Landlord Arrested on Suspicion of British Architect's Murder

LONDON -- British police investigating the death of landscape architect Joanna Yeates have arrested her landlord on suspicion of murder.

Chris Jefferies, 65, lives in the same Victorian apartment block in Bristol where Yeates and her boyfriend lived. He has not been charged with any crime.

The arrest came just hours after police reported that Jefferies had told them he thought he had seen Yeates leave her apartment with two strangers on the night of her disappearance. The 25-year-old's snow-covered body was found eight days later on Christmas morning by a couple walking their dogs in the countryside west of Bristol.

A postmortem examination revealed that she had been strangled.

Yeates' family said they were pleased with the progress made by detectives.

"At this time our focus is still with Jo," her father David told reporters. "At the end of the day, obviously I'm not happy because my daughter is still dead. But we are pleased the police have made an arrest, as they have been working very hard to make progress in this case."

Jefferies is now being held at a police station in Bristol, and two of his cars -- a silver Chrysler and a gray Volvo S40 -- have been removed for forensic testing, the BBC reported.

Reportedly, the retired English teacher, who serves as a neighborhood watch coordinator in the area, previously told police that he saw three people, one of whom he thought was Yeates, walk out of the converted Victorian house around 9 p.m. Dec. 17. Her boyfriend, Greg Reardon, 27, reported her missing two days later when he returned home from visiting family in the north of England.

When confronted by reporters about his alleged sighting, Jefferies denied making the comments.

"It is a serious distortion of what I said to the police, and I have no further comment to make, as that, no doubt, will be distorted," he told reporters, according to the London Times. "I definitely cannot say that I saw Joanna Yeates that evening. No."

Residents of the block reported that Jefferies told them he had seen several people emerge from the house on Dec. 17.

"I don't think he was really paying any attention but just assumed they were from ... Joanna's flat," said neighbor Geoffrey Hardyman, 78, according to The Sun. "He didn't know if they were male or female. It was after about 9 p.m., and he thought they must have been her with friends or just friends of hers."

Liz Lowman, who lives in a house across the street, said Jefferies also mentioned his sighting to her.

"He said he saw two to three people leave the communal basement flat entrance talking in mild, quiet tones," she said, according to the Daily Mail. "He does not know what sex they were or if Joanna was among them."

Police have been pursuing numerous lines of inquiry, including the possibility that Yeates knew her killer. Forensic examiners have found no evidence of a forced entry or struggle at the flat. Boyfriend Reardon reported finding her keys, mobile phone, purse, bank cards and coat in the flat when he returned home Dec. 29.

The couple had just moved into the property, in November.

Jefferies retired as an English teacher at nearby Clifton College -- which costs $43,000 a year to attend -- in 2001 after several decades working at the boarding school. James Harris, a former pupil, wrote on a social-networking site that "Jo Yeates's landlord was my English teacher at school 20 years ago. He was very flamboyant and had blue hair at the time," The Telegraph reported.

In an article written for the private school's alumni magazine, former pupil Stuart Delves described Jefferies and his fellow English teachers as "paramours of literature" and "profound catalysts." Delves wrote that Jefferies "pronounced interesting places in interesting ways and illuminated [19th-century romantic poet] Christina Rossetti for us."