New pictures of murder victim Joanna Yeates were released by her parents today. Miss Yeates is pictured during birthday celebrations on the left, and astride a motorbike seven years ago, right
Chief Superintendent Jon Stratford (left) and senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones (right) during a press conference which today revealed Miss Yeates died of 'compression to the neck'
Found dead on Christmas Day: Miss Yeates, seen left on Christmas Day last year and right, with her cat Bernard
Family ordeal: David Yeates hugs his wife Theresa, while their son Chris places a consoling hand on his shoulder during yesterday's visit to the site where Joanna's body was discovered
Miss Yeates' boyfriend Greg Reardon (wearing a black hat) lays a bouquet at the scene as family members including her brother Chris (wearing a grey coat) looked on
Floral tribute: Parents David and Theresa lay flowers at the scene
CCTV clues: Detectives are examining footage from Clifton Suspension Bridge's 32 cameras as they try to discover how her body came to end up on the other side of the structure from her home
Final journey: Miss Yeates was found less than three miles from the house she shared with her boyfriend
Grief: A letter attached to a floral tribute placed outside Miss Yeates' flat
Anguish: Miss Yeates's parents David and Teresa (left) and her boyfriend Greg Reardon had made desperate appeals for her safe return
Joanna poses with Greg. It was her boyfriend who raised the alarm when he returned from a trip to Sheffield to find she was missing from their flat
Stop off: Miss Yeates purchased a small bottle of cider from this Bargain Booze shop in Clifton and also bought a mozzarella, tomato and pesto pizza from a Tesco nearby
Miss Yeates' body was discovered on a grass verge close to the entrance of a quarry (circled) just outside Bristol
Landscape architect Joanna Yeates, who was found dead on a grass verge on Christmas Day, was strangled, police revealed today.
Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones said she had died as a result of 'compression of the neck'.
He said he believed Miss Yeates' body had been dumped in Longwood Lane, Failand, several days earlier.
Det Chief Insp Jones said a number of lines of inquiry were being pursued, including the possibility that there was a sexual motive behind her killing or that the graduate knew her attacker.
He added that the 25-year-old's boyfriend Greg Reardon was being treated as a witness and not a suspect.
His laptop and mobile telephone have been examined by detectives but officers have stressed that this was a routine procedure in such inquiries.
Police are also keeping an 'open mind' over whether Miss Yeates had been held captive or had been killed where she was found.
In a statement, her father David said it had been 'a relief' to see his daughter's body.
He said: 'I fear that whoever has done this will never hand themselves in, but we live in hope that the police will catch who is responsible.
'We are sure that the police know more about what happened than they are telling us, but at the moment we are not questioning them because we feel they are doing their best.
'Hearing Jo had been murdered was not a surprise because we had been told to prepare for the worst.
'Since hearing about her death all sorts of things have been running through our mind and we are trying to rationalise what has happened.
'Last week was the worst of our lives and we are hoping that we will never have to go through anything like this again.
'Things were made just that little bit less terrible when we saw Jo's body yesterday. It was a relief to see her body again - we just said "Welcome back".'
Det Chief Insp Jones said that the post mortem examination took longer than anticipated because of the freezing conditions.
'The pathologist showed the cause of death was compression of the neck - in other words, strangulation,' he said.
'We believe Joanna's body had been there for several days before being discovered on Christmas morning.
'We want to hear from anyone who saw anything in the Failand area, particularly between December 17 and December 19.'
Police gave Joanna's family advanced notice of the manner of her death last night.
Detectives were today continuing a forensic examination of the murder victim's home, as police attempt to identify any signs of a struggle.
Det Chief Insp Jones appealed for any information about her murder, adding: 'I have met with her parents to tell them of the latest developments and offer my heartfelt condolences to them.
'Somebody out there does know what happened to Joanna. Somebody out there holds that vital piece of information Jo's family need and want.
'What we have to do next is to try and find out why she was killed and who was responsible.
'However small or insignificant you think your information might be, please come forward and speak to us.
'Please don't assume we may already have been told the information that you have. We would much rather be told the same piece of information several times over than not be told it at all.'
Walking slowly together along Longwood Lane in the village of Failand, just outside Bristol, they embraced each other as they surveyed the scene, which is still being examined by forensic specialists.
David and Theresa Yeates laid flowers by the side of the closed-off road, as did Miss Yeates’s architect boyfriend, Mr Reardon, 27, watched by her brother Chris and his girlfriend.
A postmortem examination into Miss Yeates’s death had been delayed because of the frozen condition of her body when it was discovered by dog walkers.
A police source explained that it was not an option to warm the body quickly as it might destroy the chemical composition of crucial evidence.
Detectives have continued to examine CCTV footage from Clifton Suspension Bridge – the most direct route from Miss Yeates’s flat in Clifton to the spot where her body was found in North Somerset.
The Brunel-designed structure, which spans the Avon Gorge, is constantly scanned by 32 CCTV cameras - in a bid to deter jumpers at the notorious suicide spot.
Officers are taking particular note of any vehicle that left Clifton and then returned again shortly afterwards.
Meanwhile, sympathy was expressed by the parents of Melanie Hall, who disappeared in 1996, also aged 25, just 14 miles away. Melanie’s remains were not found for another 13 years.
Speaking from their home in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire, Stephen and Patricia Hall expressed their condolences to Miss Yeates’s relatives.
Mrs Hall said: ‘I feel so sorry for her family.
‘If anybody understands the pain her parents are feeling, then we do, and it is so terrible.’
Mr Hall, 66, went on: ‘We empathise with their family and understand what her father was saying about just wanting to know what happened to her.’
Asked about any possible link between the two cases, after it emerged that detectives working on each had been in contact, he added: ‘At the moment we’re treating it as two different inquiries, but you just don’t know.’
After Miss Yeates’s body was found at around 9am on December 25, Mr and Mrs Yeates spoke from their home near Romsey, Hampshire, and said the discovery of a body was a kind of relief from the nightmare of not knowing what had happened to their daughter.
Before the identity of the body was confirmed, Mr Yeates, 63, said: ‘Of course we don’t know for sure that it’s her but we assume that it is.
‘Nobody else has been reported missing and it’s the body of a young girl close to where Jo disappeared.
‘It hasn’t been a Christmas for us. I don’t know what it’s been. It’s been surreal, totally unreal. We’re just waiting now for the police to tell us what we suspect.
‘In truth we feel like we hope ... we would be relieved if it was her.
‘We don’t want to go to our graves wondering where she is and not being given the chance to say goodbye to her.
‘We assume that she’s dead so we’d like to say goodbye. Our lives have gone.’
More than 70 officers had been involved in the search for Miss Yeates after the landscape architect disappeared on Friday, December 17.
It also emerged today that she stopped off at an off-licence and bought some alcohol that night.
Miss Yeates went into Bargain Booze on Bristol's Regent Street - just a few metres from the Tesco Express where she bought a mozzarella, tomato and pesto pizza - and bought a small bottle of cider.
Earlier that night she had left the Ram pub on Park Street in Bristol city centre where she had been having a drink with work colleagues and walked to Waitrose on the Clifton Triangle, before heading to Clifton Village and the Tesco Express.
Her keys, coat and mobile phone were all found at her flat in Canynge Road but detectives are still searching for the pizza and its wrapping, which has become crucial to the case.
Detectives say there were no signs of forced entry to the property.
Miss Yeates’s body was found on a country road which lies between Long Ashton and Bristol and Clifton golf clubs and Durnford Quarry, around three miles from the £200,000 flat she shared with her boyfriend, and close to the Ashton Court Estate.
One theory police are believed to be working on is that Miss Yeates was abducted, knocked unconscious and then died of hypothermia after being pushed out of a car and into the snow.
A white tent has been erected over the ditch where her body was found and officers are combing the surrounding area for clues.
Detectives are investigating the possibility that Miss Yeates was abducted and said it was one of their lines of inquiry.
They have been sharing information with the team investigating the disappearance of chef Claudia Lawrence in York.
She has not been seen since March last year.
As in Miss Yeates’s case, Miss Lawrence’s bank cards and other possessions were left at home.
SOURCE: Daily Mail
