Detectives retrace Joanna Yeates's last steps

Detectives investigating the murder of Joanna Yeates have retraced the steps she took three weeks after she was last seen alive in a bid to catch her killer.

Plainclothed and uniformed officers launched a high-profile operation last night in a bid to speak to anyone who may have seen the route the 25-year-old took on the evening of December 17.

They spoke to customers in the pub where Miss Yeates went for a Christmas drink, talked to people in the streets close to her Bristol home and stopped cars where her body was found.

After leaving work the landscape architect went to the Ram pub in Bristol city centre with her colleagues from BDP.

Three weeks on, detectives spent two-and-a-half hours at the popular Park Street nightspot talking to customers to see whether they were also in the pub the same night as Miss Yeates and saw anything suspicious.

They also put up posters inside the premises appealing for information in the hope of jogging people's memories.

Miss Yeates spent around two hours socialising with her colleagues before leaving at around 8pm to make the 30 minute walk home to the ground floor flat in Canynge Road, Clifton, that she shared with her boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27.

She was caught on CCTV in a Waitrose supermarket at the Clifton Triangle and then went to a Tesco Express in Clifton village where she bought a pizza.

Detectives said Miss Yeates had made it home because her shoes, coat, mobile phone, purse and keys were found there - although the pizza, the wrapping and its box are still missing.

Both uniformed and plainclothed officers were in Canynge Road and surrounding streets to speak to people that may have been there as university graduate made her way home that night.

They were there between 8pm and 10pm and spoke to pedestrians and stopped motorists whose routines took them through the area.

Police also went to Longland Lane, in Failand, North Somerset, where Miss Yeates' snow-covered remains were found on Christmas morning.

It is not known exactly when Miss Yeates' body was dumped in a country lane three miles from her home and police would only say she had been there for "several days".

For four hours in Longland Lane, between 8.30pm and 12.30am, police spoke to motorists to identify any further witnesses that could help the investigation.

Avon and Somerset Police chose the three locations because they believe it could help identify further witnesses.

The operation was taking place partly because last night was the first Friday since Miss Yeates went missing that people's routines would be back to normal following Christmas and New Year festivities.