Among the text messages or comments to friends or colleagues, this stood out for me:
rupertevelynRupert Evelyn
"Dreading the weekend because it was first time she was left alone" Jo Yeates told colleague Elisabeth Chandler
It set me thinking. From this and some of the other comments coming out today (she seemed bored; she seemed at a loose end; in Clifton ville on my todd! etc), it looks as if Joanna was, at the least, concerned about being on her own that weekend. That could have been because she feared the separation and loneliness of being without her fiance or it might have been that she was actually frightened of being on her own at home: dreading is a strong word.
It is also significant that she did not actually say it in her texts or comments to her male work colleagues or friends but only to this one female colleague. I read in another report somewhere this morning (cannot remember where, or find it now) that that message was to her best friend - suggesting a secret nagging anxiety she had that she would not voice to the general circle of friends but only to her closest one. If Joanna was in an anxious, worried, even agitated, state of mind about being safe on her own in the flat that weekend, it could make her vulnerable and open up a number of possibilities as to how she might have acted or reacted when she got home. Was she spooked by something or someone she saw, or reacted uncharacteristically in a panic-stricken way to an approach or a noise or a voice, was she anxious about the cat and keen to find it for the companionship or did she even seek some help or contact in the immediate neighbourhood because of her fear?