20/20 Britain's Most Notorious Crime Investigations (2026) s01e02 Episode Script

1
[siren blaring]
[phone ringing tone]
[dispatcher] Go ahead, caller.
[man] Okay. Basically, I've gone away
for the weekend
and come back to find
my girlfriend's not here,
when she was expected to be
and all her important stuff
is still in the flat,
such as her wallet, her keys, her phone,
her glasses, everything.
[dispatcher] And what's her name, please?
[man] Joanna Yeates.
[keyboard clacking]
[woman] Joanna was a young,
attractive, blonde girl,
from a posh part of town,
and nobody has a clue where she is.
By the time
her boyfriend Greg reported her,
she'd already been missing
a couple of days.
Bearing in mind it was
really cold that winter,
she wouldn't just have
gone out without her coat,
without her bag, without her phone.
It was obvious that something was wrong.
Both Greg and Joanna's parents
were all really concerned.
[man] We know that Jo was last seen
on the 17th.
We're already behind the curve.
We've got a lot of catching up
to do as police.
[Thomas] So forensically,
we were losing evidence,
while time is ticking on.
[Barnston] We had teams retrieving CCTV.
So we know that
on the evening of the 17th,
Jo was drinking with friends in Bristol.
8:30, Jo had left Ram's bar to walk home.
[mysterious music playing]
[Barnston] We were able to establish
that she had gone
into two different supermarkets
and an off-licence to buy some cider.
[Thomas] Walking to a local Tesco's
and buying a pizza.
She's left the store with it.
She's gone home.
You know, perfectly normal scenario,
normal Christmas activities.
[Barnston] She was from a decent family,
decent professional background.
No history of mental health.
No history of drug abuse. A real mystery.
[Barnston] Inquiries conducted
into her disappearance were escalated,
so local house-to-house inquiries
were done quickly, actually,
after she'd gone missing.
There were a couple of different reports
from people that were spoken to
that they heard two distinct screams
in the area just before 9:00,
separated by a few seconds' silence.
Our gut feeling was that
she had come to some harm.
We made some inquiries
with the neighbours of Jo and Greg,
in the other basement flat
at Canning Road,
Vincent Tabak and his girlfriend Tanja.
With their permission,
I conducted a cursory search,
and they said they'd
heard about next door.
I gave them my contact details
and asked them, you know,
should they think of anything
that might be useful, to give me a ring.
And they let me know that
they were going back to Holland
for the Christmas holidays.
And that's how we left it.
Every missing person,
you look at any markers or red flags
that may be raised to arouse suspicion on.
[Thomas] So we speak to anybody that
has a relationship with that person.
[Brodie McAllister] When Jo went missing,
there was a sense of unease
that turned into mild panic.
I was teaching and subject group leader
at the university where she studied.
She was, at the time, also working
in architectural practice in Clifton.
Jo was tremendously friendly,
gregarious, engaging,
and she had a lovely circle of friends.
So she was really in her prime.
She was a really well-liked,
well-respected colleague, friend, partner.
[McAllister] She'd got a lovely boyfriend,
who was an architect.
And, in fact, he said at one time,
"This is the person I'm going to marry."
[Barnston] Greg was alibied quite quickly.
He was with family in Sheffield.
So it was easy to validate him.
It became very obvious, very quickly,
talking to friends, family and colleagues
that there was nothing sinister
going on in her life.
When you're looking for information
from the public,
using the media effectively
is really important.
And a decision was made
for the family to make an appeal.
You can put lots of cops
in front of cameras.
Nothing works like a family member.
[sobbing] It breaks me that
I wasn't there to hold her.
[exclaims] It's
[reporter] Do you believe
that Jo is alive?
I've got to believe that she's alive.
She had too much life in her.
When you see Jo's parents and Greg,
the emotion is so raw,
and they are so desperate
to have her back.
It must have been
incredibly difficult to do that.
[both groan and sigh]
[reporter] The abundance
of police officers
both in and around Jo's flat
give the sense that this
is a major crime scene.
This felt different as a missing person,
and the media were all over it.
[officer speaks indistinctly]
[Sejal Karia] It was completely chaotic.
There were camera crews,
there were reporters,
there were journalists.
There were just people everywhere.
The police are still
searching Joanna's flat.
On the night of her disappearance,
she arrived here
at around 8:45 in the evening,
having bought a pizza at a Tesco store.
When the flat is searched,
the receipt is found for that pizza,
but the pizza is missing.
[Thomas] It wasn't a robbery gone wrong,
because no valuables have been taken,
and yet there was a pizza missing.
Everyone was starting to think,
"Has whoever's taken the pizza taken Jo?"
[Thomas] Back in the incident room,
we were doing very, very long days.
We have no strong suspects.
It's Christmas Eve.
We're still no further forward.
We've got nothing.
[Karia] How can someone
just vanish into thin air?
It just didn't seem to make sense.
[choral music playing]
[bells tolling]
[newsreader 1] Forecasters are predicting
incredibly cold temperatures
around the UK over the next few days.
[newsreader 2] Some of us have had
a white Christmas, but for many,
it's been a bone-chilling cold start
to the course of Christmas Day.
In fact, if you've been to the outside,
you probably went back inside
for the extra layers
[Thomas] I was spending Christmas Day
in Warwickshire,
and I had a phone call
to say they found her.
A couple walking their dog
on Longwood Lane in Bristol
discovered a body.
It was the body of
a young woman that, you know,
fitted Joanna's age and description,
so it was clear to us all that, you know,
tragically, she had been murdered.
[Barnston] Right now we've come over
the suspension bridge,
from Jo's flat in Clifton.
We're now entering
a bit more of a rural part of Bristol.
And because it's more rural, it's quieter
and you're not gonna be disturbed.
We're now in Longwood Lane.
So this is where Jo's body was found.
You can see the flowers.
The green fence is a new addition.
That wasn't there before.
The wall wasn't so overgrown.
Her body was in this area, on the verge,
covered by leaves and then
covered eventually by snow.
From a murderer's perspective,
it's an excellent deposition site.
Other side of this wall
is an active quarry.
Someone had tried to lift her body over
and perhaps couldn't quite manage it
because of the angle and the weight.
And maybe headlights
disturbed the murderer
before they could get
the body over the wall,
or they couldn't manage it
and decided on this area.
[sinister music playing]
[Thomas] When you get the news that
Joanna's body has been found,
the whole dynamics
of the investigation changes.
[Barnston] The whole of Longwood Lane
is locked down as a scene.
It was painstakingly
protected and preserved,
to make sure we maximised
any forensic retrieval.
[Thomas] There was a lot of snow about,
so potential for footprints,
tyre tracks, all manner of things
that could suggest
how she came to be there
and potentially who put her there.
[Barnston] What do you do?
Do you wait for the snow to thaw out
before you start to do a thorough search?
Do you retrieve the snow in its entirety?
Getting that strategy
is absolutely fundamental to success.
The fire brigade were used eventually
to come in and lift the body.
They wanted to try and maximise
as much of the surrounding snow and leaves
that were covering the body as possible.
[reporter] On a bleak December afternoon,
it was an awful journey
for the family of Joanna Yeates.
[McAllister] When she was discovered,
to be honest,
it all still seemed so unlikely,
so I think there was
a real mix of emotions,
of disbelief, but realisation as well.
It's very upsetting.
A parent's worst nightmare.
[Barnston] Coming back here now
makes me think of Jo's parents.
This is where their baby girl was found.
As a father of a daughter,
you feel angry when you stand here,
but as a detective,
I wanted to catch this person
that's treated someone's daughter
in such a way
and put them away. Put them away for life.
[Phil Jones] The pathologist completed
his examination last night.
As a result of the findings
of the post-mortem,
we believe that Joanna's body
has been in the roadside verge
off Longwood Lane, Failand,
for several days before being discovered
on Christmas morning.
The cause of her death
was compression of the neck.
In other words, strangulation.
Everybody wanted to know
who could be responsible for her murder.
Thank you very much indeed.
[Karia] The police were under
huge amounts of pressure.
And they didn't seem
to have a suspect at this stage.
And I think that was
adding to the pressure.
I arranged to meet my cameraman
at Joanna's flat.
And what we were expecting
was that the police
were gonna lift off the door
and take it away for forensic testing.
And then I get a phone call
from my news editor saying
Sky News are reporting that the police
want to speak to the landlord.
Now, this is the most significant
piece of information we'd had in days.
I saw from the corner of my eye
this man who had just
stepped out of his car
walk towards the Sky News reporter.
And we rushed across.
And he was, at that moment in time,
talking to Chris Jeffries, the landlord.
Are you able to give us any detail
of what it was you told them?
I'm afraid not, no.
Anything that I have said
I have said to the police
and I'm not prepared to make
any comments to the media.
[reporter] So you didn't see her
that evening?
I certainly cannot say that I saw
Joanna Yeates that evening, no.
[reporter] Thank you very much.
[Karia] To many people,
Mr Jefferies seemed suspicious.
He came across as someone
who was described as eccentric,
strange, odd, weird.
[Evans] He was a teacher
at local Clifton College,
the prestigious school there.
Quite an eccentric character.
For many people, straight out
of central casting as a key suspect.
In the early days Christopher Jefferies
was treated as a witness,
because he could have
held key information.
[Barnston] He made a statement
to the police
regarding his movements that night,
and whether or not
he'd seen anybody in the garden,
and then made an additional statement
remembering that he had seen someone.
It is a serious distortion
of what I said to the police
and I have no further comment to make
because that is almost certain itself
to be distorted.
It was an inconsistency
that was focused on,
bearing in mind that we had no clues
as to what had happened to Jo.
[Evans] Most crimes are committed
by people who are close to the victim,
rather than a complete random stranger.
People started to seize
on the idea that perhaps
this guy knows more than he's letting on.
[Barnston] He said he stayed at home
reading that night.
He didn't have a TV,
so you couldn't validate what he may
have been watching to give a timeline.
He had the opportunity,
he had keys to her flat.
He's a fair suspect.
Good evening.
A retired head of English
at one of Britain's top fee-paying schools
has been arrested
on suspicion of murdering
the young landscape architect Jo Yeates.
During the investigation
there was very little information
coming out from the police.
[dramatic violin music playing]
That vacuum has to be filled.
There is an appetite from the public,
who desperately want answers.
[Jefferies] At that stage
I had absolutely no idea
that anything at all
had been appearing in the press.
[Evans] He came across as a bit odd,
and so people love to speculate about
what they think might have happened.
A lot of it is just so absurd
and just so viciously fictitious.
If the police think that they have
arrested the right person,
then no doubt the press think
that person is fair game.
When the police told me
that I was under arrest
on suspicion of the murder of Jo Yeates,
it was so totally unexpected
and such a shock
that it has a kind of numbing effect.
One feels just quite helpless.
[newsreader] After this morning's arrest,
two cars were taken away
from Christopher Jefferies' property.
[Jefferies] I didn't intend
to say nothing,
because I had nothing to say
that could possibly incriminate me.
My whole aim was to convince the police
that whatever was in their mind
could not be further from the truth.
[Barnston] Chris Jefferies' flat was then
subjected to intense scrutiny.
You're looking for fibres,
you're looking for blood,
you're looking for DNA, you're looking
for fingerprints, including the victim's.
[reporter] The continuing
forensic examination here and elsewhere
will be the key to solving this case.
The detectives are still waiting
for that vital bit of evidence.
[Barnston] About a day into the search,
they found a pair of trainers
in Chris' flat that appeared
to have blood on them.
And a lot of people thought,
"This is the missing piece.
"This is what's gonna solve the case."
[reporter] The search of this property
is likely to continue
right through the bank holiday weekend.
Its owner is facing a second night
in police custody.
By Monday morning,
officers will have to decide
whether to charge him or release him.
[mobile ringing]
[Thomas] 30th December I received
a phone call on my mobile,
and it was Tanja, Vincent Tabak's partner.
The neighbours of Jo and Greg.
They were in Holland for Christmas.
So, Vincent came on the phone
and told me that
Jefferies had moved his car overnight
at the time that Joanna went missing
on the 17th December.
Christopher Jefferies
is being interviewed.
His custody time clock is ticking.
So it was decided that we couldn't wait
for Vincent and Tanja to get back
from their Christmas break in Holland.
We needed his witness statement
as a matter of urgency.
[Barnston] It was thought prudent
to send Karen out to the Netherlands,
and she went out on New Year's Eve.
[Thomas] We've arranged to meet
with Vincent
at a hotel on the outskirts
of Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam.
So his sister had accompanied him
to the hotel.
We met them down in the lobby.
And he explained that
on the evening of the 17th
that Tanja was out at a Christmas party.
So he went out in his car,
[dramatic music playing]
to buy some beer and some crisps,
to a big Asda in an area of Bristol
called Bedminster.
We spoke about his movements
in quite a lot of detail.
He was very forthcoming.
He said that he'd parked in the car park
and he went into Asda in Bedminster.
Then he returned home and sat
and watched the TV, waiting for Tanja.
When he came back from Asda,
he said he saw Chris Jefferies' car
pointing in a certain direction.
And the following morning, he thought,
"Oh, it's changed direction.
"Mr Jefferies must have been out
doing something untoward
"and to do with Joanna."
If you speak to a lot of detectives,
gut feeling is a real, genuine feeling.
Why would you travel
to Asda in Bedminster,
which is quite a trek from where he lived,
when I knew there was a local Tesco's
just up the road within walking distance?
It seemed an odd journey to make.
I started to build an image in my mind
of a man that was hiding something
and was sitting in front of me
trying to basically stitch up
the guy that we had in custody.
And at that point
Vincent started asking me questions
around the forensics
of Jo and Greg's flat.
What sort of things
were the police looking for,
and what could that evidence
potentially tell the investigation?
But why did he need to know
what we might find at the flat
and how someone
might have left that evidence there?
They were questions
that didn't sit right with me.
He seemed quite concerned by it.
And he did actually offer to the fact
that he had been to Joanna's front door
and potentially knocked the door
and we might find his DNA there.
Which, again, I thought was quite bizarre,
'cause he's not mentioned this
in the house-to-house inquiries
or when I was searching
his flat initially.
He's not mentioned that
he's been and knocked on her door.
So that was another
massive red flag to me.
[suspenseful music playing]
Inside, my heart was
going 10 to the dozen.
I was sitting there thinking,
"This could be our guy.
"This could be our killer."
Vincent agreed that he would
give us elimination fingerprints,
elimination DNA and a photograph
up in the hotel room
that I was staying in.
[lift dings]
[Thomas] And that was standard. We were
doing that with all of the witnesses
that potentially had been
to Jo and Greg's flat.
[lift dings]
[Thomas] The whole time I'm thinking,
"What if he realises I suspect him?
"Am I in danger?
"And if he does do something,
what on earth do I do?"
And although I had his sister with us,
I didn't know his sister. I didn't know
what sort of person she was.
He potentially has murdered one girl.
[lock beeps]
So once we were into the hotel room,
I made sure that I stayed
nearest the door.
And then I asked for his DNA swab.
And he started to get twitchy.
His demeanour changed.
Why did I need his DNA?
And at this point,
his sister did say to him,
"What are you worried about?
Just give it."
[lift automated voice] Going down.
[Thomas] We went back downstairs
after all of that.
It was literally just midnight.
The fireworks were starting.
And we actually all wished each other
a happy new year.
The doors of the hotel closed, and I just
turned to my colleague and said,
"I think I've just waved goodbye
to a murderer."
[tense music playing]
[Thomas] I got back to the UK,
went straight to the boss' office
and said,
"Have you seen the statement from Tabak?"
I said, "Boss, don't you think
he's a suspect, potentially?"
I said, "Have you read his account?
It's odd."
And he said, "We've got
Christopher Jefferies in custody.
"We're concentrating on that.
Get out of my office."
The senior investigating officer
was thinking,
"I've got enough to deal with",
and in fairness there's stuff
coming from all different angles
and he's trying
to keep ahead of everything.
And so I just said to him,
"Boss, if you do nothing else,
please prioritise his DNA."
I was approached by Karen,
who seemed to be annoyed and frustrated.
She said to me,
"Rich, can you read the statement?"
And I got goosebumps.
That, for me, was massively impactive.
My job now was to play catch-up.
I found myself going back to the flat,
trying to get
into the mindset of a killer.
[thunder rumbles]
[dramatic music playing]
[Barnston] Testing
every possible scenario,
including any potential driving
from that premises
to the deposition site
where Jo's body was found.
What route would you have taken?
Trying to work out if there was CCTV
to be found that could
lead back to a suspect.
Someone's decided on that lane.
It wasn't just a random panic.
"I'm gonna dump the body anywhere."
It showed forethought.
This is someone that's quite smart.
He's quite calculating.
There's a dangerous killer on the loose.
[dramatic music crescendoes]
[Evans] The police had arrested
Chris Jefferies on suspicion of murder,
and journalists at the time
thought he was the only suspect
in the frame at that stage.
[Jefferies] I can't remember
how many interviews there were altogether,
but certainly they did mention
that there had been this call
from Vincent Tabak,
and I was able to explain
why the car had been moved.
The Sunday after Jo disappeared,
I needed to back my car out
of the parking area
at the rear of the house.
It was quite icy underfoot.
The wheels kept spinning.
So I knocked on Vincent Tabak's door
and said, "Would he mind
just pushing the car?"
"Yes, of course", he said.
"What are neighbours for? No problem."
I never thought there was a motive
for Christopher Jefferies
to have killed Jo.
Having said that,
we've sat with many people in custody
who we thought maybe are the wrong people
and they turn out to be the right people.
And so, as long as there were
the grounds to arrest him,
that decision was made
and it was justified.
The missing piece of the jigsaw
that people thought was going
to suggest that Chris was guilty
was a pair of trainers that appeared
to have blood on them.
It was not something that concerned me
because I knew that it certainly
wasn't blood from Jo Yeates.
[tense music playing]
It turned out to be cow's blood.
So that theory went out the window.
Chris was released on bail.
[Evans] There was a real sense
that the police
were struggling with this investigation,
slightly grasping at straws.
Were they ever gonna find the killer?
That must have been a really scary time
for people who lived in Bristol.
The police were telling women
not to walk alone after dark.
"There is a murderer on the loose
and we haven't caught him."
[Barnston] Behind the scenes,
the DNA profile
that Tabak had volunteered, reluctantly,
was being worked on and then
being compared with Jo's swabs,
swabs taken from her body.
Tabak and Tanja returned
to the UK in the new year.
There is now an increasing level
of suspicion being put on him.
Is he going to commit another murder?
We were now going to at last arrest Tabak.
[reporter] The arrest happened within
a short walk of Jo's Clifton home.
By lunchtime today, it was sealed off
and forensics officers were once again
searching for evidence.
[Evans] There's a huge amount
of work going on
to try and learn as much
as we can about this guy.
So one of my colleagues flew to Holland
to try and speak to friends of his,
colleagues, associates.
He'd studied at university in Holland
and had done a PHD.
He had been in the UK since 2008.
He worked in Bath at a design company.
He was friendly, quiet, slightly awkward,
but a nice guy.
Nothing in his background or his character
that would point to him being a killer.
It's a close family
and they cannot imagine such a thing.
So, they are very convinced
that this will come to a good end.
Vincent Tabak was arrested,
yet Mr Jefferies remained on bail.
[Jefferies] They thought that there
might have been some sort of liaison
between myself and Vincent Tabak.
There was suspicion, there was conjecture
that was circulating
absolutely everywhere.
[Barnston] I was called in by
the senior investigating officer
to be told that I was
to be the interviewer,
lead interviewer for the murder.
We knew that we had a decent suspect
in Vincent Tabak to question,
so I relished the opportunity
to do a proper job for Jo's family.
My reaction was "Here we go again.
"The police have made
another wrong arrest,
"and before too long they'll be
discovering that, as in my case."
[Evans] They can't really afford
to arrest a second guy
and release him on bail.
People are gonna start
questioning their competence
and whether or not they really
have got a clue of what's going on.
[machine beeps]
[Barnston] There was a lot of pressure
to get a result.
When I first met Tabak,
he presented as frightened.
Confused. Bewildered, almost.
However, there were subtle things
that Vincent did
that seemed to be able
to be switched on and off.
We got a prepared statement from Tabak,
who said words to the effect of
"I knew who she was. I'd never met her.
"It's a really sad case.
I wish I could help you."
Importantly, he denied
ever having met Jo before.
He then essentially answered "No comment"
to every single question
for the next two days.
So all the time that I was
with Tabak in custody,
there was forensic work
going on in the background.
That included work on his motor vehicle.
Work on computers recovered from his flat.
He'd made so many searches on his laptop.
That was hugely significant.
Why would you be researching
"How long does a body take
to decompose in the snow?"
Why was he looking at street maps
of Longwood Lane?
The fact that he was
probably intending to get
the body over a wall into a quarry
showed that plan and prep.
Why was he researching
"refuse collection in Clifton"?
It was a very strange selection
of Internet searches.
But more concerning was
his propensity for watching porn,
and quite violent porn,
including strangulation and choking.
I mean, wow. This was massive.
[Evans] As time went on,
the sense that we were getting
was that this was
a very significant development
and that there was every chance
that Avon and Somerset Police
had got their man.
[Barnston] Every murder
that's investigated,
the forensic side of that part
of the investigation is crucial.
[Thomas] The forensic coordinator
had approached me
and basically just said to me,
"We've got a hit."
[dramatic music playing]
[Barnston] Tabak's DNA
was found on Jo's body.
Back of her jeans, on her breast area.
That forensic evidence is damning.
We had him.
I was like, "Thank God.
My gut feeling was right."
[Barnston] We were heading now towards
the final stages of the interview.
We started to go through
what's called a challenge phase.
"You've said
you've never met Joanna Yeates.
"We've got your DNA on her breast area
and on the back of her jeans.
"How do you account for that?"
He couldn't carry on this act any more.
He couldn't pretend
that he'd never met her.
He now had to justify it.
He looked shattered. He looked broken.
The game was up for Tabak.
[reporter] Dozens of cameras
outside court this morning,
all trying to get a glimpse
of Vincent Tabak.
[sombre music playing]
[Barnston] So Tabak wanted to plead
not guilty of murder.
He stated that
he misread signals from her,
that she had made
a flirtatious comment to him.
Whether it was intended,
he certainly knew
that he was strangling someone,
and he didn't have the guts
to admit that he'd gone there
and he wanted to kill her.
And he did kill her.
[reporter]
They did not have to come today,
but Joanna Yeates' parents went into court
knowing they were to hear, in detail,
about the final moments of Joanna's life
and then her death.
[Barnston] I believe,
on the evening that Jo was killed,
Tabak went to her flat
for a sexual motive.
I think that Jo resisted his advances.
Tabak's murdered Jo in the flat.
My theory is,
the pizza that's disappeared
I think he was that callous and systematic
and calm following her death
that he took the time to finish that meal,
before disposing of all evidence,
including Jo.
He's then carried her lifeless body
to the boot of his car.
He stopped off at Asda in Bedminster.
He gives himself a clear alibi.
He's got the body of Jo in the boot
of his car as he's walking around Asda.
The route that he's taken is to avoid
the Clifton Suspension Bridge,
which is full of CCTV.
Transports her eventually
to Longwood Lane,
before depositing her body
and driving back home,
pretending nothing has happened.
He can present a personality
that even those that closest to him
didn't see through and were shocked by.
l think that's extremely scary.
I think he's a very scary man.
[Barnston] At the conclusion
of the court case,
I just happened to bump into Jo's dad,
David Yeates, when he was leaving court.
And he came up and shook my hand.
That's worth a lot.
We took longer than we should have
to have finally caught Vincent Tabak.
I think there's always a danger
in investigations
that officers can become fixated
on who they think might be a suspect
and want the evidence to fit that.
The sad thing for me is
that in amongst all of this frenzy
with the press and Christopher Jefferies,
Jo got completely lost in the whole thing.
[Jefferies] As soon as I was arrested,
she was, I think,
largely forgotten about by the press.
The whole experience did have
quite a powerful emotional impact
on me at the time.
I remember saying,
"Somebody has got to be sued for this."
[McAllister] I designed
a remembrance card for Jo
quite near to where she lived.
She should be remembered as
a bubbly, talented, genuine person
that a lot of people loved,
and someone who had enough talents
to go anywhere she wanted in life.
[poignant music playing]