Forensic testing that police hope will reveal the identity of a body found in bushland at Mount Macedon is not expected to be completed until Wednesday.
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The badly decomposed body of a woman was found by a bushwalker about 12.30pm on Monday in the Macedon Regional Park north of Melbourne.
The scene is not far from where detectives focused their search for suspected murder victim Karen Ristevski late last year.
Detectives visited Ms Ristevski's Avondale Heights home to speak to her family shortly before 5pm on Tuesday, according to 9 News.
Her husband Borce Ristevski and 21-year-old daughter live at the house.
#BREAKING - @VictoriaPolice members have arrived at the home of missing woman #KarenRistevski in Avondale Heights.
Latest on @9NewsMelb pic.twitter.com/fwSLv6ZiQR— Kate McGrath (@KateMcG6) February 21, 2017
It's not known if the remains found in Macedon were that of Ms Ristevski, with police still awaiting the results of a forensic examination.
State Emergency Service volunteers and homicide squad detectives returned to the scene on Tuesday morning, where a line search started on the western side of Loch Road, a hilly single-vehicle track not far from the outskirts of the Mount Macedon township.
SES crews started about 50 metres north of where the body was found and are walking back towards the site.
It appeared the body was found between the trunks of two fallen trees about 50 metres from Loch Road.
The bush around where the body was found is not heavily wooded or overgrown, and therefore relatively easy to walk through.
But the height of the fallen trunks would have made it impossible to see the remains unless you were standing directly above them; the body would not have been visible from any other angle.
A couple arrived at the scene on Monday night and told officers they had previously seen a man in the area with a shovel and made a joke to him about burying a body. Police have spoken to them.
A woman who owns property in the area said she planned to talk to police about a white van she saw parked near Loch Road last August.
She did not see anyone near the van, but said it seemed odd given how few people drive through the area. She was shocked that a body had been found so close to home.
"Stuff like this happens somewhere else, you know?" she said.
Radio 3AW also reported earlier on Tuesday that a regular walker in the area had noticed a strong smell for several months, but had not investigated its origin.
Forensic investigators and homicide squad detectives spent more than eight hours working at the site on Monday. Coronial services arrived after nightfall and removed the remains about 10.30pm.
A bouquet of flowers has been left against a tree near the scene.
In December, the search for Karen Ristevski moved to dams and grassland in Toolern Vale, about 25 kilometres from where the body was found on Monday.
Ms Ristevski, 47, was last seen at her Avondale Heights home by her husband Borce Ristevski on June 29, 2016.
There have been reports Ms Ristevski's phone pinged on towers on the Calder Highway and at Gisborne, about 15 minutes from Mount Macedon, on the day she went missing.
Fairfax Media understands the Ristevski family is aware of the discovery, but has not been formally notified by police given the uncertainty around whether the two cases are linked.
Ms Ristevski's husband, Borce, told a reporter from Channel Nine's A Current Affair program that he was unable to make any comment because he thought his phone was tapped and police were listening.
With Adam Holmes, Marissa Calligeros, Emily Woods
