LUCILLE Butterworth's brother is hopeful that finally she might soon be able to rest in peace alongside her parents' ashes.
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Police are preparing to dig for Miss Butterworth's remains in marshland north-west of Hobart, and say they are confident of finding her.
The 20-year-old beauty queen vanished from Claremont in August 1969, while she was waiting for a New Norfolk-bound bus.
Police believe Miss Butterworth was murdered by a man who stopped to offer her a ride, with the killer then dumping her body in a roadside area between Granton and New Norfolk.
The man remains a person of interest in the investigation.
Forensic officers will on Monday start excavating about 200 square metres of land surrounding a secluded, disused car park between the Lyell Highway and Derwent River.
Inspector David Plumpton said the site had not been thoroughly searched before.
"We now intend to excavate this whole area and conduct lengthy investigations in an effort to locate - hopefully - those remains," he said.
"And if not, some evidence that Lucille was left here by the person we believe took her life back in August 1969."
Jim Butterworth says he is confident the police will finally find evidence or the remains of his sister, and bring his family some closure.
"It's been such a long time but to the family it feels like yesterday," Mr Butterworth said.
"I hope and am pretty sure they will discover something.
"We just hope they nail the person involved, and I can only congratulate the police for getting this far."
Inspector Plumpton said that from 7am Monday, up to 10 people at a time would begin digging up the site.
"We will then hand-sift through all of that material over a lengthy period of time," he said.
The labour-intensive process might span several weeks, but police say they are committed to taking "as long as it takes".
Mr Butterworth said if police were successful, his sister would be laid to rest with her parents in Claremont.
"Their ashes are in a rose garden opposite the bus stop; that's exactly where we would hold a service to Lucille," he said.
"There is already a plaque and magnolia tree there commemorating her."
A coronial inquest into Miss Butterworth's murder is scheduled to start on August 31.
