Police investigating the life of serial killer Peter Tobin began searching the gardens of two properties today.
Specialist search teams arrived at addresses in Brighton where the triple murderer lived during the late 1980s.
Officers were using ground penetrating radar to discover if any bodies or evidence may be buried at the homes.
The search is part of a nationwide investigation, dubbed Anagram, to see if Tobin is responsible for any more murders.
Tobin, 63, was told last December he would die in jail after he was convicted of strangling 18-year-old Dinah McNicol.
The former church handyman was already serving life terms for the murders of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton and Angelika Kluk, 23.
Detectives said information led them to search the back gardens of housing association flats at 152 Marine Parade and two beauty shops with a flat above at 67 Station Road, Portslade.
They brought in members of the Home Office’s scientific support branch and officers from the Metropolitan Police.
They were supported by experts from Sussex Police and archaeologists from University College London.
A spokesman said substantial excavation would only take place if further evidence emerged that something may be buried in the gardens.
Police vowed to leave “no stone unturned” as they launched the operation into Tobin’s past.
The itinerant serial killer has lived in several towns and cities, including Glasgow, Brighton, East Sussex, Margate, Kent, and Havant, Hampshire.
Tobin lived in Brighton for 20 years from the late 1960s, including in an eight-bedroom house with a patio garden in Dyke Road.
Police said although several other addresses in Brighton were linked to Tobin they would not be searched.
Detectives discovered the remains of Vicky Hamilton and Dinah McNicol buried in the garden of a house in Margate, Kent, where Tobin moved to in March 1991.
Miss McNicol vanished in August 1991 while hitchhiking to her home in Tillingham, Essex, after leaving a music festival in Liphook, Hampshire.
Six months earlier, Vicky Hamilton disappeared while waiting for a bus close to Tobin’s then home in Bathgate, near Edinburgh.
In 2007 Tobin was convicted of killing Miss Kluk, a Polish student staying at a room in a Glasgow church, the previous year.
Police refused to confirm or deny if the searches were linked to the deaths of schoolgirls Karen Hadaway, 10, and Nicola Fellows, nine, in October 1986.
The case became known as the Babes in the Woods killings after they were found strangled in Wild Park, Brighton.
The spokesman said: “We are not prepared to divulge the nature of the information which has led to the gardens of these properties being searched and it would be inappropriate and insensitive to be drawn into speculation about missing individuals.”
The garden being searched in Station Road, Portslade, is behind two hair salons.
It is believed that Tobin ran a cafe in the shop which is now Essential Hair And Beauty, and lived in the flat upstairs.
Sharron Barlow, who runs the Scizzor Sisters barber’s shop next door, said she had only been there for about five years but was aware of the serial killer’s links to the property.
She said: “I turned up this morning and the police were waiting to talk to me.
“We’ve all read the story. I expected this a couple of years ago, but today was a bit of a surprise.”
The police did not tell her what intelligence had led them to the Station Road garden or which investigations the searches were connected to.
She said: “A couple of years ago, there were reports about some people that had gone missing around the Brighton area – that’s all I’m aware of.
“Obviously he lived here. Police are going to eliminate all the premises.”
Andy Winter, chief executive of the Brighton Housing Trust, said: “Our thoughts are at this time very much with the families who may be affected by this policing operation.
“The police have made it very clear that there is no link between Peter Tobin and the current residents of 152-154 Marine Parade. BHT acquired the property in 1991 and none of our residents were living in the block before that time.
“BHT’s priority today is to support the residents of our accommodation, and we are working closely with the police liaison officers involved in this case.”
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