Almost 17 years after she was last seen, a man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering missing businesswoman Debbie Steel.

Eastern Daily Press: The Royal Standard, in Ely, pictured in 1998The Royal Standard, in Ely, pictured in 1998 (Image: Archant)

The 37-year-old former pub landlady from Ely was last seen walking towards the city's station carrying a holdall, in December 1997.

Police said a man in his 70s, who was arrested at a property in Longfields, has been released on unconditional bail. A search is continuing at the address.

Officers found a map of the London Underground, with a circle drawn around Hounslow tube station, when they combed Miss Steel's home in Longfields for clues, when she first went missing.

But checks of CCTV cameras at stations did not throw up any sightings. And Miss Steel's sister Gini Secker said she suffered anxiety attacks and would be unlikely to be able to cope with travelling by train alone.

Empty coat hangars showed she'd packed some clothes. But she hadn't packed her passport, it emerged at the time.

Miss Steel, who ran the Royal Standard pub on Forehill, near Ely Cathedral, had gone missing before. But she'd always phoned her sister to tell her she was safe.

She had left the pub to set up a catering business but her partner Brian McDermott said Miss Steel had returned to help out, because the Standard was busy over Christmas.

A year after her disappearence, he said he did not report her missing for five days, because she had gone away before 'to get a break'.

Police eliminated a white Volvo seen in the area around the time Miss Steel disappeared from their enquiry.

Detectives also excavated a field at nearby Wilburton, after reports a tractor had been seen ploughing in the middle of the night.

Suicide was ruled out. Miss Steel had a lot to live for. Days after she disappeared, a cheque for £9,000 to set up her catering company arrived in the post at Longfields. Her bank accounts have remained untouched.

Almost 17 years on, the officer now leading the investigation into Miss Steel's disappearence said he believed the answer lay in Ely.

DCI Martin Brunning said: 'There are a very unusual set of circumstances around the case because Deborah, as the landlady of a pub, would have been a very central figure in the community.

'She would have been well known and she would have put her in contact with a lot of people. I am convinced someone living in Ely today, or who lived in Ely at the time, has the answers.

'If you have been spoken to by police in the past about the case, please don't be put off from coming forward again because your small piece of information might make the difference.

'Deborah has not been seen for 17 years and her family deserve to know what happened to her.'