Indentity wait on coast body find

POLICE will know this morning whether a body found at a remote East Coast property is that of missing Risdon Vale man Dwayne Davies.

Inspector Steve Burk said that as the result of information obtained last Friday, a search was conducted on a remote property inland from Orford involving up to 50 police officers.

“As a result of that particular search, an area of interest was identified and was examined by forensic officers yesterday, which resulted in a body being located,” Insp Burk said.

“Formal identification of that body will not be ablee to be established until tomorrowmorrow morning, and that will be in consultation with a pathol-ologist and the coroner.”

Insp Burk said he could not elaborate on how the body was concealed, and stressed that the owner of the property was not in any way involved in the inci-dent, and remained deep-ply upset about what hadhad occurred on his land.

“The property ownerer has absolutely no involvement in this, nor was he aware that the body was on his property,” he said. “He’s been fully cooperative with police.”

Last week police issued a missing persons alert for Mr Davies, but the matter quickly escalated to a presumed murder investigation.

On Friday, Bradley Scott Purkiss, 40, appeared in the Magistrates Court in Hobart to plead not guilty to one count of murder.

He did not apply for bail and he was remanded to appear in the Supreme Court on July 24.

Margaret Anne Otto, 44, also appeared to plead not guilty to being an accessory after the fact of murder, failing to report a killing, and perverting the course of justice.

Ms Otto had her application for bail denied by Chief Magistrate Catherine Geason.

Yesterday, Insp Burk said police were not intending to lay charges against any other parties, but that the investigation would continue to run for days, if not weeks.