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Police hope to confirm later this week whether the skeletal remains they found down a bank near Upper Hutt on Friday belong to Harold Skudder, who has been missing for over three years.
Early on Friday evening, police removed the remains from the spot a short distance from Moonshine Hill Road.
A post mortem will be carried out on Monday, and it will take about a week to confirm the identity of the remains, Detective Inspector Shane Cotter says. Identification will be done through dental records or DNA.
Skudder's mother reported the 38-year-old missing in early 2008, a year after his disappearance, and police arrested a 26-year-old man on Thursday over the historic murder.
The man, who has name suppression, has been remanded in custody until his next court appearance on Thursday.
"We're going through the process of speaking to Harold Skudder's family and associates, as well as family and associates of the arrested man," Cotter says.
A scene examination of a house in the Lower Hutt suburb of Stokes Valley has also finished.
Police are not looking for anyone else in connection with Skudder's disappearance, but are trying to build up a picture of what happened to the father.
Police received information on an 0800 tip-off line, and had been working on the case for about four weeks before last week's arrest.
