Detectives probing the murder of a young art student checked the DNA of serial killer Peter Tobin in a bid to find links to him.
Jessie Earl disappeared in 1980 after leaving her bedsit in Eastbourne, Sussex.
The 22-year-old’s body was found nine years later in undergrowth at nearby Beachy Head.
A new inquest, which opened this week, heard DNA from Jessie’s parents had been used to check against samples from Tobin, who is serving three life sentences for murdering young women.
A 1989 inquest into her death recorded an open verdict but John and Valerie Earl spent years trying to overturn its finding.
Their daughter’s death was declared a murder by Sussex Police in 2000, and John and Valerie have voiced fears Tobin, who was living in Eastbourne when she was killed, was responsible.
Emma Heater, the former head of Surrey and Sussex major crime team, said yesterday that Earl
family DNA has been checked against samples from Tobin.
She added that the police probe had been inadequate but said “there was no cover up or anything like that”.
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