Chef's father tells of anguish

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Peter Lawrence said the three or four hours the family had to wait on Friday afternoon before an officer told them the body found in the River Ouse at York was a 68-year-old woman "was almost unbearable".

Speaking at a weekly news conference in Slingsby, North Yorkshire, Mr Lawrence said: "Friday was a very deep shock to me and all the family."

He continued: "I was down in London about to be on the way back. And from the initial call there was a period of three or four hours of time which was almost unbearable until we were told that the body found in the River Ouse was not Claudia.

"I suppose it was finally resolved on Saturday morning when the police did announce that it was a 68-year-old lady. Of course our thoughts go out to her family. It has taken its toll obviously on all of the family."

Mr Lawrence said the hunt for his daughter still goes on. "She's out there somewhere and the message still goes out, somebody must know something and we would like them to say so, " he added.

"And if Claudia is out there the message still goes out that the family would dearly love to hear from you and to know that at least you are safe," he added.

North Yorkshire Police officers were called to the River Ouse at Bishopthorpe Bridge, in Fulford, York, at 10.40am on Friday following reports of a body in the water. The body was eventually identified as Pauline Armitage from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, who was reported missing by her family earlier this month.

Mrs Armitage's family made pleas for help in tracing her while she was missing.

She was last seen in Doncaster's Frenchgate shopping centre and investigators believed she then caught a train to York, where she lived in the 1990s. Her death is not being treated as suspicious.