POLICE are continuing to search the last address of missing Terry McSpadden after a man was arrested and bailed on suspicion of his murder.

Officers have this week been digging up the garden at Fir Tree Cottage in Outwell Road, Elm and clearing undergrowth in nearby ditches. Sniffer dogs have also been at the scene.

Police, who launched a cold case review earlier this year, now believe that Terry has been “unlawfully killed”. Terry has been missing since March 2007.

The 31-year-old arrested man from the Wisbech area is expected to remain on bail until the new year, pending further inquiries.

A new poster campaign launched by police contains an appeal for information from Terry’s distraught mother Helen Thrower.

She said: “Terry disappeared almost five years ago and as his mother I can say that a day doesn’t go by without him being in my thoughts.

“Now his two young children are of an age where they are asking where their Daddy is and I just don’t know what to tell them.

“My family needs answers because our lives are on hold. We simply need to know whether he is going to walk through the door but if he isn’t, then we need some form of closure.

“If you have any information about Terry’s disappearance, however small it may seem, please, please tell the police.”

Terry disappeared on the night of March 1, 2007, having spent the evening in the Locomotive Pub in the Wisbech.

He is believed to have visited Tesco before returning home. An electronic tag he was wearing at the time has never been found.

Anyone with information should contact the Operation Mobberley incident room on 01953 424520 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

LEADING the inquiry is Det Insp Marie James, who was at the property this week as officers continued their search.

She said: “We are still carrying out inquiries and search activities. If members of the public have any knowledge about what happened to Terry McSpadden, I would urge them to come forward and help us however insignificant they feel it might be. I will deploy an officer to speak to them.

“This massive amount of activity is likely to last a few more days at least. We will do a thorough search before we release the property.”

TONY Deacon, a cold case manager with Norfolk police, said: “Terry’s life was in Wisbech. He was a rascal and a character, but he is not the sort of man to disappear off the face of the earth.

“His two children were his world, so was his mother. Despite intensive inquiries, we have not found any trace to show he is alive.

“We know he was last seen alive in the early hours of March 2 2007; when he went with a friend to the Tesco store in Sandown Road, that is evidenced by CCTV. What we need to know is what happened to him thereafter.

“His family need closure and need to know what has come of him, whether bad or good, and we need to help them reach that point.”