COPS hunting the killer of Joanna Yeates have ordered forensic tests on a piece of crucial new evidence.
Sources said an item handed into police in recent days is "highly significant".The find, which has been sent for DNA analysis, is NOT Jo's missing sock.
Cops refused to say whether it was the missing pizza she bought on December 17, the night she vanished in Bristol, or its container.
Soil and pollen tests are also expected to be carried out within the next 48 hours.
That suggests the item may have been dropped by the killer as Jo's body was dumped.
A police source said: "The results could bring detectives closer to finding her murderer.
"Soil and pollen testing are relatively new techniques.
"But they can b
Search ... cops at spot where Jo was found strangled
"This, along with the DNA analysis, is being treated extremely seriously as a credible piece of evidence."
Pollen testing is typically used when DNA finds are too poor to be relied on - a problem believed to be faced by cops probing the death of Jo, 25.
Unlike DNA, the plant substance does not deteriorate and cannot be cleaned from clothing or shoes. The same technique - carried out by forensic botanists - was used to help snare Soham murderer Ian Huntley.
The source added: "It is a very powerful tool in modern-day detection."
Police have also searched piles of clothing at a charity shop for the knee-length ski sock which was missing from Jo's body when she was found strangled on Christmas Day.
They were called in after a man told them he had dropped a similar garment into a basket outside the Break shop in Nailsea, near Bristol, last week.
Officers have not revealed where he found the sock, or whether its description exactly matched the missing item.
Staff had sorted out the basket and allowed officers to look through their "rag bags" - items not to be sold in the shop - but they failed to find the sock.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3341986/Jo-Yeates-Crucial-clue-found.html
