Missing Joanna Yeates: Similarities to Melanie murder are frightening - Mirror.co.uk

The discovery of what is believed to be Joanna Yeates' body draws chilling comparisons to the unsolved murder of Melanie Hall 14 years ago.

Similarities between the two cases are striking. Both were happy young professionals with everything to live for... and their disappearances baffled friends and family.

Melanie vanished in June 1996 after an argument with her boyfriend in a nightclub in Bath - 15 miles from the scene of Joanne's suspected abduction.

Despite a huge police operation, it wasn't until last October when a workman found parts of Melanie's skeleton hidden in plastic bags.

The gruesome discovery was made at Junction 14 of the M5 near Thornbury, Gloucestershire.

Several arrests were made, but no one has ever been brought to justice for Melanie's murder.

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Both women were aged 25 at the time they went missing. Jo was a landscape architect and Melanie a hospital clerical worker.

They also looked similar - both 5ft 4ins, slim, pretty with blonde, bobbed hair.

Jo disappeared after drinks with friends at the Bristol Ram pub in Bristol, Melanie after a night in Cadillacs nightclub, Bath.

In the days after they vanished, Jo and Melanie's parents each gave very moving - and similar - statements indicating how the disappearances were totally out of character.

Melanie's mum Patricia said at the time: "Melanie is a home-loving, responsible girl.

"We can't understand what's happened to her."

There are also close links to missing Claudia Lawrence, 35, who vanished on March 18 last year. She was last seen near her home in Heworth, York, as she returned from her job as a chef at the University of York.