JOANNA Yeates’s killer took “a massive gamble” in moving her body after she was murdered, police said last night.
And they believe the killer’s decision to move her holds the key to cracking the case.
Last night a senior detective told the Daily Star: “This is a crucial factor in the investigation.
“Assuming the culprit was undetected carrying out the killing, why on earth did he or she just not leave the flat as quickly and quietly as possible?
“There would only have been a relatively slim chance someone had seen them either entering or leaving the property and they would not have attracted any undue suspicion.
“Jo’s body would have been found when either her boyfriend, a mate or a relative turned up, by which time the culprit would have been long gone.
“Instead the killer chose to take the risk of carrying the body outside, presumably placing it in a vehicle, and dumping it.
“The risks involved in such a move are nothing short of extraordinary.
“Their journey could have been caught on CCTV cameras. And they risked leaving damning forensic evidence on the body and in the vehicle.
“Quite frankly, the murderer took a massive gamble which could well be their undoing.”
What makes the killer’s decision even more remarkable is that the building that houses Jo’s flat has no rear entrance.
That means the murderer would have had to carry her body out of the front in full view of residents of flats in her block, as well as other neighbours.
Jo went missing from the Bristol flat as boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27, was visiting his newborn twin nieces in Sheffield.
Two neighbours reported hearing a scream coming from her home at 9pm on December 17, the night she vanished.
Her body was found in a country lane eight days later on Christmas Day, dumped at the roadside near a quarry.
jerry.lawton@dailystar.co.uk
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/171886/Jo-Yeates-murdered-at-home-say-cops/