Police are still working to determine how long a body found in a suitcase by the side of a road in southern NSW had gone undiscovered.
Two members of the public alerted authorities just before 1pm on Sunday after making the grim discovery near Wolgon Road at Oallen, about 60 kilometres south-east of Goulburn.
Commander of the Hume Police District, Superintendent Linda Bradbury, told ABC 702 Sydney they believed the body was that of an adult female.
“We’re still conducting efforts to identify the remains,” she said.
“That is still underway as they are in a state of decomposition so that will take some time.
“Forensic examination is underway to assist us in identifying how long that suitcase has been there.”
Police have confirmed the death is being treated as suspicious.
Police in southern NSW are treating the death as suspicious. (ABC News.)
Investigating links to missing people
Authorities confirmed that police were investigating potential links between the body and other missing people, after the suitcase was seized for forensic examination.
“We will be conducting a number of inquiries about what may have happened,” Superintendent Bradbury told ABC 702.
Goulburn Mulwaree Mayor Nina Dillon said she was shocked to hear of the news and called it a “very sad situation”.
“It’s just another one of those terrible events that we hope never happen but we seem to be hearing them more often,” she said.
Wolgon Road at Oallen is “not a heavy route for traffic”. (Supplied: Google Streetview)
Oallen is a small village on the Shoalhaven River in the Southern Tablelands, 109km north-east of Canberra and 254km south-west of Sydney.
Cr Dillon said Oallen was a “beautiful” remote community, surrounded by native bushland.
“A lot of travellers come through the area,” she said.
“That community would be wrapping their arms around each other and doing the very best they can to support each other through such a terrible event.”
Goulburn Mulwaree Mayor Nina Dillon has expressed her condolences to the family of the woman. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
Superintendent Linda Bradbury said the suitcase was located by Wolgon Road and Oallen Ford Road, which was “not a heavy route for traffic”.
“It is a road that is travelled frequently, but it is in a rural-residential area,” she said.
Police told the ABC that forensic testing “will take some time” and the homicide squad was involved in the ongoing investigations.