South Australia's deputy coroner has determined that bones found in 1977 belonged to a man who went missing from Whyalla six months earlier.
The bones were re-examined last year as part of an SA Police operation to reopen cases of unidentified remains and conduct DNA testing on them, including on the mysterious Somerton Man.
Mario Della Torre, 54, was last seen in Whyalla on October 18, 1976.
A skull was found at nearby False Bay on April 21, 1977, followed by a pelvis and two thighbones.
In 1978, the coroner found Mr Della Torre was "presumed to be dead" but he was "'by no means satisfied that the skeletal remains" were his.
The fact that Mr Della Torre had no teeth when he died made identification difficult.
In findings published today, Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel substituted those findings to instead say they did belong to Mr Della Torre.
However, he left the case of death as "undetermined".
"As far as the circumstances of the disappearance and death of Mr Della Torre are concerned, I note that it has been recorded that at around the time Mr Della Torre was last seen in October 1976 he had complained of depression and had asserted that the medication that he had been prescribed had not worked for him," Mr Schapel wrote.
"That, in the eyes of some, might give rise to the notion that Mr Della Torre possibly took his own life.
"However, in my opinion the evidence is not capable of supporting such a conclusion to the necessary standard of proof. I therefore make no finding as to the circumstances of Mr Della Torre's disappearance and death."
DNA sample matched with brother
A DNA sample was obtained from Mario Della Torre's brother last year.
Senior Constable Trevor Schneider, who looked into the case, said testing showed the sample was 1.2 million times more likely to belong to the missing man's brother than anyone else.
Mario Della Torre was born in Italy in 1922 and came to Australia with his mother in 1939.
They settled in the Adelaide Hills, where his father had already been living for a decade.
The missing man then moved to Whyalla in 1961, 15 years before his death.
