‘Second victim’ of Sian killer missing for years

Police were last night given an extra 24 hours to hold the 47-year-old suspect and said they had launched a painstaking search at a new location in Gloucestershire.

The move comes after officers confirmed Miss O’Callaghan’s body had been recovered from an area near the village of Uffington, 15 miles east of Swindon, Wiltshire.

Police investigating Miss O’Callaghan’s death were yesterday using mechanical diggers to excavate the corner of a field on the Oxfordshire-Gloucestershire border in their hunt for the second body. Around 15 officers and forensics experts are searching land at Baxter’s Farm, between the villages of Eastleach and Filkins.

They have removed part of a dry stone wall and have excavated two trenches in the corner of the field, where officers in protective clothing were on their hands and knees in the mud.

Det Chief Insp Sean Memory, who is leading the search, said officers had received “relatively specific” information from a man held in connection with 22-year old Miss O’Callaghan’s death but that nothing had yet been found.

He said: “We were given some indication of where there might be a find. Of course, it isn’t as simple as that. It was tricky last night in the dark. We will use as much light as we can and then decide what we will do when it gets dark.”

Det Supt Steve Fulcher, who is leading the double murder inquiry for Wiltshire Police, said there was “only one” outstanding missing person on the force’s records.

Officers said they had been searching a site in Northleach, across the county border. This followed information from the suspect, named locally as taxi driver Christopher Halliwell, who told them the locations of both Miss O’Callaghan’s and another victim’s body.

Det Supt Fulcher said: “Searches of that area continued through the night. It is a painstaking and slow process.”

In a frank admission, he later added: “We do not at this stage know what we are dealing with.

Describing the ongoing search for a second body, he added: “What I can say is that if there is one, it relates to an incident some years ago.”

He said officers had only one person registered as missing, but added: “It is not appropriate for me to reveal any detail.”

Chief Supt Steve Hedley, of Wiltshire Police, paid tribute to the public for its support after what has been a “very difficult week”.

Officers had been searching near the famous White Horse chalk figure in rural Oxfordshire after arresting Halliwell outside an Asda supermarket.

Police seized a green taxi which was seen early on Saturday when Miss O’Callaghan disappeared after leaving a nightclub in her home town of Swindon.

Officers began searching a home in the town’s Ashbury Avenue, setting up a white tent in the front garden of the semi-detached house. Specialist dog teams have been helping the search after mobile phone technology pinpointed several areas of interest in 4,500-acre Savernake Forest.

Miss O’Callaghan, an office administrator, was caught on closed circuit TV leaving the club, in Swindon’s Old Town area, after an evening out with girl friends.

She had sent a text message to her partner on the night of her disappearance, saying: “Where are you? x.”

Police revealed earlier this week that phone records put Miss O’Callaghan’s mobile somewhere in the forest 34 minutes after she left Suju nightclub at 2.52am on Saturday.

Post mortem examinations are ongoing on Miss O’Callaghan’s body, police said.

Officers refused to discuss reports that they had been in contact with colleagues in Somerset regarding the 1996 disappearance of Melanie Hall.

Avon and Somerset Police also had no comment.