Police reveal new tactics used to uncover body of missing Victorian woman Lucinda Miller

Victoria Police have revealed the new tactics they used to discover the remains of a missing woman.

Lucinda Miller, 24, vanished after being dropped off by an Uber driver on McDougal Road in Neerim South, east of Melbourne, on October 16, 2022.

Initial search efforts of nearby bushland were unsuccessful and scaled back until earlier this week when police called for information and manpower for new searches leading up to the third anniversary of her disappearance.

Alongside new technology and data, about 60 people joined the reinvigorated search on Tuesday, which led to her remains being uncovered on Thursday, exactly three years after she disappeared.

Paula Lindford, Baw Baw local area command Acting Inspector, said new information from a member of the public along with data provided by Uber helped narrow down a new search area.

“At the time, that was what he [the Uber driver] remembered ... But the new information that we received gave us the new location,” she said.

“That gave us a different point to start our search again.”

The new search area was about 2km further north than precious efforts and utilised technology detection dogs from the Australian Federal Police.

“One of the dogs started to have some indication that something was going on,” Acting Inspector Linford said.

A detective investigating that area, about 80m from the road, then located a “vodka bottle” that Miller was known to have had in her possession at the time, leading to the discovery of her remains nearby.

“It’s been a huge effort for everyone. It’s been really hard going in the bush ... That we were able to actually find Lucinda is an amazing achievement,” Lindford said.

Police are not treating Miller’s death as suspicious.