Rajesh Mirchandani
BBC News, Los Angeles
**A couple accused of kidnapping an 11-year-old girl and holding her captive for 18 years are being probed over the disappearance of two more girls.**Police are searching the house of Phillip and Nancy Garrido from Antioch, California.
They have both denied the kidnap, rape and false imprisonment of Jaycee Dugard.
Police are looking for links to the disappearances of Ilene Misheloff and Michaela Garecht.
Detectives are back searching the house near San Francisco where last month they found a hidden compound.
They say Phillip Garrido, 58 - a convicted sex offender - and his wife Nancy, 54, held Jaycee Dugard prisoner there.
Similar vehicle
Now officers from two nearby police forces are searching the same property for links to the other two missing girls.
A car taken from the Garridos’ house is similar to vehicles reported in both cases.
Lieutenant Kurt von Savoye of Dublin Police Services said 13-year-old Ilene Misheloff vanished 20 years ago from his city - an hour from the Garridos’ house.
"Recently the investigation and arrest of Philip and Nancy Garrido for the 1991 kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard came to light and our investigators immediately started looking into the possibility that the Garridos had some connection to the Ilene Mischeloff disappearance, " he said.
“As a result of our investigation, we found enough similarities to obtain a search warrant for the Walnut Avenue property of the Garridos as well as a neighbouring property.”
In addition officers from the nearby town of Hayward are searching for links to the kidnapping of nine-year-old Michaela Garecht in 1988.
They say Michaela and Jaycee Dugard were of similar age and appearance when they were both abducted.
It is clear the case of Jaycee Dugard has led authorities to consider whether the Garridos could be connected to a string of other crimes.