Behind the scenes the investigation into the murder of Joanne Yeates may be progressing smoothly and steadily. But to her friends and relatives, and to the hordes of journalists camped on the doorstep of her flat, it seems an eternity since December 28, when a pathologist confirmed that she had been killed.
Then, Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones declined to give any but the sparsest details. Questions were met with the non-committal “That is something we are looking at”.
Many of those present concluded that meant the police had an idea who had done it and it would be a matter of hours before an arrest was made.
They were right, up to a point. But by New Year’s Day Christopher Jefferies, Ms Yeates’s 65-year-old