The family was notified that positive identification had been made through DNA testing on Tuesday night _ just two days before Mr Brooks would have turned 22.

Mr Brooks was 18 at the time he went missing and was last seen in May 1996 in Burnie.

Det.-Insp. David Plumpton, of Devonport CIB, said that he was advised by Forensic Services Tasmania that the body police recovered from the Leven River on February 16 was that of Mr Brooks.

Det.- Insp. Plumpton also confirmed that the skull and hands were missing from the body found in the bin.

Mr Brooks's death was now being treated as murder.

Det.-Insp. Plumpton said the 12 Devonport detectives working on the case would now concentrate on determining how Mr Brooks met his death and who was responsible.

At this stage the body remains with forensic services in Hobart.

When the wheelie bin was found, it weighed 400kg in total and aside from human remains contained cement, sand and shells and had its lid screwed down.

Mr Brooks was last seen in Burnie on May 5, 1996, but as he regularly changed addresses, the alarm wasn't raised until June 19.

In March 1996, Mr Brooks received a $40,000 compensation payout from an accident that had resulted in the loss of his thumb and the tip of a finger.

Later that month, he spent half the money on a red-maroon Group A SS Commodore.

At the time, police said, Mr Brooks had run into some minor trouble in the car and had talked to friends about selling it.

Shortly after he had come to the police's attention for the misdemeanours, he disappeared.

He was unemployed at the time, and, because of his nomadic nature, his Ulverstone friends assumed that he was living in Burnie and his Burnie friends thought he was in Ulverstone.

However, when his car turned up at Maroochydore, Queensland, police began to have suspicions. The officer in charge of the search at the time, Acting Insp. Lockie Avery, said Mr Brooks might have been murdered for his car.

Police went to Queensland and interviewed the man who had bought the car, which was subsequently seized, for $15,000.

A Queensland magistrate then ruled that this transaction occurred in good faith and the car should be returned to the buyer.

Police have not determined how the car arrived in Queensland but a second man, a Tasmanian who had travelled to Queensland, was later charged and pleaded guilty to dealing with tainted property.

According to the man charged, another Tasmanian man was involved and had asked him to sell the car on Mr Brooks's behalf , but this is yet to be confirmed.

Insp. Avery said the transfer details of the car's registration papers also raised suspicion.

Mr Brooks had only got around to transferring the car into his name on May 3, 1996, and three days later the car's registration was changed over to the man who sold the car in Queensland.

It is believed that there is some doubt over the authenticity of Mr Brooks's signature on the second registration form.

In the time after Mr Brooks was reported missing in June 1996, he conducted no bank transactions and received no social security payments.