Police dig killer’s garden in search for more victims
POLICE forensic officers are conducting a new search at the former home of a double killer amid fears he may have murdered other victims.
Experts were believed to be digging in the gardens and examining garages at two houses in the road where jailed cab driver Christopher Halliwell, 53, once lived.
White tents and black tarpaulins had been erected in “intelligence-led activity” in Swindon, Wiltshire, and teams wearing protective suits were seen carrying equipment.
Senior police said that at this stage they had no plans to search the house where Halliwell and his ex-wife Lisa lived from 1997 to 2001.
They also stressed the search was nothing to do with the current occupants.
Halliwell was handed a rare whole-life order – meaning he will never be released from prison – last year after being convicted of the murder of Becky Godden, 20, in 2003.
He was already serving life Double killer Halliwell for the killing of office worker Sian O’Callaghan, 22, who he abducted as she walked home from a Swindon nightclub in 2011. After sentence was passed on Halliwell at Bristol Crown Court, police highlighted the eight-year gap between his crimes. They said there was a “distinct possibility” the father of three – who had boasted of a desire to be a serial killer as long ago as 1985 – had murdered other victims whose bodies have not yet been discovered. One neighbour, who described the street as normally quiet, said the occupants of the house had often changed. A local shopkeeper who remembered Halliwell added: “I used to work in a petrol station and he would come in to buy diesel. He was quiet, normal.” Wiltshire Police said: “Work at the addresses is expected to last for five days. This activity is part of an ongoing investigation.”