Human Remains Found in ‘Rural Property’ Near Car of Mother of 3 Missing Since Feb. 2, Say Police

• Human remains have been discovered near a rural property in Australia amid the search for missing 29-year-old Tayla Spies, who hasn’t been seen since Feb. 2
• The remains are yet to be formally identified, police said in a news release on Friday, April 4
• The discovery came a day after a vehicle belonging to the missing mother-of-three was found by the property owner, who said he didn’t think it had been there for more than 12 days, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported

Human remains have been found near a car belonging to a mother-of-three missing in Australia since Feb. 2, according to local authorities.

On Friday, April 4, Queensland Police said the remains had been located a day after a vehicle belonging to 29-year-old Tayla Spies was found at a property in Noorindoo in the Maranoa Region of Queensland, officers said in a release.

Spies, from the Roma and Dalby areas of Queensland, was last seen “in the Surat area between 11-11.30 a.m. [local time] on Sunday, February 2,” police previously said in a Feb. 10 release.

Early on Friday, police said in an update, “Around 3 p.m. [on April 3] police were called to a Yuleba-Surat Road property after reports a white Toyota Hilux matching Tayla’s vehicle was located.”

“Detectives have confirmed the vehicle to be Tayla’s after locating property in the vehicle belonging to the missing person,” it added.

Officers added in another update later on Friday, “Police have located human remains following the search of a rural property northeast of Surat today April 4,” confirming they’d found the remains at approximately 12 p.m. local time that day.

“The remains are yet to be formally identified,” police continued in the release. “Investigators are in contact with the Spies family. Investigations and forensic examinations are continuing.”

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the car belonging to Spies was discovered at a property around 264 miles west of Brisbane.

“Complete forensic examination will need to be conducted to verify that,” local Detective Inspector, Gary Watts, told the outlet.

“A full forensic [examination] of the area of where the remains were found will now be undertaken,” he added.

The ABC reported the vehicle had been discovered by the property owner, who said he didn’t believe the car had been there for more than 12 days. 

Spies was thought to have gone missing after failing to return home following a weekend trip with her partner in Dalby in Queensland’s remote Western Downs, per news.com.au.

Police have released multiple images of Spies and her vehicle, and she was seen wearing a pink shirt in one of the last sightings of her getting gas in CCTV footage released by officers on a March 3 post.

A pink shirt similar to the one Spies was seen wearing, along with a bag believed to contain her belongings, was reportedly found in the vehicle, ABC reported.

“At present, we haven’t entered the vehicle,” Detective Inspector Watts previously said, per the outlet.

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He added that the vehicle was “being towed back to Roma now and will be examined by our crime and forensic experts,” the ABC added.

“Tayla is described as Caucasian, with brown shoulder length hair, blue eyes, slim build and approximately 170cms (67 inches) tall, and has the word KARMA tattooed across her chest,” police said in an April 4 post.

Queensland Police didn’t have any additional updates to add when contacted by PEOPLE on Friday, April 4.

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