LONDON, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- British police investigating the unsolved 1986 murder of estate agent Suzy Lamplugh began digging up a garden on Tuesday, local media reported.

Lamplugh was 25 years old when she went missing after leaving her west London offices to meet a mystery client known only as Mr. Kipper to show two houses in Fulham in southwestern London.

Despite a huge police investigation, no one was convicted over her death. In 1994, she was officially declared dead, presumed murdered.

At present, detectives from the London police's cold case homicide team have launched a search at the former home of prime suspect John Cannan's mother in the West Midlands. It follows a tip that her body is buried in the back garden.

On the day of her disappearance, witnesses reported seeing Lamplugh arguing with a man outside a property in Fulham. Her white Ford Fiesta was later found just over a mile away.

Three days earlier, Cannan had been released from a hostel at Wormwood Scrubs prison, where he had been serving a six-year sentence for rape.

He bore a strong resemblance to an electronic facial identification technique (e-fit) of the suspected abductor, according to press reports.

Three forensic tents were erected in the garden and blue sheeting covered what is believed to be the site of a garage built over a concrete base.