Jo Yeates murder: 4 weeks on, 80 cops, £1 million spent...what is really going on in Jo manhunt?
By Richard Smith 14/01/2011
Exclusive
It is four weeks today since Jo Yeates vanished from her basement flat in upmarket
The 25-year-old landscape architect was strangled and found dumped outside a quarry by dog walkers on Christmas Day.
The man leading the hunt, detective chief inspector Phil Jones is under intense pressure to find the killer but remains confident the case will be solved.
Former Scotland Yard detective chief inspector Peter Kirkham - also a SIO in murder investigations - conducts his own review of the hunt and the key areas police need to check.
Public appeals:
The police appeals for information have gone quiet this week which tends to suggest they are not desperate to get more stuff coming in.
The appeal to find Jo’s missing ski sock is a good example of a specific question where detectives needed help.
But there has been nothing since and it could indicate detectives have significant lines of inquiry they are already pursuing that don’t require public input or a further public appeal.
What they won't be doing is releasing information just so the public have a running commentary of what’s going on - if they release stuff there will be an operational reason.
Periodically, detectives will be asking what do we know and conversely - what don’t we know. Where is the missing information and how can we best get it.
It may well be the principle missing pieces are just taking time to pursue.
Information management issues:
One major reason for a review is to ensure the senior investigating officer has a system in place to prioritise all the information coming in since day one. Your information management is key.
They need to set up a triage system - like in a hospital casualty unit - to make sure the most serious information gets top priority.
The review would ensure the name of the suspect is not sitting in a mountain of information - but no-one has recognised it for what it is.
Sometimes sod’s law says you just don’t know enough to prioritise it - but you have to make sure you haven’t got the golden nugget sitting there and no-one has realised.
This can happen on big cases.
In the first few weeks you get a snowstorm of stuff coming in but by now the phone wont be ringing so much and they should be able to plough through it effectively.
Victim background:
Who did Jo know? Where had she been? Who had she been in contact with? All the indications remain that the killer is most likely someone connected with her. Nothing is for sure but you need to make certain the victimology has been done.
Has everyone who knows Jo been identified and interviewed. Have all the phone numbers been traced.
Do we need to re-interview anybody in the light of what other lines of inquiry have thrown up.
Are there any unknowns - do we need to go back and do anything again.
The forensic strategy:
You get thousands of exhibits from a crime scene and you will send the most likely ones to the laboratory first.
Check what has been submitted for examination and what are the results.
Are there other tests that can be done in the light of those results and are there any other exhibits we need to submit for forensic tests.
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Suspects:
We know of at least one suspect.
Detectives will undoubtedly have had dozens of names suggested as suspects. But the SIO should have put parameters in place to identify the proper suspects they need to trace, interview and either implicate or eliminate. That should be a relatively small number.
Someobody may have phoned Crimestoppers and said: ‘It was Bill Smith what done it”.
If Bill has previous for rape you need to have a look but if he lives in Aberdeen, has one conviction for shoplifting and has never been south of Glasgow in his life then your priorities lie elsewhere.
Blinkers:
It is really important to make sure the investigation has not got itself blinkered.
The investigation can get tunnel vision and change from a search for the truth - which it should be - into an exercise in gathering evidence to convict a particular person.
Where you have one suspect this is a danger. You can miss valid alternatives.
The review can make sure detectives have an open mind and all possible lines of inquiry are properly
processed.
Cracker-style experts:
Criminal profilers and forensic psychologists will probably have been called in to give an opinion on things like the body deposition site - and what, if anything, they can tell investigators about the likely offender.
The review would make sure they have received enough expert help - and not placed undue weight on their ideas. You must make sure the experts are not allowed to skew the inquiry.
Nuts and bolts:
You could also review the CCTV footage and the time-line between when Jo left the Bristol Ram pub and her body being found eight days later. Are there still gaps that need to be filled.
Conclusions:
A review looks into the science of the investigation.
Letting another senior officer take a look gives the investigation a second set of eyes and a new thought process. It is part of the art of the investigation which you need.
There is certainly no hard and fast rule in the murder manual about the time-scale for a review - it is a debate between the SIO and his bosses.
It may be an arrest is imminent and there is nothing to be gained by a review because they are almost there.
But if the investigation is whistling in the dark and going nowhere - at some stage it’s worth having a review. They will be thinking about it now.
It is possibly being done in house and we are not aware of it - or they could get a senior officer to review one particular aspect of the case.
I’ve not seen anything about the way this case has progressed that causes me particular concern.
It’s moving along pretty much as you expect a model inquiry to progress..
They seem to be doing all the things you would expect and the fact they have not charged anyone doesn’t seem to stem from incompetence or any indication of lack of application.
It is a classic difficult investigation. Where they need a bit of luck they don’t seem to be getting it.
They had the pinch point where the killer seems likely to have driven with the body over the Clifton Suspension Bridge - but fate has taken away that advantage because it seems the CCTV images are poor.
Every investigation needs a break from time to time - no matter how good you are you still need fate on your side. But it is still up for grabs.
They still have some way to go - it is time-consuming and cannot be rushed.
But I have seen or heard nothing that would lead me to be critical of the investigation.
If after three months they still have no-one then we might have to say: ‘hang on, we may not solve this’.
Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/01/14/jo-yeates-murder-4-weeks-on-80-cops-1-million-spent-what-is-really-going-on-in-jo-manhunt-115875-22847692/#ixzz1AzQYzl4s
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/01/14/jo-yeates-murder-4-weeks-on-80-cops-1-million-spent-what-is-really-going-on-in-jo-manhunt-115875-22847692/
