(CBS/AP) British police said Friday that they were investigating the case of another missing woman in the area of Ipswich, where a serial killer has taken the lives of five prostitutes, according to British media.

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that a man contacted police on Thursday night, saying he had spoken with the missing woman, and that police helicopters were seen flying low over Ipswich all day, only later confirming that they were searching for another person.

According to the reports, police said the missing woman is also believed to have worked as a prostitute in Ipswich.

Two other girls were reported missing several days ago, but were later located by police unharmed.

If the killer or killers — dubbed by local media the "Suffolk Strangler" — did manage to abduct another sex worker from the Ipswich area, it will have been in spite of a massively increased police presence in the area normally frequented by the city's prostitutes.

British media also said the police had narrowed their list of "persons of interest" in the case down to 50.

Investigators have identified the fourth and fifth women believed to be victims of the killer targeting sex workers, as mourners gathered to pay tribute to the slain prostitutes.

The fourth body was identified Thursday as that of a woman who told reporters days before her death she was afraid, but needed to carry on working in the city's red light district to support her heroin habit.

The naked body of 24-year-old Paula Clennell was found in a field flanking a freeway on the outskirts of the tiny town in eastern England. Police said she died from "compression to the neck," but refused to elaborate.

She vanished days after telling a TV reporter she needed to earn money to buy drugs.

Police confirmed Friday morning the identity of the fifth victim, Annette Nichols, 29, who was found in the same area as Clennell. Police said an autopsy on Nichols "failed to determine a clear cause of death."

It emerged Thursday that local police and drug rehabilitation centers were giving prostitutes in Ipswich cash handouts to keep them from working the streets. Some of the girls have continued working in spite of the danger, saying they need the money and have no other options.

"Poor girls," said Angela Marjoram, one of some 50 parishioners who attended a memorial at a 1,000-year-old church for the five slain women.

Inside the hushed pews, the sober congregation interrupted their annual Christmas carol service to light candles for each of the dead women.

Elderly women wiped tears away from beneath their thick glasses, as the vicar read out the names of the prostitutes.

©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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