Vaud cantonal police have issued a new public appeal for information about a 36-year-old woman who went missing from a village north of Lausanne late last month.

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Claudia Gesseney vanished without a trace on October 28th, leaving behind a three-month-old baby boy in her home at Assens, cantonal police said.

After an extensive search, police have failed to track down the woman and officers have launched a criminal investigation.

Her son, who was left alone in the home, was retrieved by a member of the family and is now being looked after by his father.

Last Thursday, police and civil protection officers conducted a massive search of the region around the woman’s home using several tracking dogs.

An army helicopter was also pressed into service to scour the area last week.

Cantonal police are describing Gesseney’s disappearance as “disturbing”.

On Monday, the force issued new photos of the woman in the hope that it may bring forth new information about her whereabouts.

Gesseney is 165 centimetres tall, of a slender build, with long blond hair and green-brown eyes, according to the description issued by police.

It is not known what kind of clothes she was wearing.

Police did not say whether she was living with her husband at the time of her disappearance.

Anyone who may have seen Gesseney is asked to contact investigators of the Vaud cantonal police department’s criminal division at Mont-sur-Lausanne.

The division can be reached by phone at 021 644 44 44.

Information will also be accepted at any other police station in Vaud.

To look at the four photos released by cantonal police, click here.