Mum of missing chef Claudia Lawrence slams ‘peanuts’ £40,000 budget to investigate double killer Christopher Halliwell
MISSING chef Claudia Lawrence’s mum has slammed the “peanuts” £40,000 budget to probe murder suspect Christopher Halliwell.
Distraught Joan Lawrence, 76, said it was impossible for cops to investigate convicted killer Halliwell with “such a small amount of money”.
Halliwell is currently serving life in jail for killing Sian O’Callaghan, 22, and 20-year-old Becky Godden.
Wiltshire Police have allocated only £40,000 to a cold-case review codenamed Operation Major which will further investigate cab driver Halliwell.
But retired police chief Kevin Moore, who led a review into the hunt for 13-year-old Milly Dowler’s killer Levi Bellfield, 50, told the Sunday People in policing terms this figure was “peanuts”.
The twisted killer has been linked to at least 12 other murdered or missing women, including University of York chef Claudia Lawrence who vanished at the age of 35.
Mum Joan said: “There are so many other people and crimes that Halliwell has been linked to.
“It’s impossible for the force to carry out a proper review with such a small amount of money.”
What happened to Claudia Lawrence?
CLAUDIA Lawrence was last seen near her home in Melrosegate, Heworth, York on the evening of March 18 2009.
The 35-year-old, who worked as a chef at the University of York, had spoken to her mother on the phone that night, gave no hint anything was wrong.
But the young woman was never heard from again – leaving officers desperately probing into her past, her relationships and her work life in an effort to find her.
At one point, detectives believed she had been with 12 lovers over five years, with some of them married.
During the investigation, a number of people were arrested over Claudia’s disappearance – but none of the charges stuck.
And so her family has been left waiting, hoping they will one day have answers.
Other theories have been floated, with one that convicted killer Christopher Halliwell was involved in her disappearance.
The date was said to be significant to wannabe serial killer Halliwell – whose former garden in Swindon has been dug up by cops in the search for more victims.
The murderer abducted and murdered his second known victim on March 19 2011 – two years to the day that Claudia vanished.
Police announced that they were scaling back the investigation into Claudia’s disappearance, eight years after she first went missing.
MOST READ IN NEWS
Karen Edwards, 59, whose daughter Becky was one of two women Halliwell was known to have slaughtered, said: “It’s an insult to the memory of those who are still waiting for loved ones to come home.”
The ex-CID chief who brought Halliwell to justice for the double murders – who played by Martin Freeman in this month’s ITV drama A Confession – fears he could be one of the United Kingdom’s worst serial killers.
In a statement Det Supt Jeremy Carter, of Wiltshire Police, said: “The figure of £40,000 does not cover any of the salaries of those working on this case but relates purely to specialist work such as forensic digs and searches, and specific expert advice.
“Officers working on this case carry out a vast amount of work as part of their daily duties which would not be captured in this figure.”