Remains believed to be missing Christchurch woman Yanfei Bao were found in a shallow grave about 150mm deep, police say.
It was found during a police search along a treeline on private farmland in the Greenpark area of Canterbury.
"I am comfortable that we were searching for Yanfei and that we have found her," Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves said.
The post mortem will take place tomorrow, with results likely to take a few days.
"You get the organic fall of trees... there's no obvious disturbance and I don't think there would have been an obvious disturbance at the time either. I think it was probably covered up."
The farmland has been previously searched, but new information that gave "quite a specific direction or location of where we needed to be" prompted the investigation team to return.
This information came in six to eight weeks ago, Reeves said, but a bit of planning was needed ahead of Tuesday's search.
Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves. Photo: RNZ / Nathan Mckinnon
"A lot goes into it, certainly a lot of visits to the area, what does the ground look like, what's the terrain, what resources, what equipment do we need, how many people are we going to need.
"It's not something that we would rush out and do."
Police were searching for about an hour and a half before finding the remains, she said.
"What it means is going forward we'll be able to tell a full story and not have a big part of that story missing or undone, so that's really satisfying and comforting that we will be able to give her daughter and her family answers to a lot of questions that we haven't been able to so far."
While it was the intention to find something today, it was still a shock, she said.
"There's a lot of emotions today for all of the investigations team and everybody who has been involved in the last year and ten days.
"We are relieved that what we set out to do we have done. We are enormously proud of the police team that have worked really hard on this over the last year."
Bao's family was told the search would be taking place today.
Bao had been working at Harcourts. Managing director Bryan Thomson said in a statement they had seen the news and their thoughts were with her family, friends and colleagues.
A 53-year-old Chinese national, Tingjun Cao, has been accused of her kidnapping and murder, with a trial date scheduled for October.
Reeves said police were "certainly not seeking anybody else in relation to Yanfei Bao's disappearance".
Police will continue to prepare for trial and the one piece of the puzzle they did not have, they now do, Reeves said.