Detectives searching gardens linked to the convicted serial killer Peter Tobin have promised murder victims’ families today that they will not give up on their quest until they have exhausted all possible lines of inquiry.

Teams of police officers and archaeologists descended on two properties in Brighton, East Sussex, yesterday with ground-penetrating radar and shovels.

They were searching for bodies or other evidence left by the 63-year-old when he lived at the addresses in the 1980s.

The move marked a dramatic escalation in an inquiry, dubbed Anagram, focusing on Tobin’s lifetime of crime and violence.

Police believe Tobin killed more victims as he lived across Britain under different names and trawled the motorways for vulnerable female hitch-hikers.

Tobin was told last December he would die in jail after he was convicted of strangling 18-year-old Dinah McNicol. He was already serving life terms for the murders of 15-year-old Vicky Hamilton and Angelika Kluk, 23.

Det Ch Insp Nick Sloan, of Sussex Police, said of the searches: “Tobin was fairly active at those addresses at those times. As long as there are lines of inquiry, we will continue. We have to consider the families of those who may have been his victims and it is imperative they find closure.”

Police said searches behind flats in Marine Parade, Brighton, and a hairdressing salon in Station Road, Portslade, may continue for a month. The Station Road hairdressing salons were once a cafe, Ye Olde Tea-room, run by Tobin in 1988 with his future wife, Cathy Wilson, and their baby son.

Neighbours recall Tobin doing a substantial amount of DIY. Investigators said they would also like to speak to the previous tenants of 67 and 67a Station Road, Portslade.

Marine Parade is now a housing association block of flats; Tobin was caretaker there when it was the Seafront Hotel in the 1980s.