Police in Australia have confirmed that the body of missing Irish woman Jill Meagher has been found.
Victoria Police say the body of the 29-year-old Louth woman was recovered in Gisborne South around 60 kilometres from central Melbourne.
The discovery was made at around 1.45am local time.
Officers are continuing to conduct forensic analysis of the scene.
A 41-year-old man has been charged with her rape and murder.
Adrian Ernest-Bayley is due before a sitting of Melbourne Magistrates Court at 9.30am local time.
He was formally charged at the St. Kilda Road police station in the city with 1 count of murder and 1 count of rape.
Bayley faced an out-of-sessions court hearing this morning and has been remanded in custody to appear in court again tomorrow.
Jill Meagher disappeared as she walked home in Melbourne last weekend.
The man arrested today is understood to be the same man dressed in a blue hoodie who was seen speaking to Jill on CCTV footage released earlier this week.
She was last seen at 1.40am on Saturday morning on the footage on Sydney Road in Brunswick around 5 minutes from her home.
Her handbag was located in a laneway off Hope Street on Monday morning.
In a statement by her family tonight they say “We are devastated. We are heartbroken. She was the first grand-child my mother had and her aunts, uncles and cousins are powerless to describe their loss”.
“There are no words to describe how we feel at what has happened. We had hope yesterday when there was no evidence of foul play but when the man in the CCTV footage was arrested we feared the worst”.
“We acknowledge the role that social media has played in the search for her. We believe that it has helped us to reach a conclusion although it is not the one we had hoped and prayed for”.
“We thank the people around the World who have supported us” it added.
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