Snow plays havoc with the forensic tests in Joanna Yeates murder investigation

By LUKE SALKELD FOR THE DAILY MAIL and STEPHEN WRIGHT FOR THE DAILY MAIL
Updated:

Forensic tests on Jo Yeates’s body have been hampered because it was frozen by the time it was discovered on Christmas morning.

Police say it had been there for ‘several days’ of extremely cold weather, leaving her remains effectively embedded in the snow.

Previously it was thought that her body had been dumped at a roadside for only a few hours before being found by walkers.

Floral tributes on Longwood Drive in Bristol, near to where the body of Joanna Yeates was found

A dusting of snow covers floral tributes on Longwood Drive in Bristol, near to where the body of Joanna Yeates was found

But the extra days in deep snow and sub-zero temperatures made it far more difficult for forensic experts to remove the corpse and obtain potentially vital evidence.

Yesterday a source at Avon and Somerset Police stressed that further forensic tests could still take ‘weeks and weeks’ to carry out.

A source at Avon and Somerset Police said that further forensic tests on Miss Yeates's body could still take 'weeks and weeks' to carry out

A source at Avon and Somerset Police said that further forensic tests on Miss Yeates's body could still take 'weeks and weeks' to carry out

When the body was found, the fire service were called in by police to activate a winch mechanism to lift it out for removal to a morgue.

Once there, the post mortem was significantly delayed because of the body’s frozen state, meaning it took another two days for the cause of death – strangulation – to be identified.

After the delay, one positive aspect mentioned by officers working on the case was the fact that important chemical evidence had been well preserved for analysis.

However it has since emerged that the icy conditions have seriously hampered attempts to work out how long she had been dead – a key priority.

Fears are growing that the appalling weather which affected Bristol around the time of her death could help her killer or killers escape justice.

Police sources admit there have been a number of frustrating setbacks in the inquiry so far, but added that officers remain confident of cracking the case.

One said: ‘We live in an era when many people expect cases to be solved in a short period of time, like in an episode of CSI.

‘The inquiry is in capable hands. Through hard work and maybe a bit of luck, it will be solved.’

Police at the scene where the frozen body of the architect was discovered on Christmas Day

Police at the scene where the frozen body of the architect was discovered on Christmas Day

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