Claudia Lawrence detectives search house after new lead

Police investigating the suspected murder of the university chef Claudia Lawrence have spent two days searching a house and grounds following new developments in the 14-month inquiry. About 20 officers including a specialist diving team combed the occupied property in the hamlet of Ellerton, about 10 miles from the York suburb of Heworth where the 35-year-old was last seen. Items have been taken from the house for forensic analysis but North Yorkshire police are giving few details after previously seeing a succession of apparently promising leads fizzle out. The intensive search is not the first since Lawrence failed to arrive for work at York university on 19 March last year. Officers have gone painstakingly through several houses and a pub. A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire police said no arrests had been made as a result of the new search, not far from the river Derwent between the villages of Bubwith and Thorganby. "The searches are as a result of a recent development within the investigation. "They were carried out over 24 and 25 May and involved around 20 officers, including an underwater search team, who searched culverts which form part of the property. Inquiries are continuing." The long investigation has been frustrated by an apparent reluctance by some partners of Lawrence to come forward in spite of repeated police appeals. The chef was a single woman who had many friends and a series of relationships thought to include married men who may have kept their connection with her secret. Previous new developments have been announced as recently as last month, and on the anniversary of her disappearance in March police revealed what they called "extremely hot intelligence which has come to us only today". This involved a man who spent a night with Lawrence shortly before she vanished but has failed to come forward. Lawrence was last seen at her home where she lived alone, and from which she often walked a regular route to work at the university. Police are working on the presumption that her disappearance was not a chance incident but involved someone she knew. On the anniversary in March her sister Ali Sims appealed for close friends to help police. "I know that some people, if they had a relationship with Claudia, will want to save their existing relationship, but I think they should put that aside. They need to come forward." Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, the head of the inquiry, said police work had been dogged by people giving late or partial information and he regretted their "reluctance to be candid". Lawrence's mother, Joan, 66, said today that she still hoped for her daughter's safe recovery. Mrs Lawrence denied Claudia had had affairs with married men.