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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
Peter Brewer

Investigation into dead man's remains takes a shift, as search is wrapped up

SES volunteers and members of the Australian Federal Police Maritime team were called in to search the outer perimeter of the Point Hut Crossing area where human remains were found in bushland this week.

Police, with help from the ACT SES, search Point Hunt Crossing for clues after human remains were found. Picture by Keegan Carroll
Police, with help from the ACT SES, search Point Hunt Crossing for clues after human remains, believed to be Tim Lyons, inset, were found. Pictures by Keegan Carroll, supplied

The federal police dive team put an inflatable out on the Murrumbidgee River, and used it to search the riverbank closest to where the remains were found, while the volunteers on the line search had to slog their way through waist deep brush and blackberries for several hours.

Police would not reveal whether those efforts had yielded any new evidence but said Tuesday's final search would wrap up the in-field investigation.

Police put an inflatable out on the Murrumbidgee River on Tuesday to scan the riverbank. Picture by Keegan Carroll

Forensic investigators have taken the decomposed human remains from where they were discovered by two bushwalkers around 3.45pm on Sunday, about 150 metres from a bend in the roadway leading down to the crossing. The Point Hut area was closed to the public for around 36 hours but has since reopened.

The next key steps in the investigation will now be scientific, with the ACT's forensic pathologist Dr Johan Duflou to conduct a post-mortem this week in Phillip and DNA samples to be sent off for examination at the AFP laboratories at Majura.

These investigations will seek to determine whether, as police suspect, the remains are those of Timothy Lyons, 38, who was reported missing from Gordon on December 19.

A police-issued photograph of Tim Lyons from December last year. Picture supplied

Police had made several appeals for information about his whereabouts and spent weeks conducting extensive searches in Tuggeranong before they released pictures and spoke to the media on January 10.

At the time of his disappearance, Detective Acting Inspector Emma Quade said Mr Lyons' disappearance was "extremely out of character for him".

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