Updated

Police in Connecticut say an investigation into the suspected serial killings of seven people has led detectives to a Virginia home where a key suspect once lived.

New Britain police Chief James Wardwell said Thursday authorities including an FBI police dog team were searching a home in Hampton, 500 miles southwest of New Britain.

The search is connected to the discovery of seven bodies behind a strip mall in New Britain. Police believe all the victims were killed in 2003 by one person but haven't publicly named the person.

However drifter William Devin Howell grew up in Hampton and is serving a 15-year prison sentence in the killing of a woman whose body was among those behind the strip mall. Public records show he lived at the home being searched.

Howell hasn't been charged in the other killings.