Vic: Bodies clue to missing couple

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Vic: Bodies clue to missing couple

By Darrin Barnett

MELBOURNE, April 30 AAP - A post-mortem examination on two bodies found in bushlandnorth-east of Melbourne is expected to reveal if they belong to a couple missing sinceearly this month.

Two park rangers found the bodies yesterday in a shallow grave beside a track about25km east of Marysville.

Detective Senior Sergeant Charlie Bezzina of the homicide squad said it was likelythe bodies had been there for two to three weeks.

"Our situation is the bodies go as they are, straight into the coroner's court andthey're not stripped or searched until such time as the pathologist conducts his post-mortem,"

Det Sgt Bezzina said.

Police refused to confirm the sex of the bodies, but would not rule out the possibilitythey were those of missing Melbourne couple Paul King and Margaret Wales-King.

"That's a consideration we must look at, (there are) two deceased adults," he said.

"Certainly the members from the missing persons unit are looking at it with us."

Mrs Wales-King, 68, and Mr King, 70, of Armadale in Melbourne's affluent east, wentmissing on April 4 after leaving a family dinner.

Their silver Mercedes-Benz car was found parked and locked in bayside Middle Park six days later.

Family and police have both expressed fears the couple had been murdered.

The two rangers made the discovery of the bodies about midday yesterday while on aroutine foot patrol in an area of the Yarra Ranges National Park well known for deer hunting.

Det Sgt Bezzina said the clothed bodies were found buried on top of each other in ashallow grave after the rangers had earlier mistaken the fresh mound of dirt for a lyrebird'snest.

"In doing their patrol around midday, (the rangers) discovered what they believed tobe a lyrebird's nest - a mound of dirt - probably 20 metres off the track in a clearing,"

he said.

"They moved some soil, and found it to be a body and then contacted police."

The bodies, thought to have been at the site for about three weeks, were taken to Melbournelast night for post-mortem examination.

Det Sgt Bezzina would not reveal the sex or age of the bodies, or rule out the likelihoodthey were those of the missing Melbourne couple.

Police and about a dozen local volunteers from the State Emergency Service today conducteda line search of the area.

Marysville Police Station sergeant Dick Murphy said no-one had gone missing from thelocal area in the past few months.

AAP db/mh/clr/hu/de

KEYWORD: BODIES NIGHTLEAD