A chilling letter containing a pizza label was sent to the pub where murder victim Joanna Yeates enjoyed her final drink with colleagues, the Evening Post can reveal.
The scrawled note, written on A5 paper in black ink, was sent to the Bristol Ram in the week after her snow-covered body was discovered in Longwood Lane, Failand, on December 25.
The lined paper, which appeared to be ripped from a notepad, had a made up address and telephone number written on it but had not been signed by the sender.
The letter discussed different pizza toppings and stated Miss Yeates' name. It is not believed the letter makes any direct reference to the 25-year-old's murder.
Police are understood to have taken the letter and are analysing it as part of their investigation into the murder of the landscape architect from Clifton.
Bristol Ram landlord Alex Major confirmed the information given to the Evening Post was correct but said police had told him not to speak to press about the matter.
A source said: "I was in the pub when the police came but saw the letter before they took it away.
"As soon as I saw her name I realised it could be very important. The police were clearly interested.
"I could not see whether the label came from the same pizza that she is supposed to have bought."
Miss Yeates was last seen alive on December 17. After visiting the Bristol Ram she walked home visiting three shops and buying a pizza and two bottles of cider.
She was reported missing by her boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27, two days later when he returned home from a weekend away.
Miss Yeates' landlord Chris Jefferies, 65, a former teacher at Clifton College, was arrested on suspicion of murder on December 30 but released on police bail.
On Friday police retraced her final movements, speaking to more than 200 people in Failand, Clifton and at the Bristol Ram in Park Street.
Leading criminologist Professor David Wilson said he was not surprised the letter was sent.
"I am inundated with letters about Joanna Yeates on almost a daily basis," he said. "What it reveals is that some stories have real resonance. In other words people connect with the story.
"Joanna Yeates was white, educated, professional, had loving parents and was in a relationship.
She had also just finished celebrating Christmas with friends.
"Her story connects with people who read newspapers, watch television or listen to the radio.
"When a story connects with a lot of people they want to be associated with it. That letter arrived at the Bristol Ram just because it is involved in the case.
"My view is I would not worry too much about it, but of course police will have to investigate."
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said all reports linked with the murder case are taken seriously.
The news comes after Bristol East Labour MP Kerry McCarthy called for DNA tests to be carried out on men citywide. It echoed the mother of murdered teenager Louise Smith, 18, who called for police to carry out DNA tests in Clifton.
However Liberal Democrat Stephen Williams, who is MP for the area Miss Yeates lived in, said he believed the tests would be a waste of police resources.
Over the weekend Miss Yeates' parents and brother made emotional statements.
In a statement released by Avon and Somerset Police Miss Yeates' brother Chris said: "From December 19 onwards I entered into a surreal hole of despair.
"Jo was my sister and I shared the fear that my parents had that something bad had happened to her. I got to say a final emotional goodbye to Jo and the despair I had was replaced with a wave of deep sadness."
In another statement, the Yeates family said: "We are currently living in a vacuum until we can put Jo to rest.
"Inevitably, after seeing the changing news in the papers and on television, we spend a lot of time hypothesising about the events which took Jo from a happy carefree young lady to a body dumped by the side of a road – like a piece of garbage."
The family added: "We would like to reiterate the request for any information which could relate to Jo's death, however small or insignificant it might appear."
It was reported yesterday that Miss Yeates' mother Theresa, 58, has offered to play the role of her daughter for a televised reconstruction on BBC's Crimewatch.
On Saturday the Evening Post reported on the striking similarities between the murder of Miss Yeates and of Glenis Carruthers who was killed in January 1974.
Mr Wilson, who is professor of criminology and criminal justice at Birmingham City University, said the similarities were too alarming to ignore.
He also revealed that he believes Miss Yeates knew her killer, the murderer is following the story in the news and could well have revisited the scene of the crime.
The Sunday People said that dog walker Marilyn Stevens, 67, had seen a
man wearing a woolly hat and sitting in a white van acting suspiciously at the spot that Miss Yeates was to have her body dumped two days later.
A team of 80 officers are working on the case, codenamed Operation Braid, and are following up more than 1,000 lines of inquiry including whether she could have been strangled with her own ski sock, which it is thought her killer might then have kept as a trophy.
Anyone with information about Miss Yeates' murder should call the police on 0845 456 7000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.
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Jo Yeates KILLERS Profile
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/CHILLING-TWIST-HUNT-JO-KILLER/article-3081121-detail/article.html
