Nicola Fifield was the reporter on duty when the news of Claudia's disappearance broke. This is how she remembers the incident.

"I was working a weekend shift - with chief reporter Mike Laycock on the news desk. I remember a police press release landing in the inbox on the Saturday - another missing person appeal.

"A 35-year-old woman called Claudia Lawrence. There was nothing in the content to suggest we wouldn’t soon be getting another release saying she’d returned home safe and well.

"But I do remember being struck by the photo of Claudia. She stood out. A smiling, attractive blonde who didn’t look like she’d had a troubled life. Mike and I agreed to keep tabs on it - but she would probably be found by the time the paper went to print on Sunday night.

"Then late afternoon on the Sunday, North Yorkshire Police released a second appeal and suddenly the case seemed to take on a more sinister tone. A high-ranking Detective Chief Inspector had been assigned to lead the investigation and a press conference was called for first thing the next morning. I spoke briefly to Claudia’s worried dad Peter on the phone. His voice was shaking. He was clearly living a nightmare.

"The editor made the decision to put the story on the front page. Claudia’s disappearance was on our front page every single day for at least the next week and dominated our news list for the weeks and months to come. It wasn’t a conscious decision - her story was simply the one everybody in York wanted to read about.

"York is a chocolate-box tourist city - these things didn’t happen here. Young, pretty women with everything to live for didn’t vanish without trace, presumed murdered. Everybody in the city wanted to know what the latest developments in the case were and everybody had their own theory about what happened.

"As a young, inexperienced reporter, I’d never seen anything like it either. As each day went on, more and more national newspapers and TV journalists descended on York. Each press conference was packed. Claudia’s local pub The Nags Head became like a media HQ. Everybody, rightly or wrongly, became convinced the answer to her mysterious disappearance would be found in that pub.

"And then just when we thought the national media interest was dying down, the lead detective appeared on Crimewatch alluding to Claudia having led a “complex” and secretive private life with a succession of different men. Numerous stories appeared in tabloid papers about Claudia. It was an image of Claudia that neither her family nor best friends recognised - and they understandably felt it damaged the investigation because people turned against Claudia.

"But as her local paper, The Press was always very sensitive to Claudia's family. We didn't lose sight of the fact she was the victim in all this. And for her family and friends - the pain of losing her from their lives and living in limbo not knowing what had happened was something nobody deserved."