A fishing lake has been drained by police in the latest desperate search for Claudia Lawrence.

The 35-year-old chef was last seen more than a decade ago in March 2009, close to her home in Heworth, Yorkshire.

Detectives believe she was murdered after walking to work for a 6am shift at York University, although no body has ever been found.

Specialist officers were pictured scouring the Sand Hutton gravel pits and a lake, around eight miles from Claudia’s home.

Drone footage captures them on their hands and knees carrying out a fingertip examination of the lake’s bed.

Cadaver dogs trained to find human remains have also been called in to search through the surrounding woodland.

It appears the new search was triggered by a recent study of the land, with the results passed to police.

Claudia’s mum Joan said she is suffering ‘awful nightmares’ and begged anyone with information about her daughter’s disappearance to come forward.

‘As a mum, hearing about a lake being drained and a fingertip search being carried is just a nightmare,’ she told The Mirror.

‘No parent should ever have to endure this. I’m left wondering every day what is going on and what might be found.

‘Would it be her rucksack, her phone or anything at all?’  

Claudia’s family have urged detectives to question Christopher Halliwell, who is doing life in prison for murdering two other women.

Halliwell killed Sian O’Callaghan, 22, after abducting her in Swindon, Wiltshire, in 2007.

It was two years to the day before Claudia went missing on March 19, with it said to be a trigger because he’d been dumped on that date.

The taxi driver also murdered Becky Godden-Edwards, 20, who went missing in 2003 and her remains were found in 2011.

North Yorkshire Police have previously quashed Halliwell’s link to Claudia after people claimed to have seen him in the York area before she vanished.

A source previously close to the investigation told The Sun it was believed Claudia’s killer was someone close to her.

The source said: ‘Some of the people interviewed by police were hiding something, they weren’t being completely truthful, that was clear.

‘That view didn’t change for several years, but obviously the breakthrough detectives wanted never came.’

But mum Joan, from Malton, North Yorkshire, feels the link has not been properly investigated.

She said: ‘Something has always bothered me about Halliwell and leaves me feeling very uneasy.’

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