ESSEX Police say they are keeping an “open mind” on whether there is a link between the murder of Stanford-le-Hope man Kevin Malthouse and the slaying of another man from the area earlier this week.

Kevin Malthouse died on Blackshots Lane in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Twenty-year-old Quhey Saunders was murdered at a service station on the M25 on Monday afternoon.

An Essex Police spokesperson said: “We are keeping an open mind as to the motive behind these incidents as we look to establish the circumstances around what happened”.