The last person to speak to missing Bristol woman Joanna Yeates revealed she was happily making plans to spend Christmas and New Year with friends and family – just hours before she disappeared.
Rebecca Scott and Joanna Yeates
Pretty landscape architect Joanna, 25 – Jo to friends – mysteriously vanished from the upmarket streets of Clifton, Bristol, on Friday after spending the evening in the pub with colleagues.
Jo’s distraught parents and boyfriend Greg Reardon made a tearful appeal for information after police became increasingly concerned about her welfare.
Today Joanna’s best friend Rebecca Scott told how she had been on the phone to the sporty blonde just minutes after she left the pub.
Swansea University student Rebecca, Jo’s best friend since they met at college in Winchester, Hants., nine years ago, revealed they were happily finalising festive plans.
Rebecca, 25, said: ”I was the last person believed to have spoken to Jo. She rang me at 8.30pm on Friday as she walked back from the pub.
”We spoke for about 15 minutes – and she was totally normal.
”She seemed very happy and we were making plans for Christmas and New Year. She was due to come back home on Christmas Eve and we had agreed to meet up.
”Jo and Greg were spending Christmas at her parents.
”We were also finalising New Year’s Eve plans – we were going up to Edinburgh as a few of us wanted to go.
”Then I had a message from the police on my phone on Sunday saying Jo was missing.
”There doesn’t seem to be anything missing from the house at all – even her coat and keys are there. I know Jo, and she takes these kind of things with her.
”Everybody is worried sick about her and anybody that knows anything should come forward.”
Jo was last seen leaving The Ram pub on Park St, Bristol at 8pm on Friday evening after drinks with colleagues.
She picked up some shopping at a local Tesco store and arrived home – receipts in her flat from the shop are time marked 8.40pm – but has not been seen or heard from since.
Jo was reported missing by her boyfriend Greg when he returned to the flat they shared in the upmarket Clifton area on Sunday night.
She has not taken any possessions with her family say her disappearance is totally out of character.
Rebecca, studying PhD in marine biology at Swansea University, added: ”All the police’s normal missing persons scenarios have come to a dead end. She’s just not the sort of person to go missing.
Jo is not one to hide her feelings – if there’s something bothering her, she will say. Jo is really outgoing. She was a very, very popular girl and she’s done very well for herself.
1. The Ram on Park Street 2. Tesco on Regents Street 3. Joanna’s house in Canynge Street
”Greg is with her family at the moment – he is distraught.”
Blue-eyed Jo grew up in Romsey, Hants., and went to college in nearby Winchester – studying art, biology and geography.
She then went on to study landscape design and horticulture and Writtle College in Essex before landing a job at Hyland Edgar Driver landscape architects in Winchester.
It was here she was believed to have met boyfriend Greg, also a landscape architect.
The popular girl then moved to Bristol with Greg and her firm HED, finishing a Masters in Garden Design at Bristol University.
Sporty Joanna is described by friends as an outdoors person – who took part in a lot of energetic activities and had recently taken up rowing.
Her devastated parents David, 63, and Teresa, 58, who live in Southampton, issued a public appeal for her safe return on Tuesday.
They sobbed during a press conference alongside Joanna’s brother Chris and Greg.
Pal Emma Brooks, 25, who lived with Joanna during their studies at Writtle College, revealed that Jo and Greg were a very happy couple.
She said: ”They would look out for each other. Greg is such a lovely guy and he’s distraught at the moment.
”They are a lovely couple – it’s just so unfortunate that he was away on the weekend.
”We were all planning to go up to Edinburgh for New Years Eve for the Hogmanay. Everyone is upset at the moment – we just want to find her.”
Emma, from north London, has now rushed to Bristol and is putting up flyers around the city, appealing for anyone with information to come forward.
She revealed that worried fellow employees at Hyland Edgar Driver were also making posters in an attempt to track down the missing architect.
Anyone with information is urged to contact police on 0845456 7000 quoting Operation Braid or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
I have seen several photographs of Joanne. Mostly they all look like different people…friends and family would recognise them as her perhaps but I wouldn’t and might easily walk past her without doing so. It would be helpful to publicise a photo(s) from which she would be easily identified.
The fact that her coat, mobile phone, and the biggest clue that there was no forced entry or anything missing speaks volumes- I hate to say it, but she was brought to harm by someone whom she knew and trusted. I cannot help but feel that she was brought to harm by someone she thought loved her!!!!
Anasy I agree, have the police checked everyone who lives in close proximity to her flat, she may have just nipped out to take round Xms cards to her neighbours – with the pizza ? or attended a flat party for a while ? then got caught up in somthing,somone who she knew within the complex of buildings,
you think the police are that stupid that they would not ask the neighbours
maybe not someone she thought loved her , exactly, cos that would point only to the boyfriend and he’s been ruled out as a suspect. I would defintely say she knew her killer and thought she was familiar enough with him/her to trust them.
you think same as me. im sure jo knew her killer and this appear to be someone she trusted. i can smell a rat here. i think the answer is closer home than most people think.hope the killer is caught and justice served.she was too young to die. had a lot to live for. my heart goes to her parents.
I agree – she looks totally different in each photograph released. Which is the real Joanna Yeates?
Don’t quite understand it:
Surely if you are in a two year relationship with someone and now and then spend time apart at weekends, would you not keep in touch by either text or phone over the weekend? Even if it was just to say good morning or goodnight?
And if they did not reply would you not wonder why they were “snubbing” you if you meant so much to them?
And if you returned to find that they were not home and the pet you shared was “going mad”, would you not phone your partner to find out where they were?
And if you returned at 8pm and waited up for them till 12 midnight as they had not returned, would you not try to phone them to ask if they were ok?
And if you saw that they had left their bag, which had their phone, keys and mobile phone in it, would you not hear the phone ring as you tried to contact them, as they had not returned?
And if they did not return 4 hours after you had returned home, would your first action be to call the police to report them missing before you called their parents?
Or would you discuss the matter with your partner’s parents first, make some calls to known friends to establish potential whereabouts before reporting your partner as missing to the police?
I don’t quite understand matters that govern modern relationships today.
you dont make sense?
I think there are many unanswered questions. I am inclined to think that whoever did this was someone who knew Joanna and lived in that area, either a boyfriend or neighbour. I say that because her body was dumped away from where she lived and murderers usually remove evidence of their crime from their own door step.
A stranger who had gained entry would not need to remove a body, it would be easier to run than risk being seen with a body.
It could have been an opportunist attacker who followed her with a vehicle,maybe someone from the pub, but if that was so why wait til she was home? it would be easier to kidnap someone on a quiet dark street. I hope they soon find the answers.
someone along a dark quiet street.
jJane, Absolutely on your wavelength, all smells more than a little bit off. The fact that the police are not warning women to take care, suggests they already know who they want, but are securing evidence, without alarming anyone. Crocodile tears??
i cant help thinking that it was someone close , i have also thought that it could of been something to do with asphixiation ,the same sort of thing that happened to the inxs lead singer? maybe it was all an accident and is now being covered up, ya never know do ya??
about five years ago that happened in my home town. A boyfriend accidentally strangled his girlfriend, dumped her body miles away in the snow, and lied about his movements. Said they had spent Valentines Day together wrote himself a card from her. There were distraught appeals on the news. So it could happen in theory, although in this case the boyfriend’s whereabouts seem to check out.
Yeah, but wasn,t the boyfriends alibi with his brother,they are saying now there could have been 2 people involved,well maybe it was those two,I doubt it though,but you never know,I feel sure the police will find the evil fiend(s) quite soon.
I think u all wanna get a life and leave her boyfriend alone, so what if the pics were different that was released, get a grip – i just hope they find the sick twissed person who done it.
I wonder how quick you lot above would comment and make assumptions if this tragedy happened to someone in your family…
i think its human nature for people to speculate, and crimes would never be solved if there wasn’t some degree of speculation from the police and public. My mother went missing for 3 weeks, she did return home safe, and there was quite a bit of whispering and gossip, so I understand your view.
apparently the landlord is now a suspect. The boyfriend never was. Obviously everyone the boyfriend was with on the weekend were contacted and making sure it all added up. People can’t just go round pointing the finger,,”oh it had to be the boyfriend” i mean in the end, if it had been him, and he was found guilty and sent to jail , then yea,,,you could say it. But not when all the information is not released. Apparently the car of the guy who jump-started her boyfriends car was taken away for evidence too. He knew she was going to be alone for the weekend and ran a neighbourhood watch with the creepy looking landlord (it has to be said…gives me the heebee jeebies ) so anyway. she could have left to go to the party with any of the neighbours. From what i hear there’s a fair few tennants. It could be anybody. And lets wait to hear of the correct ” somebody” before saying, yea it was so-n-so
Whoever killed poor Joanna deserves to be punished accordingly. How
could anyone have killed such a loving and kind person. I don’t know
her at all but you can tell by her friends,boyfriend and family what a
charming and lovely young lady she was. I hope that they will catch
the killer very soon.
Joy – South Africa.
I dont understand why a young girl would walk alone form the pub at nite, it looks like a fair distance. i also dont know the area, bu the street where she lives doesnt look like the busiest of streets, in fact the whole street and the house seem a bit creepy to me.
surely though in this day and age with cctv. evrywhere. there must have been a bus or other shops on route with cctv, that must have spotted her.
i notice the police are putting an emphasis on taxi drivers to come forward. surely it would be very easy to check which taxis were in the area at the time, as all taxi fares have to be logged.
Having lived in that very area, it really busy and well lit for most of it. Its not that far either…I used to walk everywhere in Bristol and Clifton certainly wasn’t a place you would feel worried about. That particular road just felt unfriendly and austere rather than threatening.
I think it must have been someone Jo knew. She was outgoing and spoke out about things – someone close or otherwise was triggered that night !! Any ‘petty grievances’ should be investigated……..
I find it very odd that the day she went missed her boyfriend was weirdly not there, i find that quite suspicious and how he discovered she wasnt there cos he might be trying to hide something
If keys, mobile, coat etc were in the flat, but no Jo, I would have be immediately alerted! There is so much latitude on the time line.
Very similar to the Claudia Lawrence disappearance. Things so tidy at the home. But CL is still missing!
Does not sound right, The pizza should have been in the flat? Looks like she never got back to the flat ! and someone she maybe knew met her on the way home could have offered her a lift in a car and killed her ! Then sneaked back to her home and left her bag and keys with reciept of pizza ! not realizing the pizza was still in the car !
at the office get- together in the Bristol Ram pub,they arrived at 6 and JY left at 8p.m.Surely when JY said at 8 ,”I m off” -the friends would ask why-who leaves a pub on a Friday at 8 pm without being questioned,where are you going?-have another- JY surely said where she was going so early-Like ,I got to go cos I need to eat a pizza,and get a drink of cider,not here,-yet the Ram looks like the place to eat and drink on a cold night when home alone???
Ask the fellow drinkers-what did she say when she left.
i reckon she was walking home and someone(s) were following she got home and cooked the pizza she took a bite and the stalker(s) grabbed her she was then strangled and dumped in the snow the person who done this knew Jo, the killer(s) knew that Jo would trust them.
Cllifton safe!!! I lived there between 69 and 76. I remember the other murder in 1974. During that time I lived in basement flat, left my pants on the line over night and in the morning they were gone. Then the time someone followed me home late at night, managed to get home safe though.Another time I was in bed, heard someone calling out to me. That really spooked me!!
Well this tragedy has gripped me, and for the past four months I have been reading the Bristol news online as I had a link to Bristol, and simply became interested in the city after visiting in July.
In my readings I found many women had gone missing without any reason and also many women had been attacked and some sexually assaulted. I found it strange that the police had not caught one of the attackers or the attacker…til this day. I believe there is a serial attacker in Bristol whom the police are overlooking…..I do not believe Joanna knew her killer or killers as they dumped her body crudely and this is not the normal act of a killer who knew their victim…I believe she was dragged from her home after answering the front door. Which accounts for her keys etc being left behind at the flat….Joanna spoke to her friend telling her she would be at home all evening, Was her friend having an affair with Jo’s boyfriend was someone at Jo’s work having a disagreement with either Jo or Greg. As they worked together…..
This is not a robbery gone wrong but a planned act, it is possible that her sock was used to muffle her screams and then she was accidently killed with it….
And where had the landlord been on the 17th Dec he said he was parking his car so where had he been, or was parking the car a deterent….
His eyebrows and crooked mouth tell me alot, he’s a liar……
Most people who set up neighbourhood watch’s are usually the culprits as they hold all the info on their neighbours….
Did the landlord let the killer in then go and sit in his car….
Why did the man who helped Greg fix his car ask him so many personal questions…..I want to know I want to know the smallest of details. Why are the police concealing infomation from the country…..
I agree with the fact that it seems strange that her boyfriend would find it strange she did not answer her text messages. Why then didnt he ring the land line later on to make sure she was ok? If i couldnt get a reply i would have contacted her parents or a friend to go and see if she was ok. Why then did he not ring police straight away instead of waiting another 4 hours. Something doesnt add up!
Didnt you guys think it was a bit premature for her father to issue a statement asking that if she was dead would someone at least let them know where her body was? Because a person goes missing for 3 days a loving relative would keep all hope she was still alive! Even the Mc Cannes live in hope for Madeline. Joes dad said this 3 days after she went missing…and he showed very little emotion to the boyfriend at the tv interview.
Is it daddy?