Murder of Joanna Yeates
This year marks the 10th anniversary since she went missing, but people are still intrigued by the heartbreaking…
It may have happened 10 years ago, but the details of the case are just as compelling – and horrifying – now. A young woman going missing after festive drinks with colleagues, her body found under a mound of snow on Christmas Day, a mysterious landlord, a silent neighbour…
It was a case that captivated the country at the time, so it’s no wonder that British broadcaster Dermot Murnaghan has decided to return to the murder of Joanna Yeates as part of his new series, Killer Britain with Dermot Murnaghan.
On the night of Friday 17 December 2010, Joanna had kissed her boyfriend Greg Reardon goodbye as he headed up to Sheffield to see family for the weekend and she, in turn, went to the Bristol Ram pub to see friends.
CCTV footage shows the 25-year-old landscape architect laughing and joking, before leaving at 8pm. She is later captured on camera going into a Bargain Booze to buy two bottles of cider, then a Tesco Express for a pizza, presumably for her dinner.
Yet, at some time that evening, something obviously went tragically wrong. Because Greg didn’t hear from his girlfriend over the whole weekend – something extremely out of character – and when he arrived back at their flat on Canynge Road, in Clifton, Bristol, on Sunday, it was empty. There was no sign of the pizza but both of the bottles of cider were there, one partially drank. So, Joanna had made it home…
When Greg tried Joanna’s phone, he heard it ringing in her coat pocket. Alarmed, he called for help. Christopher Jefferies, their landlord who lived in the flat above them, and Teresa and David, Joanna’s parents…
Arriving in Bristol, Teresa and David joined Greg in searching the area, banging on car boots and examining nearby gardens – but it was all in vain. Joanna was nowhere to be found. The police were called and a missing persons case was opened.
At a time when friends and families come together for festive celebrations, the idea that a young woman could disappear into the blue seemed doubly distressing.
‘Few of us in the media will ever forget the tortured faces of Joanna’s parents as they urged us to “look out” for her during the time she was missing. Their press conferences were heartbreaking,’ Dermot remembers.
And everyone’s worst nightmares were confirmed on 25 December, when a dog walker came across a mound in the snow on Longwood Lane, three miles from Joanna’s flat. Upon closer inspection, they spotted some denim. A pair of jeans. Jeans, it turned out, that belonged to Joanna.
Despite the frozen condition of her body delaying the postmortem, it was eventually announced that she had died due to compression of the neck, but had suffered 43 injuries in total, including cuts, bruises and a fractured nose.
‘It was a relief because we were absolutely certain by this time that Jo was no longer alive,’ David explained.
Suspicion immediately focused on Christopher, an academic who claimed he was home alone reading at the time of the disappearance. And who, as landlord, incidentally had keys to the property. With his wild grey hair, love of books and lack of television he was deemed eccentric. He was arrested and interrogated for three days. (He later received an apology from the police over distress caused by his arrest and successfully sued two newspapers for defamation.)
Attention then focused on the other resident of the building – Vincent Tabak. A Dutch engineer, he’d returned to Holland on 28 December. Yet, despite claiming to know nothing about Joanna’s disappearance, he had followed the case avidly online. He’d also made a phone call to police, stating that Christopher’s car had moved during that night, implicating him in the murder.
The police sent a team to visit Tabak in Holland, where he reluctantly handed over a sample of his DNA. They also examined his movements that night. With his girlfriend, Tanja Morson, out with friends, Tabak claimed he’d been out photographing the snowy streets of Bristol and had also bought rock salt, crisps and beer. Suspiciously, the shop he’d visited was further away from their home than others. Had he gone there to give himself an alibi?
As the police probed more deeply, they discovered that Tabak’s computer was full of violent pornography, often showing women being dominated and, crucially, strangled. He’d also searched for the difference between murder and manslaughter in the weeks leading up to Joanna’s murder.
When arrested, Tabak refused to help the police with their inquiries. But when his car was examined, forensic investigators found blood – Joanna’s blood. That still wasn’t enough and he was in custody for three weeks before he disclosed to a chaplain that he was going to plead guilty.
Yet the heartache was far from over for Joanna’s friends and family. Because, having done his research, Tabak pleaded guilty to Joanna’s manslaughter, not her murder. The case would have to go to court.
At his trial in October 2011, Tabak claimed that on the night of her disappearance, Joanna had beckoned him into her flat. He’d believed that she was flirting with him and tried to kiss her. However, she’d screamed. He’d placed his hand over her mouth to quieten her but when he released it, she screamed again. Panicking, he’d strangled her, then disposed of her body.
After two-and-a-half days of deliberating, the jury decided not to believe him and convicted Tabak of murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 20 years. Yet, it is Joanna’s loved ones who are serving the true life sentence.
‘Hopefully, when I think of her I will be able to be happy,’ Teresa said in an interview after the trial. ‘But I haven’t got to that bit yet.’ We can only hope that, one day, she will.
‘He’d strangled her, then disposed of her body’
● Killer Britain with
Dermot Murnaghan begins on 26 October at 9pm on Crime + Investigation.