Monday, January 24, 2011

Joanna Yeates family prepares for funeral

Vincent Tabak to appear at Bristol magistrates charged with murder of 25-year-old landscape architect
Joanna Yeates murder
Floral tributes at the spot on Longwood Lane, near Failand, North Somerset, where Joanna Yeates's body was found on Christmas Day. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA
The father of Joanna Yeates said today that her family was now focusing on her funeral as her neighbour, Vincent Tabak, prepared to face magistrates charged with her murder.
David Yeates said he did not know if he and his wife, Teresa, would attend Bristol magistrates tomorrow , where Tabak is due to appear accused of killing the 25-year-old landscape architect. But he said they did want to see the Dutch architectural engineer in the flesh soon.

Police charged Tabak, 32, with Yeates's murder on Saturday. Announcing the development, Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones, who is leading the inquiry, praised Yeates's family and her boyfriend, Greg Reardon.

"I would like to pay tribute to Jo's family and Greg for their assistance and dignity in the most difficult of circumstances. Their support to us has been invaluable," he said.

Speaking at the family's home in Hampshire, Mr Yeates, an IT worker, said: "We feel a lot of relief to reach this stage. We don't yet know if we will go to magistrates court, but we do want to see Vincent Tabak some time.

I believe he will probably be sent to crown court next week and we will go to that hearing. The most important thing now to us is Jo's funeral. We have a date in mind and all the paperwork is being done for her to come back here – she is going through the official process.

"Her funeral will also be closure on a certain part of the process we find ourselves in and it is something we have to go through. It will be the worst day of our lives."

"We have just been trying to understand what happened from the time Jo left home that day to the time she was found at the side of the road. We have been desperately trying to put a story together in our own minds from the information we have had – we have spent many, many hours doing this.

"Hopefully, we will eventually get those answers." Joanna Yeates was last seen alive on 17 December. She left the Ram pub near Bristol city centre, where she had been drinking with colleagues, and walked home to Clifton, stopping at three shops. Her body was found on a roadside verge three miles away on Christmas morning. She had been strangled.
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