The 5am mystery date that Claudia's friend kept secret ... One year on, a tantalising new clue about the missing chef's last hours

Vivacious: Claudia Lawrencehas been missing for nearly a year

Everything is as it was when she walked out her front door for the last time almost a year ago, with a rucksack containing her chef's whites. Her clothes, mostly with her favourite Next label, hang in the same order in the wardrobe.

Toiletries - 'always from Boots' - are arranged in the bathroom.

The bed is neatly made-up.

Her CDs, featuring local group The Dunwell Brothers, are untouched.

The pillows on her sumptuous white sofa are just so.

A home, and a life, frozen in time, as police strive to answer a haunting question: 'What has become of Claudia Lawrence?'

Nearly 3,000 witness statements, at least 240 properties searched, 1,270 calls to the incident room, appeals for information on the BBC Crimewatch programme, a £10,000 reward, Claudia's face on countless posters, and between 20 and 30 officers still working on one of the most troubling cases of recent times, which began when Claudia, the public school-educated daughter of a Yorkshire solicitor, vanished off the face of the earth last March.

All this - and not a single clue to indicate what may have happened to her, apart from, that is, the firmly held belief that the truth lies somewhere in Claudia Lawrence's 'complex and mysterious' private life; not our words, but those of Detective Superintendent Ray Galloway, the man leading the inquiry.

He knows - all his team do - that it is 'extremely rare' for an adult woman to be snatched off the streets by a stranger. The statistical likelihood is Claudia went willingly with someone she already knew.

CCTV footage of Claudia on her way home from work. The chef has not been seen since March 18, 2009 and failed to arrive for work at the University of York the following morning

Some friends have been 'reluctant to be candid'

Could it have been the 'mystery boyfriend' who went on a date with Claudia, a chef at York University, just two days before she went missing? The existence of this man was revealed last week on the first anniversary of Claudia's disappearance.

The potentially crucial lead came from a colleague, who had previously been interviewed but has now remembered a conversation he had with Claudia days before she vanished, when she spoke about being out 'deep into the night, until around 4.30am or 5am' with a male companion the night before.

Asked why the colleague had suddenly disclosed this information, Det Supt Galloway said it was a frustrating feature of the investigation that some (male) friends had been 'reluctant to be candid' with police.

It means, of course, Claudia was involved with at least two men last March. The other man, known to police, was not married but was in a serious relationship and seeing Claudia secretly.

Police search a nature reserve in York shortly after Claudia went missing

Might the 'mystery boyfriend' be in a similar position or could there be a much more sinister reason for his decision not to come forward?

The development, whether it proves to be significant or not, has focused attention once again on the tangled web of relationships and affairs Claudia Lawrence left behind her, which detectives have not managed to unravel.

Old flame: Insurance broker Dan Whitehand dated Claudia for two years

This is not meant to be a criticism of North Yorkshire Police, nor a slur on Claudia's reputation: it's just the way it is, however painful that might be for her family. The irony is that Claudia, who was 35 when she vanished, was in many ways an old-fashioned girl.

She was not computer literate (Claudia did not even own a computer) and wouldn't countenance social networking sites. She paid the mortgage on her two-bedroom £180,000 cottage in the Heworth district of York promptly and had only one credit card, which she paid off each month.

Yet, over the past five years, she'd had 12 lovers of whom detectives are aware, half of whom were either married or had partners.

Though she had close friends, Claudia managed to juggle her suitors without always revealing their existence.

Many, if not all, of her romantic liaisons were forged at the Nag's Head pub, four doors down from her terraced home. Claudia would have a pint of cider and talk about her favourite guilty pleasures on TV (Hollyoaks and, at the time, Mistresses) with her friends.

Lock-ins were not uncommon.

Sometimes the 'party' continued back at Claudia's house.

It was here, about three years ago, that she met scrap metal merchant Lee Horwell, 38, a married father of two.

The affair lasted only a couple of months. It came to light, say locals, when a guilt-racked Mr Horwell confessed to his wife because he couldn't 'live with himself'.

'Lee wasn't alone, she was seeing a couple of other married men too,' said one. Mr Horwell and his wife, who were childhood sweethearts, are now living separately in York.

Very few people knew what she did at home

Before Lee Horwell, there was insurance broker Dan Whitehand, 34, who dated Claudia for two years, and before Whitehand, 46-year-old roofer Paddy McGinty.

Although not married, he too was in a relationship and the father of a young child at the time.

His affair with Claudia was common knowledge. Mr McGinty's long-term partner was also aware of it. It was also at the Nag's Head that Claudia met Steve Sammons about five years ago. They have enjoyed a close friendship ever since.

Mr Sammons, a building site labourer, now lives in Cyprus. It was Mr Sammons, we can now confirm, who sent Claudia the final text message she received at 9.12pm on March 18, 2009, hours before she was reported missing.

Claudia had stayed with Mr Sammons in the past and was planning to do so again shortly before she disappeared.

Speaking from his home in the village of Peyia, near Paphos, yesterday, Mr Sammons, 36, told how he has already been interviewed by detectives who travelled to the Mediterranean island.

Tireless: Peter Lawrence has made constant appeals for information on his missing daughter, Claudia

'They spoke to me for more than three hours,' he said. 'I co-operated with them throughout, from day one. I just want Claudia to be found.'

In fact, police have spoken to Mr Sammons - who denies he was ever romantically involved with Claudia - frequently over the past year. The last time was just a few weeks ago.

'They asked me whether I could think of anything that had occurred to me over the past few months that might help the inquiry as they approached the first anniversary of Claudia's disappearance,' he said.

'One way or another, I just want a resolution to it, just like her family. Either she is out there missing or, the worst case scenario, she's not. I just want closure. We all do.'

The last sighting of Claudia Lawrence, a vivacious, brown-eyed blonde, was on the afternoon of Wednesday, March 18, last year when CCTV cameras recorded her strolling breezily past shops at Melrosegate in York after leaving work.

She is seen pausing to post a letter before heading towards her cottage, no more than three miles away.

That evening she telephoned her parents - who are divorced - chatting idly about her life and arranging to meet her father for a drink later in the week. But that brief footage is the last time anyone saw Claudia Lawrence.

The following morning - Thursday, March 19 - she failed to turn up at York University for her 6am shift.

But it was not until that evening, when she was due to meet her best friend Suzy Cooper in the Nag's Heads, that concerns were raised about her whereabouts.

Suzy rang Claudia's father, Peter. Mr Lawrence then went round to his daughter's home and let himself in with his spare keys.

'Her slippers were inside the front room, her jewellery was in her bedroom and her bank card and passport were there,' he said. 'There was nothing out of place.'

But there was no sign of Claudia nor her chef's whites, her phone or her bag.

Hours later, her phone disconnected from the mobile network. Her bank accounts have remained untouched.

Police still cannot be sure if she went missing on that Wednesday evening, soon after she was captured on CCTV, or sometime on Thursday morning. We just don't know.

'It has been very difficult for us to find out about Claudia's private life,' admitted Det Supt Galloway.

'She "compartmentalised'' sections of her life very effectively, such as work and friends. Very few people knew everything about her. Very few people knew exactly what she did when she went home and closed the doors behind her.

'The curtains were often drawn, which is almost a metaphor for her life.'

'It is really very scary that it is now a year on but we are no closer to finding out what has happened to Claudia,' says her friend Suzy Cooper. 'But the one thing I am sure of is that she would never simply disappear of her own free will.'

The effect this has had on her mother Joan, 66, who is deputy Mayor of Malton, near York, and her father Peter, a prominent Yorkshire solicitor, is impossible to put into words.

But in an interview with her local paper last week, Mrs Lawrence said: 'The pain never goes away, the emptiness inside me. There are reminders all over my flat, presents, notes, cards and photographs.

'Many is the time I come across something by accident and stop and shed a tear.' Mrs Lawrence, of course, has stayed very much in the background. Mr Lawrence, on the other hand, has campaigned tirelessly to keep the case in the public eye.

He has spent most of this very painful week in front of TV cameras both in Leeds and London, but admits he no longer knows what to believe. However, he expressed anger at the apparent lack of cooperation - for whatever reason - by some of those who knew his beautiful daughter.

Asked about the most recent 'lead', he replied: 'It is unbelievable that someone who has been interviewed by police has suddenly remembered a conversation he had with Claudia shortly before she disappeared. I am shocked that it has taken so long for someone to come forward with this information.'

Whether this latest development will lead to the solving of this peculiarly affecting case still remains to be seen.

But one thing is for certain: someone, somewhere, knows exactly where Claudia Lawrence is.