DETECTIVES investigating the disappearance of a father-of-two have been told anonymously he was murdered.

Police and firefighters searched a lake and park close to Mark Manning’s home yesterday, acting on anonymous tip-offs received this year.

The 54-year-old bomb disposal expert, from Lancing, went missing on April 19 last year and there has been no trace of him since.

Detectives also revealed yesterday that both of his mobile phones had stopped working at around midday on the day after his disappearance.

Detective Chief Inspector Mike Ashcroft, from the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, said: “We have had information that suggests that Mark has in fact been subject to crime and has been killed.

“What we don’t know at the moment is where that took place and we don’t know where Mark’s body is.”

He added he was “convinced that there are people in this community who know what has happened to Mark”.

The last reported sighting of Mr Manning was at Worthing train station on April 19 last year, when a friend said they dropped him off to go and buy a car.

Yesterday morning police, fire-fighters and two victim recovery dogs searched Brooklands Pleasure Park, in Worthing.

The search near Mr Manning’s home in Brighton Road was the first search of public land since his disappearance.

DCI Mike Ashcroft said anonymous information did not specify the body was in the park, but it “fits the bill” in terms of a possible scenario.

He said: “We haven’t had any specific information on this location but clearly it is significant in terms of the geography where Mark lived and where he hangs around.

“There is information to suggest it could be a crime scene, where he may well be.

“The purpose of the search is to either confirm that or eliminate it.

“We have got a massive area to cover so we have got to pinpoint areas; this is an area that fits the bill in terms of places we need to eliminate.”

Police treated Mr Manning’s disappearance as a murder almost as soon as he went missing last year, because it was so out of character and because the phones had been switched off.

But they did not have specific information he had been killed until the tip-offs started in January, it was revealed yesterday.

DCI Ashcroft added that at the moment there were no suspects, nor had anyone been eliminated from the investigation, adding: “There are several lines of enquiry ongoing”.

There is no suggestion Mr Manning was involved in any criminality.

Sergeant Russell Phillips, leading yesterday’s search of Brooklands, said it would “take as long as it takes” but he did not envisage it lasting beyond yesterday, adding it would continue “until I am satisfied that all the areas I have asked for are complete”.