claudia’s family.’
Detective Superintendent Fox added that not searching
Sand Hutton Gravel Pits was ‘not an option’ after new information appeared to point towards it.He said: ‘When we assessed these separate and independently-sourced pieces of information against the wealth of information already generated during the last 12 years, we found they correlated with other information pointing to the area of Sand Hutton.
‘Armed with fresh information to the enquiry, that seemed to corroborate known facts, we were duty-bound to conduct thorough searches of the area.’
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