POLICE investigating the disappearance of British woman Claudia Lawrence who has been missing for six months, have said she could be in Cyprus.
A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire police told The Cyprus Mail yesterday that four of their officers had arrived on the island on Wednesday. The officers are talking to British nationals who knew Lawerence, as part of their investigation.
According to British press reports, the 35-year-old was a frequent visitor to the island, where she befriended a number of men who police are keen to trace and talk to.
Lawrence, a chef, was last seen leaving work at the University of York on March 18 and has not been seen or heard of since then.
At a news conference to mark the sixth month anniversary of her disappearance yesterday, Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, who is leading the investigation, confirmed that officers had been sent to Cyprus in an attempt to locate a man she is said to have known.
Galloway said Lawrence had been planning a trip to Cyprus and received a text from a man on the island at 9.12pm (GMT) on the night of her disappearance.
North Yorkshire police have confirmed that the man was British but is resident on the island. It does not appear that he is being treated as a suspect in the case.
“We actually have officers in Cyprus at the moment. We have had a Cypriot link from the start of the investigation in that the very last text that Claudia received was from a man in Cyprus.
“We don’t know whether she actually ever opened that text but during the course of the investigation those lines of inquiry have developed on the island.
Lawrence’s links to the island were not limited to the sender of the message. Galloway said “It has become apparent that Claudia knew several people who live on the island.
“It is believed that during her visits to Cyprus she has also received job offers, hence the need to pursue these lines of inquiry.”
“She could be in Cyprus.”
Lawrence’s background was “comprehensive but incomplete”, Galloway said, and added that some men who had been in a relationship with her had been “reluctant and less than candid”.
He said police had contacted the man in Cyprus from whom she received the text message.
“”He has been co-operative with us. However, over the past six months, inquiries have led to a broader knowledge of the fact that she knew different people, several people, on the island of Cyprus, all of whom are British and most of whom work out there or live out there,” he said.
“Some of the people that we have contacted have denied knowing Claudia or being in a relationship with her. I don’t believe this to be true.
“One of the people we are seeking to speak to in Cyprus was actually in Britain on March 18. That gentleman has been spoken to and has given an account of his movements. However, in order to definitively establish his movements, to a level that is required of a murder investigation, he needs to be spoken to personally.” He said it was evident that Claudia was planning to go out to Cyprus again fairly soon.
The detective said she was seeking to obtain flights to the island but was possibly going to defer travelling as the flights were expensive due to the school holidays.
He said she had travelled to the country “four or five times” in recent years.
He said: “She may well be in Cyprus. But of course her passport is in her house.
“Now, if she has gone to Cyprus, she would have to do so by other means. There is nothing at all to suggest this will be the case but one of the key aspects of the case is we still don’t know, on March 18 and 19, what happened to Claudia.
Lawrence was last seen on March 18 near her home in the Heworth area of York. She was due to walk the three miles to work on March 19 for a shift beginning at 6am but she never turned up.
She left her cards, cash and passport behind. But her mobile phone – a silver Samsung D900 – and a blue rucksack, in which she carried her chef’s whites, have still yet to be located.
Detectives have said that they are convinced Lawrence has come to harm and they have focused their investigation on her complex relationships with a number of men.
North Yorkshire police also confirmed that they are working with the assistance of the Cyprus police and with permission from the Cyprus government.
(The UK Press Association contributed to this story)
