Three people are being questioned in Bendigo about missing mother Samantha Kelly after a body was found hidden in a dry creek bed in regional Victoria.
Police say one of the two men and a woman they arrested on Thursday - all aged in their 40s and believed to be Ms Kelly's housemates - led them to the makeshift grave just off the remote Bendigo-Maryborough Road, Shelbourne, near regional city Bendigo.
Detective Inspector Mick Hughes said the body was found late on Thursday hidden in a dry creek bed, wrapped in blue tarpaulin, and had likely been there for weeks.
The body has been removed from the sparse bushland site and transported to Melbourne for an autopsy.
Police have not formally identified the remains.
But her family say on Facebook that it is Ms Kelly, 39, and Inspector Hughes said it was likely to be the mother of four who was last publicly seen near shops near her home in the Bendigo suburb of Kangaroo Flat on January 20.
On Friday afternoon, Ms Kelly's cream-coloured clapboard house on Wesley Street remained cordoned off by police tape as investigators searched for a weapon and any other clues to her death.
Neighbours along the wide street would occasionally glance towards the house - with one delivering lemonade to the police officers stationed outside - but most either did not wish to comment or did not know Ms Kelly well enough to describe her.
One neighbour, however, who did not wish to be identified, said the neighbourhood was very upset over Ms Kelly's disappearance and presumed death.
"We haven't been told much; we haven't been put at ease," he told AAP on Friday.
This neighbour, who says he is a witness and has made statements to police, said he could not comment until charges have been laid.
But he said Ms Kelly was a "very lovely person" whose four children had attended his Santa Claus events.
"I get Santa here every year for the kids - there were 60 here last year, including hers," he said.
Ms Kelly's NSW-based brother - who reported her disappearance after she was missing for more than two weeks - and his partner Danielle Stevenson have taken to Facebook to voice their grief and frustration.
"Sammy's life has been taken away from her 4 beautiful children," Ms Stevenson wrote on Friday.
The couple are now caring for the four children, the youngest child has just turned one.
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