Raf Sanchez

Police are looking for two Asian men allegedly trying to open the door of missing University chef Claudia Lawrence’s house a week before her disappearance. Claudia’s father has made an emotional appeal to ­“whoever is responsible for taking her” as the investigation enters its eighth week.

North Yorkshire Police announced on Wednesday that they were seeking two Asian men seen in the early afternoon March 10 outside Claudia’s home on Heworth Road. The 35-year-old chef was last seen on the evening of March 18 and failed to show up to work the following morning at Goodricke’s Roger Kirk Centre. Her normally “prolific” texting went silent at 8.30pm.

One of the men was seen looking towards the house’s downstairs window while the other was looking at a window on the first floor.

The first man is described as in his 20s or 30s, around 5ft, 6ins tall with a distinctive, long, thin face with a pointy nose and dark circles under his eyes. He had a long, jutting jaw and dark, straight hair with a fringe. He was wearing a heavy coat, despite the heat of the day.

The second man was also Asian, with a heavier build, and around 5ft, 7ins. He was wearing a waist length jacket and jeans that had rivets around the back pockets.

The descriptions were compiled from information received after a public appeal. When the sighting was first announced police believed it may have taken place on March 13, but have since confirmed it was March 10.

Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, the officer leading the investigation, said: “The dates are obviously at least five days before Claudia was last seen, but we have a situation of a lady passing by Claudia’s home address in very slow moving traffic who has actually seen two men at Claudia’s front door.”

“We would very much like to speak to these two people,” he added.

Claudia’s father, Peter Lawrence, released an appeal directly to “whoever is responsible for taking her” on May 6, the fiftieth day of her disappearance.

“It is now 50 days that Claudia has been away from us. The longer it goes on, the worse it gets for myself, the family and her friends – the strain is intolerable and the sorrow unbearable.”

“I want to make yet another appeal to whoever is responsible for taking her away from her life in York to come forward so that she can be reunited with all of us who love her dearly.”

“You know who you are. Search your conscience. We want Claudia back.”

The appeal is thought to be the first time that Lawrence has publicly acknowledged the likelihood that his daughter was abducted.

Speaking to Nouse, Lawrence said: “The worst thing all the way through this and it doesn’t change from whether it’s one week or six weeks is just not knowing. When there’s no information out there, not knowing is the hardest bit. It just makes you feel dreadful. There’s a little bit of me missing somewhere.”

In an interview last week Lawrence also appealed directly to the campus community, describing Claudia as part of the “University family”. He said: “All we’re doing is asking them to search their memories back to the end of last term. Really we’re just seeking some information to try and get a clue about what has happened to Claudia. It’s six weeks now and it certainly doesn’t get any easier.”

Lawrence also rejected comparisons made in recent weeks between the search for Claudia and the disappearance of British toddler Madeline McCann in Portugal in 2007. He said: “There’s a lot of difference between a young child being obviously abducted because she couldn’t disappear by herself and a grown up disappearing.”

Police are also continuing to focus on a sighting of a man and a woman seen on Melrosegate bridge at 5.35 on March 19, approximately the time that Claudia would have been walking towards the University to start a morning shift.

The man, dressed in a black or dark-coloured hooded top, with the hood up, and dark combat trousers with pockets and buttons on either side, was holding a cigarette in his left hand. The woman was wearing a blue, waist-length jacket with buttons similar to a jacket owned by Claudia.

Police have described the report, made by a passing cyclist, as “a significant sighting, at the right time in the right location”. Lawrence has described the lack of public response to the Melrosegate sighting as “absolutely incredible”.

A third possible sighting of a couple arguing on University Road at around 6.10am on March 19 is also being investigated. A passing motorist said a car had been pulled over to the side of the road and a man and a woman had been engaged in what appeared to be a verbal altercation on the pavement.

Despite thousands of police hours and a £10,000 reward offered by Crimestoppers the search for Claudia has so far made little significant progress. So far nearly 1,100 reports and statements have been taken and around 1,270 properties searched, including hundreds of campus rooms. The investigation is the largest carried out by North Yorkshire Police since the hunt for multiple killer Mark Hobson in 2004.

Anybody with information should contact North Yorkshire Police on 0845 60 60 247 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111