All clues from Lauren Bolton’s mysterious disappearance in Coronation Street revealed
Lauren Bolton (Cait Fitton) has gone missing in Coronation Street, resulting in widespread speculation from fans as to what exactly has happened to her.
Lauren was last seen on screen chatting to Roy Cropper (David Neilson) in her flat, after having been sacked from her job at the cafe.
Roy had come over to drop off her final wages, and in their conversation Lauren revealed that she planned to leave Weatherfield and start afresh.
However, when Bobby Crawford (Jack Carroll) later went round to see her, he found the front door of her flat unlocked, but the entire place empty, making the circumstances surrounding her disappearance suspicious to say the least.
Here at Metro.co.uk, if there is a mystery to be solved, you can bet that we are all over it, and this is no exception.
So, sit back and relax as I, your local soap detective, take you through all the clues surrounding Lauren’s disappearance.
Lauren’s flat
As we have already mentioned, the circumstances surrounding Lauren’s disappearance were instantly suspicious, especially the way her flat was left.
Not only was the door unlocked, allowing Bobby free entry, but there was a freshly made sandwich sitting on a chopping board, as though she had been disturbed while making it.
While Lauren’s flat has never been the tidiest, it was even worse now, with signs of a struggle throughout.
On top of this, the radio had been left on.
All of these things lead us to believe that Lauren didn’t leave of her own accord, meaning that there must be someone else involved.
What’s more, in upcoming scenes, Bobby suggests that Sean Tully (Antony Cotton) should rent the flat now that Lauren is gone, but he is put off when he spots blood stains on the curtains.
Could Lauren have been injured, or worse, murdered?
Roy’s clean up
In upcoming scenes, Evelyn Plummer (Maureen Lipman) informs Roy that she has had to let Lauren’s flat go, as the landlord has found out that she was subletting.
In a bid to be a good friend, Roy offers to clean the place up for her, but when Bobby catches Roy going through Lauren’s things, he grows deeply suspicious.
After the blood is found, Bobby and Carla (Alison King) inform DS Swain (Vicky Myers), and after Bobby explains how Roy found Lauren a flat , gave her a job and cleaned up the flat after her disappearance, Swain heads straight over to question him.
Later, DS Swain arrests Roy, but has she got the right man?
Lauren’s mystery boyfriend
Prior to her disappearance, Lauren broke up with her boyfriend, who’s identity we never discovered.
We first heard about Lauren’s boyfriend when she began to buy extravagant gifts for her friends, eventually admitting that the money was coming from her new man.
Like us viewers, Lauren’s friends were keen to know who her boyfriend was, and often invited him to social gatherings. However, Lauren would always make an excuse about why he couldn’t come, until eventually they broke up.
It seems that they ended things on a bad note, with Lauren being quite upset about it. Could he be behind her disappearance?
There has been plenty of speculation online as to who Lauren’s ex-boyfriend could be, with evidence to support several possibilities.
The first option is Tommy Orpington (Matt Milburn), who has been spending a lot of time in Preston’s Petals thanks to his affair with Tracy Barlow (Kate Ford). When Lauren received a bouquet of flowers from her man, some viewers wondered if it could be him, seeing as he had previously mentioned needing to buy a bouquet.
Other options include criminals Rob Donovan and Nathan Curtis – neither of whom would have been able to attend social events due to the fact that they are both currently in prison, as far as we know…
The bruises on Lauren’s arm and her unexpected visitor
Recently, Bobby discovered bruising on Lauren’s arm, and though she denied that her ex-boyfriend was responsible, it can’t be coincidence that they appeared the day after she received an unexpected visitor.
The fact that we never saw who had knocked at Lauren’s door makes us think that whoever it is must play a key part in this mystery, though their identity is difficult to pin down.
Lauren and Bobby’s film night
In recent scenes, Lauren and Bobby watched a film together, but they were interrupted by Carla.
When discussing the film, Lauren revealed a detail of the plot, and we couldn’t help but wonder if it was potentially foreshadowing Lauren’s fate.
Lauren told Bobby that she was enjoying the film, bar the scene where a character locked ‘a woman upstairs and lied about it’.
Could this be a sign that Lauren has been kidnapped?
DirtyNigel54
While struggling for money, Lauren opened an O-Vidz account, where she got paid for posting videos for her followers.
Bobby tells Carla and Ryan that someone called DirtyNigel54 posted online that they’ve spotted Lauren and he’s off to meet them to find out more.
Could DirtyNigel54 hold the key to Lauren’s disappearance?
Lauren’s far right connections
In recent scenes, Lauren was desperate for cash, and asked Bethany Platt (Lucy Fallon) if she could sell her story about being part of a far right group to Chit Chat Magazine.
To help with her research, Lauren put Bethany in contact with some other members of the far right group.
However, this ended badly, as Bethany soon revealed that she had received threatening messages from the people she had approached.
Could Lauren’s decision to sell her story to the press have led the far right group to take revenge, resulting in her disappearance?
Bethany’s involvement
Speaking of Bethany, she and Lauren began to form somewhat of a bond when she offered to help with her English tutoring.
Last October, executive producer Iain MacLeod teased that Bethany would play a part in a big storyline set to span most of 2024 alongside Bobby – could Lauren’s disappearance be what he was referring to?
‘Much like Bobby, Jack Carroll’s character, [Bethany] will also find herself in the centre of this huge story that we’ve got next year.
‘So she’s coming back with this clear romantic purpose in the Daniel [Osbourne (Rob Mallard)] story but then will fairly quickly find herself in the midst of this massive story that’s going to span most of next year.’
With this in mind, we’re left wondering if whoever has taken Lauren is linked to Bethany in some way, which bring us back to Nathan Curtis.
Nathan groomed Bethany back in 2017 in a harrowing storyline – could he have been doing the same to Lauren?
We know that Bethany finally escaped Nathan’s clutches as he was trying to take her out of the country, which makes us wonder if he’s tried to do the same again.