The family of a graphic artist whose body has been found in a bin more than 17 years after he went missing say it "was a shock", but the discovery has given them closure.
Police said on Tuesday that remains which were found at an Oakleigh South business in Melbourne earlier this month belonged to John Christianos.
The 40-year-old went missing in 2001 and was last seen at a residential home in Bentleigh East.
Mr Christianos' family said while many questions still remain unanswered about his death, the news has brought his 74-year-old father Ross, who is battling with terminal lung cancer, some closure.
“I think it was good timing, I don’t know how long [Dad’s] got. Luckily I was able to tell him that John was found before he dies,” his half-sister Elena Christianos-Toskas told The Age.
John Christianos' body was found in a bin at a storage facility in Melbourne. Source: Victoria Police/SBS News
“It’s good to know what happened to him and that he has been found. Everybody has always wondered what happened to him, he was missing for so long. It was closure.
"It was just really sad, he’d been in a bin for 17 years. Now hopefully his body comes back here and his mother can lay him to rest."
Victoria Police said Mr Christianos had been estranged from his family for some time before he disappeared.
His family, from Adelaide, said they received a call from police several weeks ago.
When police confirmed they had identified the man's body as her brother, Ms Christianos-Toskas said: "It was a shock. And it was very, very sad."
SES workers are seen at the scene where human remains were found at a storage facility in Oakleigh South, Melbourne Source: AAP
She said they are still unsure why Mr Christianos moved to Melbourne in 2001 but that he previously moved without telling them beforehand.
In a statement on Tuesday, Missing Persons Squad Detective Inspector Andrew Stampe said: "Clearly something significant has happened after John left his home for his body to be dumped in a bin and locked up for so many years."
Victoria Police said he was known to police across various states for a range of matters including drug use and assaults.
An inquest in 2011 found he likely died on or after June 11, 2001 but the cause of death and circumstances were never established.
