'My housemate is still missing - statistically one of us is probably behind it'
The former close friend of Claudia Lawrence says it's understandable to believe one of the missing chef's pals could be behind her vanishing more than 15 years ago
Missing Claudia Lawrence's former pal and housemate says that "statistically it probably is one of us" behind the chef's disappearance.
Jen King, 40, says she is not surprised police suspected Claudia's friends and acquaintances but points out she has repeatedly proved her innocence.
Claudia was 35 when she failed to turn up for work at the University of York in March 2009. She has not been seen or heard from since despite a massive police operation. Her phone, hair straighteners, rucksack and chef's whites, were all missing.
Detective Superintendent at North Yorkshire Police, Dai Malyn, in 2015 said: 'I'm still convinced people close to Claudia have told us lies'. Later in the case four men were later arrested then released but after a file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service no charges were ever brought due to a 'lack of evidence'.
Many more of her friends were quizzed by police, including Jen, who spoke to Tom McDermott from the 'Answers for Claudia' podcast. She told him how she is now 'obsessed' about her own security after being the victim of a stalker.
She described being questioned by police as 'traumatic' but understands why they were convinced answers about her disappearance could come from someone who knew Claudia.
She said: 'I understand why the police did what the police were doing because statistically it should have been one of us, statistically it probably is one of us. All I can say is hand on heart it's not me. "
Former barmaid Jen and university chef Claudia were close friends who once lived together on York's Heworth Road.
Jen worked at the nearby Nag's Head pub, which was at the centre of Claudia's social life and only a few yards from the missing woman's front door.
The pair would often go out into York city centre at the weekend and said Claudia hated walking anywhere, always insisting on getting a taxi.
Jen says of her treatment by police and those on social media since her friend went missing: 'You just lose trust in the people around you. Undercover police officers, they pretended to be our friend. They had a job to do, I got it, it's fine, all we did is prove our innocence. '
About social media 'cruelty' she has suffered, she said: 'I don't really care if people think that I am something to do with it, because I get - statistically - everything points to us. I get that! It's more when people get abusive or try and take things too far, take things into their own hands.
'I feel so cast adrift. I just almost want to put my head under the blanket and just wake up from this f***ing nightmare...
"I started off being a victim of crime, being one of Claudia's friends and then became a suspect and then I was just another person on the street, and that's it.
'When you've proven your innocence, which I've done more than once…you don't get a sorry letter, when they've searched your house and tipped it all upside down, they don't send in a cleaning crew to put it all back together again.
'They don't give you that time back when you've been separated from your loved ones because they've had to go and answer questions in one place and I've had to go answer questions in another place.
'They've taken my car, they've taken my work stuff. I couldn't work for two months because they took all my work equipment. I was on the verge of moving because I just couldn't settle in that house any more.
'It was pretty horrific, the impact of even when you've proved your innocence that you are still made to feel you have something to be guilty for when you don't.
"I have never been through anything - other than Claudia going missing - more traumatic than the police investigation.'
She told the Answers for Claudia podcast she has been obsessed about her security since Claudia vanished. 'I myself have been through varying degrees of trauma and coping mechanisms…I've definitely become obsessed with security over things, I'm really funny with door locks and making sure that things are secure.
'...Just knowing that people talk about it and not necessarily in a nice way, you just never quite know who to trust. I did have a stalker at one point, which is horrendous. I was living on my own at the time. I knew that this person kept travelling to the area, kept taking pictures outside my house, would stand on my driveway and would turn up at my local pub. The social media sites are doing nothing to protect us.'
Jens told journalist Tom McDermott about the last time she saw Claudia, she explained it was days before her pal vanished after a night out in the Nag's Head a few properties away from Claudia's terraced home.
Jen said: 'I suppose the last time I saw her, me and my boyfriend at the time, we'd all been drinking in the pub and not surprisingly she hadn't put the spring key fob into her handbag and so she was rooting around for her key, as we were waiting for her at the end of the gate just to make sure she got in safe.
'And then we went home and that was the last time I ever really saw her. I heard from her again, we text during that week.' But she added: 'It's nice to know the last time I ever saw her I was doing what I thought was the right thing and making sure she was safe.'
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