The heartbroken family of missing mother Tayla Spies have confirmed the human remains found near her abandoned ute belonged to their loved one.
Investigators searching for Ms Spies discovered the 29-year-old’s 2017 Toyota Hilux near Noorindoo, 460km west of Brisbane, about 3pm on Thursday.
The Hilux was found at a Yuleba-Surat Road property about five minutes’ drive from where the young mum was last seen two months ago.
Ms Spies’ sister, Rebecca Spies, confirmed remains found about a kilometre from the vehicle were the missing mother’s in an emotional post on Sunday night.
‘It is with very heavy hearts that we announce the devastating loss of our beautiful, Tayla. Although she may no longer be here with us, she will always be in our hearts and I will carry her with me wherever I go,’ Rebecca wrote.
‘We would like to thank each and every one of you for all of the support and love we have received over the past 63 days and for the ongoing support we will continue to receive going forward.
‘We truly will be forever grateful to our family and friends for surrounding us, supporting us, picking us up when we fell down and for never letting us walk one step of this alone.
‘Tayla was and always will be so incredibly loved, more than she would ever know.’
Ms Spies was last seen on February 2 travelling on the Carnarvon Highway south of Roma in her Hilux between 10am and 1pm.
That ute and her belongings, including the pink shirt she was last seen wearing, were found on a Yuleba-Surat Road property on Thursday, April 3.
Police were not aware of any connection between Ms Spies and the property or its owner.
Detective Chief Inspector Garry Watts in a press conference on Friday revealed the landowner had called police after finding the locked vehicle.
The owner didn’t believe the ute had only appeared on the property, which backs onto the Yuleba State Forest, in the last two weeks.
‘Where the vehicle was located was about 2km into the property from the Yuleba-Surat Road, so you would not have seen this vehicle from the roadway,’ Insp Watts said.
Police will review if any aerial searches were previously conducted over the property.
Former Victoria Police homicide detective Charlie Bezzina, who helped capture Melbourne serial killer Paul Denyer, told Daily Mail Ms Spies’ disappearance appeared to be ‘sinister’.
‘It’s a missing persons case but with a mystery like this you start to look at all aspects of this person’s life you ask yourself, “Why would a 29-year-old mum want to disappear?”,’ he said.
‘Anyone connected to this case in any way is a person of interest.’
Mr Bezzina, who retired from Victoria Police in 2009 with several commendations, said police will almost certainly be focusing on how the ute arrived at the location it was found.
‘If someone drove the ute there then how did they leave? Is there a second vehicle that was driven away?’ he said.
‘How did the ute get to where it was found, was she with someone else, did she pick up someone? Did she pick up a backpacker?
‘It’s definitely sinister, if she did pick up a backpacker then where did that person go? Did they do something to her and drive the vehicle to its location or did she drive the vehicle?
‘How did they leave area? Did they walk way? Was there another vehicle? Police would be trying to answer all these questions.’
More to come…