Police investigating the murder of 22-year-old Sian O'Callaghan admitted they were "stepping into the unknown" as they searched a field for a second body.
Officers said the excavation of the farmer's field in Gloucestershire was likely to be a painstaking process that could take several days. Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, who is leading the inquiry, said: "Until that has been completed we will not know what we are dealing with."
Detectives from around the country are liaising with Wiltshire police over possible links to unsolved crimes or missing people from their region. They are known to include Avon and Somerset officers investigating the murder of Melanie Hall, who vanished from a Bath nightclub in 1996. Police have also spoken to organisations that help publicise cases of missing people.
O'Callaghan went missing after leaving a nightclub in Swindon early last Saturday. She was found near Uffington in Oxfordshire, 12 miles east of Swindon, on Thursday after a man arrested on suspicion of her kidnap led police to the site. Fulcher said her body was undergoing a postmortem examination.
The man also led the officers to the farmer's field at Eastleach, Gloucestershire, about 15 miles north of Swindon.
Police would not give details about the possible identity of any body at Eastleach. They said only that it was thought to be that of an adult and they believed the case went back "several years".
Fulcher said there was only one outstanding missing person in the Wiltshire force's jurisdiction from that time, whom he did not name. Police later clarified that this did not mean that this was the person possibly buried in the field. Sources also pointed out that they could not be sure that there was a body at the site.
Local murder cases in which no body has been found include that of college worker Linda Razzell, 41, who vanished from Swindon in 2002. Her husband, Glyn, was convicted of her killing but protests his innocence. Razzell's family said police had not been in touch.
The body of retired teacher Kate Prout has never been found after she went missing from a Gloucestershire farm in 2007. Her husband, Adrian, was found guilty of her murder last year but also insists he is innocent.
The only Wiltshire person listed as missing on the Missing People website is a 53-year-old man called Anthony Fryer, who vanished from Swindon in 2005.
Though Hall's body was found in 2009, sources at Avon and Somerset police confirmed that detectives involved in the case were looking at any possible links with her murder. The force already works with Wiltshire police in a major crime investigation unit called Brunel, so both forces would be involved in the O'Callaghan investigation as a matter of course.
Detective Superintendent Mike Courtiour, of Avon and Somerset police, is the head of Brunel and the lead on Melanie Hall. A source said: "He would naturally be looking at the possibility of any links."
At a press conference Fulcher outlined events leading to the arrest of the man now in custody on suspicion of kidnapping and murdering O'Callaghan. He described how CCTV footage and analysis of O'Callaghan's mobile phone indicated that she had left the Suju nightclub at 2.52am last Saturday and 32 minutes later was in Savernake forest, near Marlborough, around 12 miles south of Swindon.
CCTV footage also established that a green Toyota Avensis was near the club at the relevant time. Further analysis enabled officers to identify the registration of the vehicle. "I believed that it was likely that Sian had been abducted and taken away in this vehicle," said Fulcher.
He said police had concentrated on searching the forest and finding the Avensis and the driver.
A man – named locally as taxi driver Chris Halliwell – was arrested in an Asda car park in Swindon on Thursday and a green Toyota Avensis towed away. He was initially arrested on suspicion of kidnap. But Fulcher said: "He led me to two locations, one near Uffington, where we discovered the body of a woman who we believe is Sian, and also to another location where we believe that a second body may be."
Fulcher said he believed O'Callaghan's body had been moved to the spot where it was found.
A house in Swindon continued to be searched and officers removed items including two spades.
The suspect was being held at Gablecross police station near Swindon. He was taken to the town's magistrates court, where police asked for extra time to question him. A police spokeswoman said: "A 24-hour extension of detention was granted and the man remains in custody at Gablecross police station."
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