THE GRIEVING mother of Joanna Yeates last night called for all her daughter’s friends and colleagues to be DNA tested to eliminate them from the murder inquiry.
Teresa Yeates has urged detectives to focus DNA sampling on the small group of people her daughter knew and then to include men in the upmarket district of Clifton in Bristol where Jo lived with her boyfriend Greg Reardon.
Her call comes as a national poll conducted by the Sunday Express shows a majority of people across the UK want all 250,000 men in Bristol to be DNA tested.
Nearly 2,000 people in major towns and cities were asked by OnePoll if all men in Bristol should have DNA testing and 57 per cent said yes.
In Bristol 245 people were interviewed with 54 per cent for and 46 per cent against.
Last week Kerry McCarthy, Labour MP for Bristol East, led the calls for citywide DNA testing but so far murder squad detectives have ruled out a mass DNA trawl of the city. They may change their minds after considering the views of the Yeates family.
It is thought a tiny sample of DNA was found on Jo’s lips. It may have got there when the killer was dumping her body, which was found covered in snow on Christmas Day three miles from her home.
Speaking from her home in Ampfield, near Romsey, Hampshire, Mrs Yeates, 58, said: “To be honest, I don’t think all men in Bristol should be DNA tested. I think it would be pointless. I think there should be DNA testing for people who live in the Clifton area and DNA testing of people Jo was acquainted with.”
Asked if that should include Jo’s colleagues, she replied: “I don’t see why not. I don’t believe any of her work colleagues were involved in any of this. I haven’t met all of them but that is my gut feeling. It is better to eliminate them.”
It is understood police have been highly selective in who they ask for DNA swabs but they have tested some of her 200 Facebook friends.
Colleagues who were connected to her social networking site, or who had sent her e-mails or texts outside of work, are thought to have been asked to supply swabs.
Dr Carolyn Morton, a principal lecturer in forensic science at the University of West England in Bristol, said it was possible the DNA could have come from anyone Miss Yeates was with on the evening she went missing, including colleagues she could have kissed when she left the pub. She said the police had to find where the saliva came from. So far none of her workmates who joined Jo for Christmas drinks on the day she went missing, Friday, December 17, has been named or has spoken publicly about her.
BDP, the company for which 25-year-old landscape architect Jo worked, is talking to her mother and father David, 63, about a suitable memorial.
A spokeswoman said: “Jo loved flowers, so a beautiful landscaped space would perhaps be the most fitting memorial.”
It is unclear whether Jo’s 27-year-old boyfriend Greg will return to work for BDP in the office he once shared with Jo. He has told friends that even the thought of a brief return to Bristol upsets him.
Mrs Yeates confirmed to the Sunday Express that she would now not be playing the part of her daughter in a BBC Crimewatch reconstruction to be broadcast on January 26.
As she is the same height as her daughter and looks similar, she had been prepared to go through the emotional ordeal.
Last night she said: “They will be getting somebody else for the reconstruction but it is definitely not me, I can confirm that.”
It is thought either an actress or a serving Avon and Somerset female police officer will play the role for the programme which frustrated detectives hope will produce a breakthrough lead.
Police sources say they have found no significant links between Jo’s murder and that of Glenis Carruthers, a young woman strangled in Clifton 37 years ago, after cold case detectives reopened their files last week.
Read more: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/223433/DNA-all-Joannma-Yeates-friends-begs-her-mother/DNA-all-Joannma-Yeates-friends-begs-her-mother#ixzz1BCf45ZTp
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