Saint-Julien-Le-Montagnier, France - French police and sniffer dogs scoured a patch of rocky woodland near this picturesque southern village on Wednesday, hunting for clues to the fate of three missing sex workers.
Officers brought with them Patrick Salameh, 51, a convicted armed robber now detained in relation to the disappearance of two Marseille women - a Ukrainian and an Algerian - and suspected of kidnapping a third, a Romanian.
"These are most urgent investigations on land belonging to the suspect and his family," said Marseille prosecutor Jacques Dallest, who was also at the scene, along with investigating magistrates.
In parallel to the hunt in the hills of Provence, police forensic scientists were carrying out tests on traces of DNA found in Salameh's apartment in nearby Marseille, along with personal effects belonging to two of the missing women.
According to the newspaper Nice-Matin, police also found a truncheon, a knife and surgical gloves in the flat.
On Saturday, Marseille police chief investigator Roland Gauze said: "We're looking for these missing women. We'll find out if they're corpses or living bodies when we find them."
Salameh was arrested in Marseille, a major port on the Mediterranean, last week after a 24-year-old prostitute of Moroccan origin came forward and told police she had been beaten and raped by him for more than six hours in late September.
She said Salameh had eventually paid her and then let her go.
The attacker attempted to make contact with her afterwards, but she refused to meet him, and later contacted police, investigators said.
Salameh appeared before an examining magistrate on Friday and was charged with abducting and illegally detaining two of the missing women, who have not been seen alive since the beginning of October.
One of the sex workers, a 42-year-old Ukrainian, went missing overnight on October 5-6 from her usual pick-up spot on a boulevard in central Marseille.
A 28-year-old Algerian disappeared two nights later after meeting a client.
Investigators also suspect Salameh of involvement in the disappearance of a 23-year-old Romanian woman who has not been seen since October 22.
The charges also include "imprisonment to facilitate the crime of rape" and armed violence, in relation to the Moroccan woman's allegations.
Salameh, who served 16 years for armed robbery before his release from a Marseille prison in 2005, has denied all charges.
He is currently being held in the same prison where he served his previous sentence and has so far refused to speak to detectives, prosecutors said.
Salameh's lawyer Jean-Jacques Campana said his client had been treated by a psychiatrist over the last two and a half years.
"He has exercised his right to remain silent," he added.
Gauze has called him an "intelligent man, living with a girlfried and children".
Officers are trying to piece together details of his life since his release from jail.
Salameh worked as a construction foreman and was also a painter who had exhibited work in cafes and galleries.
An art association's website described his themes as imprisonment, escape and women. - Sapa-AFP