Police search the area where Joanna Yeates's body was discovered, at the edge of Longwood Lane in Bristol, on Christmas morning. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Police have confirmed that a woman's body found at a roadside verge near Bristol yesterday was that of the missing landscape architect Joanna Yeates. Officers said they were treating the death as "suspicious" and continued to search the area where the body was found, three miles from Yeates's flat in Clifton. A postmortem is taking place today but the results are not expected to be known until tomorrow because of the freezing conditions in which the body was found.

An Avon and Somerset police spokesman said: "While a formal identification procedure is yet to be completed, police are satisfied that the body is that of 25-year-old landscape architect Joanna Yeates, who went missing during the weekend before Christmas."

Yeates had not been seen or heard from following an evening out with colleagues in Bristol. Her boyfriend Greg Reardon, 27, reported her missing two days later after returning home to their flat from a weekend visiting his family in Sheffield, to find her keys, telephone, handbag and coat but no sign of Yeates.

The police spokesman said: "A postmortem examination has been taking place in Bristol today. However, because of the extreme freezing conditions in which Joanna's body was found, it is unlikely that any findings from this will be known until tomorrow (Monday) at the earliest."

"Officers are, however, treating Joanna's death as suspicious at this stage but will not be able to discuss this further until the results of the postmortem are known. The police are once again appealing for information, in particular to help fill in the gap between Joanna's disappearance and the discovery of her body."

A couple walking their dogs found the body on Longwood Lane in Failand, three miles west of Yeates's flat. The spokesman added: "Officers are keen to hear from people who may have seen anything or anyone acting suspiciously over the past week in the Longwood Lane area.

"Police are expected to be continuing their fingertip search in the Longwood Lane area throughout today and possibly longer." Chief Superintendent Jon Stratford said: "Our heartfelt condolences go out to Joanna's family for their loss. We have not stopped working hard throughout the Christmas period to find their daughter after she was reported missing."

"Now we will work just as hard to discover exactly what happened to her and how she came to be in Longwood Lane on Christmas morning.

"Until the postmortem examination is able to firmly establish how Joanna died, we are keeping an open mind about the cause of her death. However, I would appeal to anyone with any information whatsoever that can help this investigation to please come forward and help us provide Joanna's parents with the answers they so desperately want and need."

Her family and Reardon made emotional appeals for information about her, but came to believe she had been abducted.

Yeates was last seen leaving the Ram pub in Park Street, near Bristol city centre, at about 8pm on 17 December. She shopped in Waitrose on the way

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