Human remains found in a bush grave are those of missing Darwin woman Carlie Sinclair, Northern Territory police say.
The discovery was made by a forensics team on Wednesday morning, five days after the grave was found in bushland on a private property in Berry Springs, about 60km south of Darwin.
The remains have not yet been confirmed as those of Ms Sinclair, but Police Commissioner John McRoberts said he had no doubt they were.
"Today is a sad day, not only because we have recovered the remains of a woman who we say was murdered, but today is in fact the anniversary of Carlie's birthday; tomorrow she would have turned 37," Mr McRoberts said.
Police had assistance and support from Queensland Police, Western Australian Police, the Australian Federal Police and specialist advice from the FBI in the US "because we would not leave any stone unturned", he said.
It may take some days to make a full positive identification of the body, he said.
Ms Sinclair's mother and father, Marlene and Robert, and her brother Kristian flew to Darwin on Friday once they learned of the arrest of her partner, Danny Deacon, on suspicion of murder.
"We can only imagine the grief you have experienced over the past 18 months," Commissioner McRoberts told them.
"(We) hope that today's discovery gives you some comfort to understand what happened to your loving daughter and sister, Carlie."
It had been a long 18 months since Carlie's disappearance, Marlene Sinclair said.
"She was such a lovely, joyous, kind person. To think something like this could happen to her is unbelievable."
She thanked the police for their tireless investigation.
"They kept us going when things were really down and black; every single one of them has been so kind and just helped wherever they could," she said tearfully.
"This is just amazing, the work they have done to get a resolution to this. It just simply is awesome."
Deacon appeared in the Darwin Magistrates Court earlier on Wednesday.
He did not apply for bail, and will front court again in February.
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