By Goya Dmytryshchak
Police on Monday said forensic testing confirmed remains found at Altona North this month belonged to 31-year-old Ballarat woman Tamara Farrell.
It is alleged Ms Farrell was killed by a family friend. Forensic tests confirm her remains were dumped at two separate sites across Victoria, hundreds of kilometres apart.
Ms Farrell’s badly burnt remains were first found by a country road near Sale, some 300 kilometres from her home in the Ballarat suburb of Canadian where she was allegedly killed days earlier, the Melbourne Magistrates Court heard in February.
On May 6, railway workers found remains near a creek in Altona North.
Police on Monday said forensic testing confirmed those remains also belonged to Ms Farrell.
Ms Farrell’s family friend Shaye Kotiau, 22, from Altona, is charged with murder and his sister Kieahn Kotiau, 19, is accused of being an accessory to murder.
Ms Farrell, who grew up in Melbourne’s western suburbs, had not long been living in Ballarat when she was killed on February 17.
She was an airport shuttle driver for Ballarat Coachlines.
Ms Farrell and Mr Kotiau had been family friends since childhood. Their mothers were close friends.
Court in February, and was released on bail subject to a range of conditions.
By Rachel Eddie and Erin Pearson/The Age
