A TV producer has given police a new clue in the 20-year-old hunt for a Sussex killer.

Former Argus journalist John Ryall was investigating the murder of 22-year-old student Jessie Earl when he found a case with "striking similarities" while trawling through computer crime files.

The Meridian TV producer said: "It was about a man who stalked a student in East Sussex in the 1990s.

"We told police and that man is now being investigated by the Jessie Earl murder squad."

Sussex Police, who announced in December that the new investigation into the murder had been stopped, confirmed today that they were checking the name given to them. They stressed it was too early to say whether it represented a breakthrough.

The man who led last year's new investigation into the case, Detective Chief Inspector Steve Dennis, said he was still hopeful of finding the one vital clue they needed.

He said: "Even after all this time one hair could provide the unique DNA profile of Jessie's killer.

"When her body was found DNA science was in its infancy. It was like the wheel had just been invented. Now we're driving Ferraris."

Miss Earl's skeletal remains were found in bushes on the Downs at Beachy Head in 1989. She had been missing from her home in Upperton Gardens, Eastbourne, since 1980.

The renewed murder investigation opened in January last year and included an appeal on BBC TV's Crimewatch programme. A number of people were interviewed and the site where Jessie's body was found was revisited.

Mr Dennis said the effort had failed to shed light on the death: "At the moment the case remains open but we saw Jessie's parents and they agreed we ceased the new inquiry."

Attempts to find clues to Jessie's killer included a forensic search of the Downs and an operation using members of a local metal detecting club. The search unearthed rusting pieces of jewellery but none was recognised by Jessie's parents, John and Valerie.

Meridian's "Profile of a Killer" tomorrow night tells how the parents received a letter with the word "nothing" typed on, possibly sent by someone with knowledge of their daughter's death.

The programme follows the letter through the forensic science service laboratory where a DNA profile was extracted from saliva on the stamp.

Anyone with information relating to Jessie's death should contact Mr Dennis on 0845 60 70 999.