Parents of missing architect Joanna Yeates: 'we knew she had been abducted'
The parents of Joanna Yeates, the missing 25-year-old architect, knew "within 30 minutes" of arriving at her empty flat in Bristol that she had been abducted.
David Yeates, 63, an IT specialist, told The Sunday Telegraph: "We knew what the flat was like. We know what it's normally like.
"We know what she does and doesn't do.
"We were 100 per cent convinced within 30 minutes of arriving at the flat that she had been abducted."
He added that there were "other factors, other reasons that we've been asked by the police not to go into", that left him convinced she had been abducted.
"We're just trying to do all we can to help the police.
"The amount of support we've received has been overwhelming," he added.
Yesterday it seemed that their worst fears had been realised.
Police said that the body of a woman was found by a roadside at 9am by a couple walking their dogs in north Somerset, three miles from Miss Yeates's flat.
A post-mortem examination will be carried out today and the body is expected to be identified.
In the nine days since she went missing, Mr Yeates and his wife, Teresa, made two powerful, emotional television appeals, one urging their 25-year-old daughter to get in touch, and the second, more desperate, pleading with anybody who might
have abducted her, or who had seen her, to make contact with them.
Miss Yeates was last seen on Friday Dec 17 by colleagues she had joined for an after-work drink at the Ram pub in Bristol city centre.
At 8pm she left the pub and began the 20-minute walk to her home in the affluent district of Clifton.
Ten minutes later she was filmed on CCTV in a Waitrose supermarket near her home.
At 8.30pm she used her mobile phone to call Rebecca Scott, her best friend, and arranged to meet her on Christmas Eve. Ten minutes after that she bought a pizza from a Tesco Express store about a quarter of a mile from her flat.
But following that, the trail went cold.
Police believe Miss Yeates returned to her flat in Canynge Road, which she shared with Greg Reardon, her boyfriend who had gone away for the weekend to visit relatives in Sheffield.
Mr Reardon returned on Sunday and reported his girlfriend as missing after he found Miss Yeates's cream-coloured coat, her mobile phone and keys in the flat, along with the receipt from Tesco.
The next day Avon and Somerset Police made their first appeal for information about her disappearance. Officers were concerned for her safety because it was "out of character".
Miss Yeates's parents made their first tearful appeal for information at a police press conference in Bristol, urging their daughter: "Jo, whatever the reason that you have not been in touch over the last few days, we want you to know that we love you dearly and are desperate to know that you are safe and well. Please get in touch as soon as possible. Either to the police or anyone who can confirm you are OK."
On Wednesday Mr Reardon spoke of his distress at the disappearance of his girlfriend.
"I desperately want her back – I thought we would be together forever," he said from Miss Yeates's parents' home. "She was my future. This Christmas was going to be our first together. I was going to spend it with her family, which is always a big deal for a boyfriend.
"We were both really
happy in our jobs – we worked together and that's how we met."
Forensic experts scoured the couple's flat, the snow-covered Bristol Downs and Avon Gorge in an attempt to find clues that would point to what happened to the young landscape architect. They also removed Mr Reardon's phone and laptop.
On Thursday Miss Yeates's parents made a second emotional appeal and revealed their fears that their daughter had been kidnapped.
Mr Yeates pleaded to the possible abductor: "If she's dead, please tell somebody where she is."
He added: "I think she was abducted after getting home to her flat.
"I have no idea of the circumstances of the abduction because of what was left behind. I feel sure she would not have gone out by herself leaving all these things behind and she was taken away somewhere."
Detectives said that Miss Yeates had bought a Tesco Finest tomato, mozzarella and basil pesto pizza from Tesco Express. But there was no trace of the pizza, or the packaging in her flat.
Officers involved in the hunt said they were investigating similarities with the unsolved disappearance of Claudia Lawrence, a 35-year-old chef, who vanished from her home in Heworth, York, in March last year.
Miss Lawrence was reported missing when she failed to turn up for work. Like Miss Yeates, her bank cards and other personal possessions were left at home but no trace of her has ever been found.
North Yorkshire Police and Avon and Somerset Police confirmed the two forces had "liaised" over Miss Yeates's disappearance. A police spokesman said: "North Yorkshire Police have been in contact with Avon and Somerset Police and will continue that liaison over the coming days."
Miss Yeates's disappearance also bears similarities to that of Melanie Hall, who vanished after leaving a nightclub in nearby Bath, Somerset, in 1996.
Her remains were found dumped on a motorway slip road in October last year – 13 years after she went missing.
Miss Yeates and Miss Hall share a similar physical appearance – they both had short blonde hair and were aged 25. On Christmas Eve, police released CCTV footage showing Miss Yeates buying the pizza in an attempt to jog the memories of people who might have seen her.
Yesterday's news that a body had been found was the scenario her parents had been dreading.
Although the body, clothed and partly covered by snow, had still to be identified last night, officers at the scene said they believed it was Miss Yeates.
The couple who found the body were said by police sources to be "very distressed".
A local woman told officers at the scene that she had seen a man run across a road and into woods a few hundred yards from where the body was found.
The woman, who gave her name as Patricia, from the nearby village of Clapton in Gordano, said she was driving with her two daughters at about 5.45pm on Christmas Eve when they saw the man run across the road from trees on one side of the road and jump a stile.
"It was dark and it was very odd. It's not the sort of road you see people cross.
"It was as if he was taking a chance to cross the road," she said.
"I wish I had reported it to the police at the time." An ambulance with a police escort took the body from the scene at 4.45pm yesterday.
Miss Yeates's friends reacted with horror to the news that a body had been found.
Emma Brooks, 25, a close friend from north London, who lived with Miss Yeates when they studied together at Writtle College, in Chelmsford, Essex, said: "I just don't know what to think or what to do at the moment. We don't know if it is Jo or not yet." On Facebook, comments and tributes were posted on a dedicated page, to which more than 8,000 people have contributed.
Linzi Wilkinson posted: "My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Whatever the news. So much love to all friends and family at this incredibly difficult time. God bless xxx."
Residents in the village of Long Ashton, near where the body was found, expressed their sadness. Val Thomas said: "I saw the police cars and thought there must have been an accident. Then I saw all the media and my heart just sank."
A neighbour, Pat Hurley, 74, said her granddaughter had walked along the lane last night.
"We've all been crying since we heard the news. It's so awful," she said.
Yesterday it seemed that their worst fears had been realised.
Police said that the body of a woman was found by a roadside at 9am by a couple walking their dogs in north Somerset, three miles from Miss Yeates's flat.
A post-mortem examination will be carried out today and the body is expected to be identified.
In the nine days since she went missing, Mr Yeates and his wife, Teresa, made two powerful, emotional television appeals, one urging their 25-year-old daughter to get in touch, and the second, more desperate, pleading with anybody who might
have abducted her, or who had seen her, to make contact with them.
Miss Yeates was last seen on Friday Dec 17 by colleagues she had joined for an after-work drink at the Ram pub in Bristol city centre.
At 8pm she left the pub and began the 20-minute walk to her home in the affluent district of Clifton.
Ten minutes later she was filmed on CCTV in a Waitrose supermarket near her home.
At 8.30pm she used her mobile phone to call Rebecca Scott, her best friend, and arranged to meet her on Christmas Eve. Ten minutes after that she bought a pizza from a Tesco Express store about a quarter of a mile from her flat.
But following that, the trail went cold.
Police believe Miss Yeates returned to her flat in Canynge Road, which she shared with Greg Reardon, her boyfriend who had gone away for the weekend to visit relatives in Sheffield.
Mr Reardon returned on Sunday and reported his girlfriend as missing after he found Miss Yeates's cream-coloured coat, her mobile phone and keys in the flat, along with the receipt from Tesco.
The next day Avon and Somerset Police made their first appeal for information about her disappearance. Officers were concerned for her safety because it was "out of character".
Miss Yeates's parents made their first tearful appeal for information at a police press conference in Bristol, urging their daughter: "Jo, whatever the reason that you have not been in touch over the last few days, we want you to know that we love you dearly and are desperate to know that you are safe and well. Please get in touch as soon as possible. Either to the police or anyone who can confirm you are OK."
On Wednesday Mr Reardon spoke of his distress at the disappearance of his girlfriend.
"I desperately want her back – I thought we would be together forever," he said from Miss Yeates's parents' home. "She was my future. This Christmas was going to be our first together. I was going to spend it with her family, which is always a big deal for a boyfriend.
"We were both really
happy in our jobs – we worked together and that's how we met."
Forensic experts scoured the couple's flat, the snow-covered Bristol Downs and Avon Gorge in an attempt to find clues that would point to what happened to the young landscape architect. They also removed Mr Reardon's phone and laptop.
On Thursday Miss Yeates's parents made a second emotional appeal and revealed their fears that their daughter had been kidnapped.
Mr Yeates pleaded to the possible abductor: "If she's dead, please tell somebody where she is."
He added: "I think she was abducted after getting home to her flat.
"I have no idea of the circumstances of the abduction because of what was left behind. I feel sure she would not have gone out by herself leaving all these things behind and she was taken away somewhere."
Detectives said that Miss Yeates had bought a Tesco Finest tomato, mozzarella and basil pesto pizza from Tesco Express. But there was no trace of the pizza, or the packaging in her flat.
Officers involved in the hunt said they were investigating similarities with the unsolved disappearance of Claudia Lawrence, a 35-year-old chef, who vanished from her home in Heworth, York, in March last year.
Miss Lawrence was reported missing when she failed to turn up for work. Like Miss Yeates, her bank cards and other personal possessions were left at home but no trace of her has ever been found.
North Yorkshire Police and Avon and Somerset Police confirmed the two forces had "liaised" over Miss Yeates's disappearance. A police spokesman said: "North Yorkshire Police have been in contact with Avon and Somerset Police and will continue that liaison over the coming days."
Miss Yeates's disappearance also bears similarities to that of Melanie Hall, who vanished after leaving a nightclub in nearby Bath, Somerset, in 1996.
Her remains were found dumped on a motorway slip road in October last year – 13 years after she went missing.
Miss Yeates and Miss Hall share a similar physical appearance – they both had short blonde hair and were aged 25. On Christmas Eve, police released CCTV footage showing Miss Yeates buying the pizza in an attempt to jog the memories of people who might have seen her.
Yesterday's news that a body had been found was the scenario her parents had been dreading.
Although the body, clothed and partly covered by snow, had still to be identified last night, officers at the scene said they believed it was Miss Yeates.
The couple who found the body were said by police sources to be "very distressed".
A local woman told officers at the scene that she had seen a man run across a road and into woods a few hundred yards from where the body was found.
The woman, who gave her name as Patricia, from the nearby village of Clapton in Gordano, said she was driving with her two daughters at about 5.45pm on Christmas Eve when they saw the man run across the road from trees on one side of the road and jump a stile.
"It was dark and it was very odd. It's not the sort of road you see people cross.
"It was as if he was taking a chance to cross the road," she said.
"I wish I had reported it to the police at the time." An ambulance with a police escort took the body from the scene at 4.45pm yesterday.
Miss Yeates's friends reacted with horror to the news that a body had been found.
Emma Brooks, 25, a close friend from north London, who lived with Miss Yeates when they studied together at Writtle College, in Chelmsford, Essex, said: "I just don't know what to think or what to do at the moment. We don't know if it is Jo or not yet." On Facebook, comments and tributes were posted on a dedicated page, to which more than 8,000 people have contributed.
Linzi Wilkinson posted: "My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Whatever the news. So much love to all friends and family at this incredibly difficult time. God bless xxx."
Residents in the village of Long Ashton, near where the body was found, expressed their sadness. Val Thomas said: "I saw the police cars and thought there must have been an accident. Then I saw all the media and my heart just sank."
A neighbour, Pat Hurley, 74, said her granddaughter had walked along the lane last night.
"We've all been crying since we heard the news. It's so awful," she said.
