Family’s grief

By Mara Pattison-Sowden
THE family of the Warburton woman who had been missing since mid-March have thanked police for their efforts.
Investigators believe a body found near a car parked off a track in the Thomson State Forest track in Saint Clair on Saturday afternoon is that of Marilyn Reid who disappeared on 16 March.
Her family has been notified although her body has yet to be formally identified. Her husband David yesterday told the Mail he was grateful to the driver of a four-wheel-drive who glimpsed the corner of Mrs Reid’s car in bushes off the side of the track and informed police.
“Otherwise we would have been in even more pain, it has been so long already,” he said.
“She has never been up that way and didn’t know the area at all.”
Mr Reid said the family was informed just after midnight on Sunday morning. “The police have gone beyond the call (of duty for us), they have been fantastic,” he said.
The discovery was made about 4pm on Saturday in bushland off the Frenchman’s Spur Track in the state forest, about six kilometres from the Warburton-Woods Point Road.
Warburton and Wood’s Point police searched the area after a passer-by spotted Mrs Reid’s red Magna sedan close to the track.
The 63-year-old failed to turn up at her mother’s residence in The Basin on Wednesday 16 March, sparking concern from her friends and family.
She left her house in Kent Street at 5am and was supposed to arrive at her mother’s house in The Basin at 6am to take her to a hospital appointment.
The family have begun to make funeral arrangements with Heritage and Heritage but a date won’t be finalised until Mrs Reid’s body has been released.