The investigation into whether notorious double killer John Patrick Sweeney also murdered a Fife woman has yet to throw up a fresh lead, detectives have admitted.
Detectives who travelled to Scotland as part of their investigation told The Courier it was “disappointing” no one had yet come forward with information.
However, investigators have not given up hope and made a fresh appeal for anyone who can help with inquiries to get in touch.
They are also standing by their belief that Sweeney, dubbed the Scalp Hunter, has killed others.
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) homicide and serious crime command said: “I’m amazed no one has come forward. I’m struggling to come up with an answer.
“We deliberately saturated the media and even had the DCI interviewed on the national news. Unfortunately, we’ve yet to receive any new information.
“The only small hope is that it could be months before someone decides to come forward. They maybe want to wait for it all to die down a bit.
“My message to anyone in that situation would be, ‘Don’t be afraid to speak to us’. If you would prefer to speak to us anonymously, then we can do that.
“We also wouldn’t mind if someone preferred to contact a newspaper like The Courier with information instead.”
Sweeney, from Liverpool, was convicted in April 2011 of butchering two women and dumping their body parts in canals. He was jailed for life in 2002 for attempting to murder another ex-girlfriend.
As reported in The Courier, officers from the MPS homicide and serious crime command are now seeking the whereabouts of a Fife woman who is believed to have been the girlfriend of Sweeney in the mid-1980s.
DCI Howard Groves, in charge of the investigation, said: “Sweeney is believed to have gone out with this woman, who was possibly called Fiona and shared a house with her and others in Hornsey Park Road, North London, in 1985.
“She may have originally been from the Fife area in Scotland, possibly Burntisland, and her father or other family member had links to the prison service in Scotland.
“It is also believed that whilst in London, she was with another woman who may also have been Scottish.”
In April 2011 Sweeney, then aged 54, was told he would die in jail after being given a whole-life sentence at the Old Bailey for murdering former girlfriends Paula Fields and Melissa Halstead.
Their dismembered bodies were discovered a decade apart in England and Holland, and police now fear other missing women may have suffered the same terrible fate.
They have been investigating the whereabouts of three other former girlfriends as part of investigations.
Carpenter Sweeney boasted of his violence in lurid paintings and verses found at his home. In one picture, showing a bloody axe, he called himself the Scalp Hunter.
Anyone with information about “Fiona”, or who knows of any person who fits this description, of their current whereabouts or of any details that may help the inquiry, is asked to contact the incident room at Barnes Green Police Station on 0208 247 7821.
Alternatively, information can be left anonymously via Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Fife Constabulary have said they have no reports of any missing Fife women of that name from that era.