The father of murdered architect Joanna Yeates today said he was "relieved" to be reunited with her body and is now living in hope that her killer will be caught.

Speaking home in Ampfield, a tearful David Yeates said: "I fear that whoever has done this will never hand themselves in but we live in hope that the police will catch who is responsible.

"We are sure the police know more about what happened than they are telling us but at the moment we are not questioning them because we feel they are doing their best."

Mr Yeates was speaking after police revealed that they had launched a murder investigation after a post mortem revealed his daughter had been strangled.

"Hearing Jo had been murdered was not a surprise because we had been told to prepare for the worst.

"Since hearing about her death all sorts of things have been running through our mind and we are trying to rationalise what has happened.

"Last week was the worst of our lives and we are hoping that we will never have to go through anything like this again."

He added: "Things were made just that little bit less terrible when we saw Jo's body yesterday.

"It was a relief to see her again - we just said: 'Welcome back.'"

Mr Yeates said the family were keen to make arrangements for Joanna's funeral but they had been informed by the police that her body was unlikely to be released "for a while".

Landscape architect Jo, was found dead on a grass verge on Christmas morning.

The 25-year-old died as a result of ''compression of the neck'' Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones, who is leading the investigation, said today.