Joanna Clare Yeates (19 April 1985 – 17 December 2010) was a landscape architect from Ampfield, Hampshire, England, who went missing from the flat she shared with her partner in Clifton, Bristol, on 17 December 2010 after an evening out with colleagues. Following a highly publicised appeal for information on her whereabouts and intensive police enquiries, her body was discovered on 25 December 2010 in the nearby village of Failand, North Somerset. A post-mortem examination determined that she had been strangled.
The murder inquiry was one of the largest police investigations ever undertaken in the Bristol area. The case dominated news coverage in the United Kingdom around the Christmas period as Yeates's family sought assistance from the public through social networking services and press conferences. Rewards amounting to £60,000 were offered for information leading to those responsible for Yeates's death. The police initially suspected and arrested Christopher Jefferies, Yeates's landlord, who lived in another flat in the same building. He was subsequently released without charge, but was vilified in the press.
Vincent Tabak, a 32-year-old Dutch architectural engineer and the occupant of a third flat in the building, was arrested on 20 January 2011. Media attention at the time centred on the filming of a re-enactment of her disappearance for the BBC's programme Crimewatch. After two days of questioning, Tabak was charged on 22 January 2011 with Yeates's murder. On 5 May, he pleaded guilty to Yeates's manslaughter, but denied murdering her. His trial started on 4 October; he was found guilty of murder on 28 October, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 20 years.
The nature of press reporting on aspects of the case led to legal proceedings against several UK newspapers. Libel action was brought by Jefferies against eight publications over their coverage of his arrest, resulting in the payment to him of substantial damages. The Daily Mirror and The Sun were found guilty of contempt of court for reporting information that could prejudice a trial.
A memorial service was held for Yeates at the parish church of Christ Church, Clifton Down, in the Bristol suburb where she had lived; her funeral took place at St Mark's church near the family home in Ampfield, Hampshire. Several memorials were planned, including one in a garden she had been designing for a new hospital in Bristol.
Background and disappearance
Joanna Clare Yeates was born on 19 April 1985 to David and Teresa Yeates in Hampshire, England. Her maternal grandmother was Gwen Troake, who won the Cook of the Realm competition and was selected to appear on The Big Time in 1976, where her menu was notably criticised by Fanny Cradock. She was privately educated at Embley Park near Romsey. Yeates studied for her A-levels at Peter Symonds College and graduated with a degree in landscape architecture from Writtle College. She received her postgraduate diploma in landscape architecture from the University of Gloucestershire.
In December 2008, Yeates met 25-year-old architect Greg Reardon at the firm Hyland Edgar Driver in Winchester. The couple moved in together in 2009, and settled in Bristol when the company moved there. Yeates later changed jobs to work at the Building Design Partnership in Bristol. Yeates and Reardon moved into a flat at 44 Canynge Road, a large house that had been subdivided into several such flats, in the city's Clifton suburb in October 2010.
At approximately 8:00 pm on 19 December 2010, Reardon returned home from a weekend visit to Sheffield to find Yeates absent from their flat. Reardon had been trying to contact her by phone and text, but without success. While awaiting Yeates's return, Reardon called her again, but her mobile phone rang from a pocket of her coat, which was still in the flat. He found that her purse and keys were also at the flat, and that their cat appeared to have been neglected. Shortly after half past midnight, Reardon contacted the police and Yeates's parents to report her missing.
Investigators determined Yeates had spent the evening of 17 December 2010 with colleagues at the Bristol Ram pub on Park Street, leaving at around 8:00 pm to begin the 30-minute walk home. She told friends and colleagues that she was not looking forward to spending the weekend alone as it would be her first in the flat without Reardon; she planned to spend her time baking in preparation for a party the couple would be throwing the following week, and shopping for Christmas.
Yeates was seen on closed-circuit television (CCTV) at around 8:10 pm leaving a Waitrose supermarket without purchasing anything. She phoned her best friend, Rebecca Scott, at 8:30 pm to arrange a meeting on Christmas Eve. The last known footage of Yeates recorded her buying a pizza from a branch of Tesco Express at around 8:40 pm. She had also bought two small bottles of cider at a nearby off-licence, Bargain Booze.
Search, public appeal, and discovery of body
Reardon and Yeates's friends set up a website and used social networking services to help look for her. On 21 December 2010, Yeates's parents and Reardon made a public appeal for her safe return at a police press conference. In another press conference, broadcast live on 23 December by Sky News and BBC News, Yeates's father David commented on her disappearance: "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 found no sign of the pizza she had bought, nor of its packaging. Both bottles of cider were found in the flat, one of them partially consumed. As there was no evidence of forced entry or a struggle, investigators began to examine the possibility that Yeates may have known her abductor.
On 25 December, a fully clothed body was found in the snow by a couple walking their dogs along Longwood Lane near a golf course and next to the entrance of a quarry in Failand, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) from her home. The body was declared by police as that of Yeates. Reardon and the Yeates family visited the site of the discovery on 27 December. David Yeates said that the family "had been told to prepare for the worst" and expressed relief that his daughter's body had been recovered. Funeral arrangements were delayed as investigators retained the body. The pathologist Nat Carey consented to the release of the body on 31 January 2011.
Investigation
The investigation, called "Operation Braid", comprised 70 detectives, uniformed officers and civilian staff under the direction of Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones, a senior officer with Avon and Somerset Constabulary's major crime investigation unit. It became one of the largest police operations in the Constabulary's history. Jones urged the public to come forward with any information to help catch the killer, especially potential witnesses who were in the vicinity of Longwood Lane in Failand in the period before Yeates's body was discovered. He stated that the investigation was seeking the driver of a "light-coloured 4x4 vehicle" for questioning.
Jones said that officers had been "inundated with thousands of calls" and were "exhausting every lead and avenue that [they were] provided with." Police examined over 100 hours of surveillance footage along with 293 tonnes (293,000 kg) of rubbish seized from the area around Yeates's flat. Crime Stoppers offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her murderer, while The Sun newspaper offered £50,000. Authorities advised people living in the area to secure their homes, and warned women not to walk alone after dark. Speaking on 29 December about the murder investigation Yeates's father 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."
Post mortem and initial enquiries
Following the discovery of Yeates's body, detectives from the Avon and Somerset Constabulary issued an appeal for anyone with information about the death to come forward, and investigated similarities with other unsolved cases. Of particular interest to them were those of 20-year-old Glenis Carruthers who was strangled in 1974, Melanie Hall, aged 25, who disappeared in 1996 and whose body was discovered thirteen years later, and 35-year-old Claudia Lawrence who went missing in 2009.
Investigators identified "striking similarities" between the Yeates and Hall cases, notably their age and appearance, and that they had disappeared after returning home from meeting friends, but the possibility of such connections was later played down by authorities. The police gathered surveillance video from Clifton Suspension Bridge, which forms part of the most direct route from the crime scene to the Clifton suburb where Yeates was last seen alive. The footage was of poor quality, making it impossible to clearly distinguish individuals or car registration numbers. Investigators were aware that the perpetrator could have used an alternative bridge across the River Avon less than a mile to the south to avoid CCTV coverage.
A post mortem examination began on 26 December 2010, though results were delayed due to the frozen condition of the body. Police initially thought it possible that Yeates froze to death because her body showed no visible signs of injury. Investigators announced on 28 December that the case had become a murder inquiry as the pathologist who performed her autopsy determined that Yeates had died as a result of strangulation. The post mortem indicated that she had died "... several days before being discovered". The examination also confirmed that Yeates did not eat the pizza she had purchased. Detective Chief Inspector Jones stated that the investigation found "... no evidence to suggest that Joanna was sexually assaulted". The police searched Reardon's laptop computer and mobile phone as part of standard procedure. Reardon was ruled out as a suspect and treated as a witness.
A young woman attending a party at a neighbouring house on Canynge Road on the night of Yeates's disappearance recalled hearing two loud screams shortly after 9:00 pm coming from the direction of Yeates's flat. Another neighbour who lived behind Yeates's home said that he heard a woman's voice scream "Help me", although he could not recall exactly when the incident had occurred. Officers removed the front door to Yeates's flat to check for clothing fibres and DNA evidence, with investigators examining the possibility that the perpetrator had entered the flat before Yeates returned home.
Further enquiries
Senior officers from the investigation asked for assistance from the National Policing Improvement Agency, which provides expertise for difficult cases. On 4 January 2011, a clinical forensic psychologist, who had previously been involved as a criminal profiler in other high-profile murder cases, joined the investigation to help narrow down the number of potential suspects. Jones stated that his officers had established over 1,000 lines of inquiry. Jones said, "I can assure you, we are determined to solve this crime and bring Jo's killers to justice." On 5 January, Detective Chief Inspector Jones announced that one of Yeates's socks was missing when she was found dead and that it had not been found at the crime scene nor in her home.
Police launched a national advertising campaign to appeal for witnesses through Facebook. The page, established on 4 January, had been viewed nearly 250,000 times by the following day, while CCTV footage of Yeates had been viewed 120,000 times on YouTube by 5 January.
On 9 January 2011, Bristol East MP Kerry McCarthy gave her support to the idea of a public DNA screening process if the police found it useful. The Avon and Somerset Constabulary had conducted mass DNA screening during the 1995 investigation into the disappearance of Louise Smith. McCarthy suggested that the screening process should be extended beyond Clifton to the wider Bristol area. DNA that had been found on Yeates's body was tested for a potential profile. Detectives also began tracking the movements of several hundred registered sex offenders living within their jurisdiction to determine the individuals' whereabouts on 17 December.
Arrests and reconstruction of crime
Shortly after 7:00 am on 30 December 2010, Christopher Jefferies, Yeates's landlord who lived in another flat in the same building, was arrested on suspicion of her murder. He was taken to a local police station for questioning while forensic investigators inspected his flat. On 31 December, a senior police officer granted investigators a 12-hour extension to the arrest, enabling them to hold him in custody for additional questioning. Police subsequently applied to magistrates for further extensions which were granted on 31 December and 1 January. Investigators were able to detain him as a suspect for up to 96 hours, but released Jefferies on bail after two days. He retained the legal services of the law firm Stokoe Partnership to act on his behalf. On 4 March 2011, police released him from bail and stated he was no longer a suspect. He subsequently won an undisclosed sum in libel damages for defamatory news articles published following his arrest, and received an apology from Avon and Somerset Police for any distress caused to him during the investigation.
In January 2011, a reconstruction of the case was filmed on location in Bristol for broadcast in the 26 January edition of the BBC television programme Crimewatch. A specialised firm from the film industry was contracted to reproduce the snowy conditions at the time of Yeates's disappearance. The reconstruction of Yeates's last movements was filmed on 18 January, and within 24 hours of news coverage about the production, over 300 people contacted the police. A breakthrough led investigators to believe that Yeates's body might have been transported in a large holdall or suitcase.