Police "Haunted" By Claudia Case

18 March 2011, 11:02 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

The detective heading up the search for missing York chef Claudia Lawrence says he's haunted by the investigation.

Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway was speaking two years after Miss Lawrence was last spotted on a CCTV camera near her home in York and had contact with her family.

The North Yorkshire police detective also revealed he could have "potentially'' spoken to her killer

The chef, who would now be 37, was last seen on March 18, 2009 near her home in Heworth, York. She never turned up for work the next morning in the kitchen at York University.

North Yorkshire Police launched a huge inquiry which has subsequently been scaled back.

Detectives have said repeatedly they believe Miss Lawrence has been murdered and that the key to the inquiry is her relationships with a number of men - relationships police have described as having an "element of complexity and mystery to them''.

Asked if it was possible that he could have spoken to Miss Lawrence's killer as part of his inquiries into her past, Mr Galloway said: ``There is a real potential that we have.''

He said there were no specific suspects, but he said there were individuals he needed more information about and he appealed for people who had concerns or suspicions about someone to come forward.

"I have a knowledge and understanding and context of Claudia's life and her relationships,'' the detective said.

"I just need somebody to make sense of elements of that information. Certain people I need further information about.''

Commenting on the lengthy investigation, he added: "It haunts me. I think about Claudia. I think about the investigation day in, day out.

I think people expect me to continue working. I work on behalf of Claudia's family and on behalf of the greater community. Until Claudia's killer is brought to justice there is a danger and we need to resolve it.

He said his team of officers was no longer working full-time on the investigation but he said he still had officers and resources available should he need to act.

Earlier this week, Miss Lawrence's mum, Joan, said she believed her daughter was still alive.

"My instinct tells me that she's still alive,'' she said.

But she added that she believed there had been an "awful lot of mistakes'' in the inquiry, pointing particularly to "all this talk of old boyfriends''.

"It's not the Claudia I know,'' she said.

The campaign to find Miss Lawrence has been spearheaded by her solicitor dad, Peter, who is divorced from her mum.

He also believes his daughter is still alive and says the only thing keeping him going is the campaign to find Claudia.