Claudia was 35 years old when she went missing in March 2009.
Michael Snelling was taken into police custody yesterday after being arrested on suspicion of the chef’s murder but is set to be released, on bail, later today.
The 59-year-old is believed to have worked at York University – where Claudia worked as a chef – for a period, as a lab technician.
Yesterday, Claudia’s mother Joan, spoke out about the arrest, saying: “The police were on my doorstep not long after 8am. I was gobsmacked.
“I just had absolutely no idea. I had absolutely no idea about any of this but I’ve got to keep an open mind about it. To be quite honest, it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Two houses – one in York and one in Tyneside - are being searched again.
A forensics tent has been erected in the garden of the property in York and they are now digging and lifting flagstones. Officers first searched the property and dug in the garden back in 2011.
Forensic experts have also entered the property in Tyneside and are using sniffer dogs in the search.
The property in Burnholme Grove, York, is thought to be owned by Snelling, while the property in Hollywell Road, North Shields, is thought to belong to his mother.
Last year, a new team investigating Claudia’s disappearance started a two-month long re-examination of her home. And in March, officers announced they were working on new lines of enquiry.
Forensic analysis of her home uncovered fingerprints of people who’d not come forward and in her car, they found the DNA of an unidentified man on a discarded cigarette butt.