MURDER squad detectives have been called in to help an investigation into the disappearance of a North-East timeshare salesman.

John Palmer has not been seen for more than four years - and police, who initially launched a missing person inquiry, now believe he has been killed.

Detectives have started stripping the home of a jailed drugs dealer on the south coast looking for clues, and yesterday issued a plea for help in piecing together Mr Palmer's last hours alive.

He was last seen on March 13, 1999, in the Bishop's Waltham area of Hampshire, shortly after arriving from Spain, where he had been living with his wife and child, and selling timeshare apartments.

At a Press conference yesterday, Detective Inspector Alison Scott said: "We have not located a body but we firmly believe he has been the victim of foul play."

Mr Palmer, nicknamed John Bon Jovi, returned to the UK a day before he was last seen alive and was expected to return to see his family in Sunderland.

Instead, he travelled to Hampshire, where it is believed he was killed after he got into a row during a taxi journey from a pub to a hotel with two other men and a woman.

Det Insp Scott said: "His disappearance was reported to police in the North-East.

"It was during the course of a review by police in the North-East last year that a file was referred to Hampshire.

"We now believe that something more sinister has befallen him and have launched a murder inquiry.

"We need to find out why he came to Hampshire when he was expected to go the North-East."

Detectives have spent a week searching the home of drug trafficker John Howett, 52, who was jailed for 12 years last July for importing 250kg of cannabis from Morocco to Gibraltar.

Mattresses, a ladder, three interior doors and rolls of carpet have been removed, along with a four-wheel drive car, and police are now preparing to dig up the garden.

Det Insp Scott said: "The news has come as a shock to his family.

"They are upset at the knowledge we have commenced a murder inquiry but are glad that after four years of wondering what happened to him this has come to light."