Detectives have re-opened the investigation into the gruesome killing of a former Keighley divorcee on the holiday island of Majorca.

Yvonne O'Brien's mutilated body was found in her apartment in Puerto de Alcuida in August 1999. The Civil Guard in Majorca have revealed they are looking for a new suspect in the UK.

The announcement comes as police in Dorset have broadened their inquiries into the murder of Heather Barnett, a 48 year-old mother of two, in Bournemouth five years ago.

They have confirmed they have been in contact with Spanish police via Interpol. The inquiry relates to new evidence which detectives in both countries have not officially identified.

But the Majorca Daily Bulletin has reported that Dorset Police said officers had requested DNA found at the scene of Mrs O'Brien's murder for comparison with samples collected at Bournemouth.

Humphrey Carter, of the Majorca Daily Bulletin, said: "The Yvonne O'Brien case never closed but it is back very much alive. They are following up new information. The Civil Guard have a new suspect in the UK."

The DNA samples are understood to relate to human hair.

Mrs Barnett was found clutching strands of female hair which are believed to have been left by the killer. The tests are believed to relate to whether they match Mrs O'Brien's hair.

The re-opening of the case was sparked by a BBC Crimewatch appeal for help in the Bournemouth killing.

Detectives said that the killer had removed Mrs Barnett's breasts and that she was holding the strands of hair in her right hand. Chemical and isotope analysis of the nine centimetre long strands revealed the person had visited the Valencia to Almeria area of eastern Spain or the Marseille to Perpignan area of southern France.

A Dorset police spokesman said at this point they did not believe there was a link between the murders but detectives in their Major Crime Investigation Team had been making routine inquiries with Spanish police via Interpol. "The Heather Barnett investigation continues to follow many lines of inquiry both at home and abroad," he said But Mrs O'Brien's half-brother, Stuart Delaney, who now lives in Somerset, said he believed there were similarities in the killings. "The killer removed Heather's breasts and Yvonne also had one of her breasts cut off," he said.

"At the time, she was said to have been mutilated and stabbed but I knew her breast had been removed as well. That's what caught my attention when watching Crimewatch. Brian, her former husband whom I still speak to, also told me it had been removed."

Mr Daleney said he had contacted Dorset police with his suspicions after seeing the programme.

Mrs O'Brien's brother Philip Graham, who still lives in Keighley, said: "I'm dismissing all this as speculation until there is any concrete evidence from police over there or here."

Mrs O'Brien, who was 44 at the time of her death, had lived in Oakworth as a child. She has a son, Daniel, who is now aged 22.

The petite blonde, she was only 4ft 8ins tall, was found hanging from a wire, stabbed 40 times, subjected to sado-masochism and the words "love, peace and sex" were daubed in blood on the walls.

After an international man-hunt, the Spanish police wound-up the inquiry in August 2001 but it has never been closed.

Mrs O'Brien was buried in Majorca in September 2000 and a simultaneous service was held in Christ Church, Oakworth.