Melbourne gangster's remains found

By Caroline Zielinski

MELBOURNE, Jan 21 AAP - Human remains most likely belonging to a former gangland figure implicated in the murder of another gangster have been found at a former Melbourne dumping site.

Police began digging in a remote and industrial area of Thomastown on Monday after receiving information that the remains of career criminal Terrence Blewitt were buried there.

Blewitt, 53, disappeared in April 2004 after he was seen getting into a car after a friend dropped him off in Melton.

At the time, police said they feared Blewitt was dead after meeting with foul play. In 2013 they searched for his remains in a shed in the border town of Yarrawonga.

It was believed he was buried somewhere in northern Victoria, but after a two-day search, police failed to locate anything of interest to the investigation.

After three days of digging this week, investigators on Wednesday located what they believe are Blewitt's remains, 3 metres underground and 1.5 metres below a layer of rubbish.

Detective Inspector Andrew Gustke said the search was difficult.

"We've had a 30-ton excavator here for three days, we've removed 4000 cubic metres and we've gone down 3 metres," he told reporters on Thursday morning.

He said it took 1.5 metres of digging to get to "true ground", because the barren site, which was cleaned up in 2006, originally operated as an unofficial tip.

Police have been investigating the disappearance of Blewitt for 12 years alongside an investigation relating to the murder of another underworld figure, Graham "The Munster" Kinniburgh in late 2003.

A 55-year-old man was charged over his murder in November last year.

Det Insp Gustke refused to comment on Kinniburgh's murder other than to say police believed a second person was involved.

That person may have been Blewitt.

The current owners of the tip are not under suspicion, but police will investigate who owned the land between 2003 and 2004.

The excavation process is expected to take some time, with archaeologists, police and other experts now digging by hand.

Det Insp Gustke said police would keep an open mind until the remains were formally identified.

Despite this years of evidence, clues and interviews with hundreds of people had led police to believe there was a strong possibility the remains were those of Blewitt, he said.