Crossbow Cannibal police search 100 sites across Bradford

More on the Bradford killings, with video

Items found in the River Aire at Shipley, close to where the remains of 36-year-old Suzanne Blamires were discovered on Tuesday last week, were being examined as part of the inquiry into her murder and that of Susan Rushworth and Shelley Armitage, whose bodies have not been found.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said at least 40 detectives were involved with the case and officers were still carrying out detailed searches of the river, excavation sites around Bradford city centre and the flat of murder-accused Stephen Griffiths.

Griffiths, 40, who referred to himself in court as the "crossbow cannibal", has been charged with murdering Ms Blamires, Ms Rushworth, 43, and 31-year-old Ms Armitage, who all went missing in Bradford.

Today, police divers could be seen searching and removing items from the River Aire, while scenes of crime officers used wheelbarrows to remove material from the area around Griffiths flat.

Around 100 sites around the city were being searched, including roadworks dug up by utility companies.

The force spokesman said: "One of the areas being searched is just opposite the flat. It's all just part of the ongoing investigation."

On Friday, further remains were found a short distance from where the body parts were discovered but forensic tests later revealed they were animal and not human.

A suitcase containing tools was pulled out of the river over the weekend and has yet to be forensically tested as it has to have dried out fully.

Ms Rushworth's mother Christine Thompson, 72, was on holiday in Greece last week with her husband Barry, 72, and grandson James Rushworth, 24, when they learned police were treating the 43-year-old's disappearance as murder.

Mrs Thompson said she had always held a "glimmer of hope" her daughter, who was undergoing treatment for heroin addiction when she vanished in Bradford 11 months ago, would be found alive.

She told The Sun: "I don't know how I will cope without her. She was my best friend and like a sister to me. She was my world and it has been agony waiting to hear the news we all feared."

Griffiths, who was arrested on May 24, at his flat on the edge of Bradford's red-light district, is charged with murdering Ms Blamires between May 20 and May 25; murdering Ms Rushworth between June 22 2009 and May 25 this year, and murdering Ms Armitage between April 25 and May 25 this year.

Ms Blamires was last seen on Friday May 21, while Ms Armitage has been missing since Monday April 26, and Ms Rushworth disappeared on June 22 last year.

A psychology graduate who did postgraduate research in criminology at Bradford University, Griffiths lived in the flats for about 13 years. He attended the private Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Wakefield in his teens.

When he was asked for his name at Bradford Magistrates' Court on Friday, Griffiths replied: "The crossbow cannibal."

Asked for his address, the suspect, who was wearing a black shirt and navy blue jeans, replied: "Erm ... here I guess."

Griffiths will appear before Bradford Crown Court again on June 7 via video link from Wakefield Prison.