Claudia Lawrence detectives say double murderer Christopher Halliwell is ... trends now
Detectives investigating Claudia Lawrence’s disappearance think it ‘unlikely’ double murderer Christopher Halliwell was involved - after a seven year probe placed him in Swindon.
North Yorkshire Police has revealed it has been working with the Wiltshire force since September 2016 when it was suggested he may have been connected.
Suspicions were aired then by former detective superintendent Steve Fulcher, who had just brought him to justice for murdering Sian O'Callaghan and Becky Godden.
But the Yorkshire force say it has examined digital devices and interviewed witnesses that place Halliday in Swindon at the time Ms Lawrence vanished in York in March 2009.
It will come as a major blow to the missing woman's mother Joan, 79, who want officers to question him about her daughter.
Det Supt Wayne Fox, head of the Major Investigation Team at North Yorkshire Police, said: "We have pursued lines of enquiry which are focussed on any link he may have to the North Yorkshire area and, in particular, the movements of Christopher Halliwell during the material times in which we believe Claudia came to harm.
Ms Lawrence vanished in York in 2009 but has not been seen since despite huge investigation
Detectives say digital devices and witnesses place Halliwell in different area to Ms Lawrence
"The results of those enquiries, which included examinations of digital devices and the interviewing of several witnesses, indicated that Halliwell continued to operate as a taxi driver in the Swindon area within the relevant time parameters.
"Both investigation teams reached a position in which we concluded it to be unlikely that Halliwell left the Wiltshire area, or was present in North Yorkshire, at the time of Claudia's disappearance."
Halliwell, now 58, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016 after he admitted murdering Ms Godden-Edwards, 20, in 2003, while being questioned about the murder of another young woman, Ms O'Callaghan, 22, in 2011.
But some have always suspected the former taxi driver from Swindon of murdering more women, and in 2019 he was linked with four other unsolved cases.
Ms Lawrence, 79, said last month she believes police should be looking closely at Halliwell in her daughter's case.
Suspicions were aired then by ex detective superintendent Steve Fulcher in September 2016
Claudia's mother Joan Lawrence has urged detectives to question Halliwell about the crime
She claims more witnesses have come forward about Halliwell's connections to York, where her daughter was last
