POLICE investigating the disappearance of Claudia Lawrence were contacted by potential witnesses tonight after an appeal on Crimewatch.

Detectives used the programme to show new CCTV images of the chef leaving work on the day she vanished last year, as well as a mystery car and a man they want to trace.


CCTV showing the final known movements of Claudia Lawrence.


Officers also revealed they have recently visited southern Ireland to carry out inquiries.

Miss Lawrence, who would have celebrated her 36th birthday on Saturday, has not been seen since March 18 last year when she finished a shift at York University, where she worked as a chef.

Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, who is leading the investigation, showed CCTV footage of the pale-coloured car, possibly a Mercedes C Class, pulling up outside the post office on Melrosegate in York - the route Miss Lawrence walked to work.

He said: "That vehicle pulls up on the 18th and 19th of March and then again on the 25th of March. It stops for two or three minutes and pulls away again and heads down Melrosegate in exactly the position and location where Claudia would be walking to work.

"Who is it and why are they there?"

CCTV images were shown of a man wearing a hooded top walking past the post office on Melrosegate shortly before 5am on March 18.

Det Supt Galloway said: "The relevance of this is that between 5am and ten past on Melrosegate Bridge, which is about 200 yards away in that direction of travel, a witness sees two people, a man and a woman, in an interaction - no conversation was taking place.

"That man in that CCTV will be at that venue at that time."

A number of new witnesses who may have seen the pair on Melrosegate rang the programme after seeing the appeal, as well as people who believed they could identify the type of car in the CCTV.

Det Supt Galloway urged anyone with information to come forward.

"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," he said.

"Frustratingly, we are also finding, as recently as last week, that people who are on Claudia's route to work on Melrosegate are waiting for the police to come to them, and when we knocked on the door, they expressed that.

"If you were in that area on 19th of March between 5am and 6am, please come forward."

Miss Lawrence's father, Peter, appeared live in the studio, and spoke about an awareness day which is taking place tomorrow in York.

The event, which is centred on St Sampson's Square, aims to keep her disappearance in the public eye, and will include live music and a balloon release.

Mr Lawrence said: "It is Claudia's 36th birthday on Saturday, and of course for the past 35 birthdays she has been with us. It is a very difficult time."

Miss Lawrence, whose parents come from Darlington, was raised in Malton and, at the time of her disappearance, lived in Heworth, York.

Detectives are now treating her disappearance as suspected murder.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police on 0845-60-60247 or Crimestoppers, which is are offering a 10,000 reward, on 0800-555111.