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MELBOURNE - Victoria Police will exhume the bodies of 179 people in an attempt to solve missing persons cases dating back almost 50 years.
A taskforce expects to identify most of the unknown people, many of who have been buried in paupers' graves going back to 1960.
Senior police admitted yesterday there had been major deficiencies in the past, resulting in unidentified bodies not being matched with missing persons reports.
They believe the exhumations will bring relief to families who have lived for decades not knowing the fate of lost loved ones.
"If we have made a mistake we will make that apology, always will," Detective Superintendent Paul Hollowood told the Herald Sun.
"And we do it personally. We don't slot a letter in the mail and say we are sorry."
Police have been blamed for six missing persons wrongly interred in unmarked graves.
It said the bodies of Matthew Bibby, Chris Papas and Peter Wilson have been exhumed and apologies sent to their families for the bungled cases.
Police have spent the past 10 months sifting through 80,000 records on every missing person and unidentified body cases since 1960 and have compiled a database that allows easy comparison between features of unidentified bodies and missing persons.
Since January, Victoria Police have discovered 40 long-term missing persons people alive.
They are confident most of the 179 unidentified bodies and body parts will match with some of the 523 persons listed on their database.
Police are set to begin the arduous task of tracking down relatives of the 523 people and ask that they submit DNA samples.
The body police believe best matches the missing person will be exhumed and its DNA compared to the missing person's relatives.
It is believed it will take two years to complete all 179 cases.
Det Supt Hollowood said it was unlikely all of the bodies had been murder victims as each had been the subject of an inquest which would have identified any suspicious activity.
"I think the thing we really have to emphasise here is that our success rate in missing person cases is quite extraordinary," he said.
"We have about 6700 missing persons a year and the find rate on missing persons is 99 per cent.
"The 179 unidentified bodies we are talking about here is that accumulated 1 per cent going back to 1960."
- AAP
