Police are allegedly investigating whether Sarah Everard may have been lured into a car away from CCTV cameras by a police warrant card.
Officials suspect the 33-year-old was attacked by a stranger as she walked from a friend's house to her home in Brixton on the night of March 3.
CCTV footage from a passing London bus provided a fresh line of inquiry that led to the arrests of PC Wayne Couzens, 48, and a woman, aged in her 30s, at his home in Deal, Kent, some 75 miles from Clapham.
It came as a report claimed police were investigating a fresh line of inquiry that the suspect used his warrant card to entice Ms Everard into a car out of the view of cameras, The Sun reports.
A source told The Sun she may have been enticed into a car using a warrant card after being spotted on the street and then kidnapped.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for the Met Police told the Mirror: "We are not commenting on speculative reports."
Married dad-of-two Couzens was arrested on suspicion of kidnap when police stormed the home he shares with his Ukraine-born wife, Elena, a 38-year-old laboratory manager, and their two children late on Tuesday, shortly after he returned from a shift in London.
On Wednesday, he was further arrested on suspicion of murder and a separate allegation of indecent exposure.
Neighbours claim police had the officer's home under surveillance in the hours before the arrest.
A woman arrested at the same address was being questioned by detectives on suspicion of assisting an offender.
The fresh line of inquiry is understood to have come from CCTV footage from a camera fixed to a bus that had been travelling along the route where Ms Everard disappeared, the Telegraph reported.
A car linked to the murder suspect was allegedly spotted on a motorist's dashcam near to where Ms Everard was last seen and tracked by ANPR cameras, the Sun reported.
Scotland Yard said the murder suspect was not on duty when Ms Everard vanished.
It is claimed Couzens worked a relief shift at the American Embassy in Nine Elms, southwest London until 8pm the night Ms Everard went missing.
The embassy is about three miles from where Durham University graduate Ms Everard, originally from York, was last seen on a doorbell camera in Clapham about 9.30pm.
Neighbours told the Times that former car mechanic Couzens was shirtless and handcuffed when he was led out of his house and taken away in a car late on Tuesday, six days after the disappearance.
A witness said she saw two men in a Land Rover watching the house at about 5pm on Tuesday before they went to the door two hours later.
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Between 15 and 20 more officers were hidden around the corner as the house was stormed, the neighbour added.
It is understood detectives have found no link between the suspect and Ms Everard.
A source told the Times: "Of course you can't be 100% certain at this stage and there's a lot of digital equipment to go through.
"But so far it is a leading line of inquiry that Sarah did not know whoever attacked her."
The Met said the arrested officer's main job was uniformed patrol of diplomatic premises, but would not specify where he had worked.
The diplomatic protection squad is responsible for guarding the Parliamentary estate including Downing Street and the Palace of Westminster, as well as embassies in London.
In a statement, Commissioner Cressida Dick said: "The news today that it was a Metropolitan Police officer arrested on suspicion of Sarah's murder has sent waves of shock and anger through the public and through the whole of the Met.
"I speak on behalf of all my colleagues in the Met when I say we are utterly appalled at this dreadful news. Our job is to patrol the streets and to protect people."
Investigators are continuing to work "around the clock" on what Ms Dick described as a "very fast-moving" case.
The remains have not yet been identified and it could take some time to do so, the Commissioner added.
She said people living around Clapham and Tulse Hill could expect to see increased patrols in the area.
Scotland Yard referred itself to the police watchdog over the arrest of its own officer and separately over the force's actions after Ms Everard was reported missing.
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