“IT is just so quiet without her.”

They are the devastated words of Jo Yeates’ grieving mum as the hunt continued today to find her murderer.

Overcome with emotion, Theresa Yeates wept as she told how she was just wishing her daughter would walk through the door.

But instead she is living the nightmare reality that landscape architect Jo, 25, will never return home – and her killer is still at large.

Speaking at her home in Ampfield, near Romsey, Theresa, 58, told the Daily Echo: “She just had this joy and vibrancy, even though she didn’t live here. I am sat in the kitchen just wanting her to come through the door. It is just so quiet here without her.”

Theresa spoke as detectives yesterday revealed further details about the investigation but said they could still not be sure where and when Jo was killed.

And they haven’t ruled out the possibility that more than one person was involved in her death.

Det Chief Insp Phil Jones said he was now sure that Jo had made it home to her flat in the Clifton area of Bristol following a night out with friends but central to the “painstaking” murder investigation were three points: n Was someone waiting for her inside?

n Did she let someone in to her flat?

n Did someone break in?

New details of a light-coloured 4x4 car seen near to where Jo’s body was found on Christmas Day which police are keen to trace, were also released.

They say the vehicle was seen close to where dog walkers found Jo’s frozen body and it was spotted around the time the former pupil of Embley Park School in Romsey and Sherborne House, Chandler’s Ford, went missing. Police also said there was no evidence that Jo had been sexually assaulted, however they were not ruling out a sexual motive for her death.

A team of 70 officers are now working on the investigation with some 900 lines of enquiry that have been generated – 239 of which have been deemed as a high priority in the hunt for the killer.

Det Ch Insp Jones said some 100 hours of CCTV footage had also been scanned and further material from cameras in and around Bristol was still being looked at.

However so far the mysterious pizza which Jo can be seen buying on CCTV in a shop shortly before she disappeared is yet to be found.

Police say 293 tonnes of rubbish collected in and around the area are being scoured while detailed tests are yet to be completed to determine if Jo had in fact eaten the food before she was killed. The fresh appeal from police came just 24 hours after they issued a warning to women not to walk home alone after dark as they acknowledged the level of alarm within the local community following the discovery of Jo’s snow-covered body in Failand, north Somerset, on Christmas Day. She had been strangled.

Jo’s landlord Chris Jefferies, a 65-year-old retired teacher and member of the local neighbourhood watch group, remains a suspect having been released on police bail on Saturday pending further enquiries.

Det Ch Insp Jones said: “The team and I have been working tirelessly to analyse information from witnesses and the public.

“We are carrying out painstaking, detailed forensic analysis of her flat and the outcomes from this could take a considerable length of time, despite prioritising and working closely with all our forensic service providers.

“I am satisfied that Jo got back to her flat but I’m not able to speculate whether she let somebody into the flat, whether somebody was already in there or whether someone broke into the flat.

“At this time I cannot say where or when Jo was killed, or when her body was left on Longwood Lane.”