The parents of missing architect Joanna Yeates were “very, very distressed” after the body of a young woman was found on a snow-covered verge, yesterday.
The remains were discovered on a country lane on Christmas morning by a couple out walking their dogs three miles from where the 25-year-old was last seen alive eight days ago.
The scene on Longwood Lane, in the Failand area of North Somerset, close to Bristol and Clifton Golf Club, has been sealed off for forensic examination.
The body, which has not been formally identified, was clothed and covered in snow.
Chief Superintendent Jon Stratford, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: “I can confirm that Joanna Yeates’s parents have been informed of this development. They are naturally very, very distressed. Our thoughts are with them at this very difficult time.”
Mr Stratford added, “I can confirm that at 9 a.m. this morning a couple walking their dogs found the body of what we believe to be a young woman on a roadside verge in Longwood Lane in the Failand area of North Somerset.
“The area has been cordoned off and crime scene investigators are currently examining the scene.
“A pathologist will be attending the scene to examine the body but we will not be in a position to conduct a full post mortem until tomorrow morning.
“It is far too early to be able to establish the identity of the body or the cause of death.”
The Avon Fire Service is assisting police to remove the body from the scene in order to preserve the site for a thorough forensic examination.
A white tent was placed where the body was discovered and uniformed police officers were carrying out careful searches of nearby grass verges and woodland.
The last known sighting of Ms Yeates, known to her friends as Jo, was on CCTV as she bought a pizza at a branch of Tesco Express in the Clifton area of Bristol on the evening of December 17.
The university graduate, who worked as a landscape architect for BDP, was making her way home to the flat she shared with her boyfriend Greg Reardon after a night out with work colleagues in Bristol city centre.
Mr Reardon, 27, reported her missing on Sunday night after returning home to their flat in Canynge Road, Clifton, from a weekend away in Sheffield visiting family.
Ms Yeates’ parents, David and Theresa, made two emotional television appeals for help in tracing their daughter and maintain she must have been abducted.
In one appeal, a tearful Mr Yeates, 63, said, “Just let her go. If you have... if she is dead, then please tell somebody where she is. We want her back whatever.”
He sobbed as he went on: “I was stood outside having a cigarette. It was cold. I was thinking my daughter, maybe she was out there by herself in the snow, frozen. It breaks me up. I want to be there to hold her.”
Mrs Yeates, 58, added in a desperate plea to any abductor: “Just let her go. Let her go, let her come back to me and her dad and her family. Please.”
They said their daughter and Mr Reardon had been due to visit their home in Ampfield, Hampshire, for Christmas.
Mr Yeates said: “Christmas is postponed as far as we areconcerned. Everything is on hold and we can’t celebrate anything.
Mr Reardon, who had left for Sheffield before Ms Yeates returned from the pub, said on Wednesday: “I desperately want her back – I thought we would be together forever.
“She was my future. This Christmas was going to be our first together. I was going to spend it with her family. We were both really happy in our jobs – we worked together and that’s how we met.”
Friends launched a campaign to find her by putting up posters across Bristol and setting up a website and a page on Facebook and by using Twitter.
A message posted on the helpfindjo.wordpress.com website said: “There is currently no confirmation on the identity of the body found in Longwood Lane, near Bristol.
“Please stay strong and supportive for Jo’s family and boyfriend.This will be a terrible day no matter who the young lady is. Please save a thought/moment of silence before your Christmas meal for those who will not be having a merry Christmas.”
Timeline of the disappearance of 25-year-old architect Joanna Yeates from Bristol
December 17
6 p.m.: Miss Yeates, 25, left the architectural firm where she worked with boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27, and joined colleagues in the Ram pub in Park Street for a drink.
8 p.m.: She left the Ram to walk the 20 minute journey home from the city centre to Clifton.
8.10 p.m.: Miss Yeates was caught on CCTV popping into a Waitrose supermarket in the Clifton Triangle
8.30 p.m.: She used her mobile phone to ring her best friend Rebecca Scott and arranged to meet on Christmas Eve.
8.40 p.m.: At a Tesco Express on Regent Street in Clifton Village - about a quarter of mile from her flat - Miss Yeates bought a pizza, which is missing.
Police believe she returned home to her flat in Canynge Road, which she shared with Mr Reardon. A receipt from Tesco was found in the flat, along with a cream-coloured coat she had been wearing and her mobile phone and keys.
December 19
Mr Reardon reports Miss Yeates missing when he returns to Bristol from a weekend away visiting relatives in Sheffield.
December 20
Avon and Somerset Police make their first appeal for information over Miss Yeates’ disappearance. Officers said they were concerned for safety because it was out of character.
December 21
Miss Yeates’ parents, David and Theresa, make their first tearful appeal for information at a police press conference in Bristol.
Appealing directly to their daughter, they said: “Jo, whatever the reason that you have not been in touch over the last few days, we want you to know that we love you dearly and are desperate to know that you are safe and well.
“Please get in touch as soon as possible. Either to the police or anyone who can confirm you are OK.”
December 22
Mr Reardon spoke of his distress at the disappearance of his girlfriend.
“I desperately want her back - I thought we would be together forever,” he said from Miss Yeates’ parents home in Ampfield, Hampshire.
“She was my future. This Christmas was going to be our first together. I was going to spend it with her family, which is always a big deal for a boyfriend.
“We were both really happy in our jobs - we worked together and that’s how we met.”
Specialist officers have been searching the couple’s flat, as well as the snowy Bristol Downs and Avon Gorge.
They have also taken a phone and laptop computer from Mr Reardon as part of the inquiry.
December 23
Miss Yeates’ parents make a second tearful appeal and reveal their fears that their daughter has been abducted.
Mr Yeates begged her potential kidnapper: “If she’s dead, please tell somebody where she is.
“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 said that when Miss Yeates was in the Tesco Express she had bought a Tesco Finest tomato, mozzarella and basil pesto pizza. However, there was no trace of the pizza, the wrapping or the box in her flat.
December 24
Police release new CCTV footage showing Miss Yeates buying the pizza in the Tesco Express on the night she was last seen.
A spokesman says: “The video has been released by detectives hoping people in the area at the time will remember seeing Joanna and contact the police.”