Police are “confident” remains found in a creek bed belong to an allegedly murdered grandmother.

Nadire Sensoy, 71, was first reported missing from her home in Prospect, Western Sydney, by her daughter in December 2018.

Subsequent searches for Sensoy stretched from Sydney across the world to Turkey but failed to reveal any sign of her.

That was until Thursday morning, when detectives excavated a section of Toongabbie Creek off of Powers Rd in Seven Hills, about 6km northeast of her home.

Officers dug through a 100m stretch of the creek bed before making the discovery just two metres outside of the search area.

“We’re confident that it is the body of Sensoy,” Superintendent Darrin Batchelor said.

“I’ve seen the location this morning and it appears that it was a shallow gravesite.

“Sensoy’s body wasn’t too far under the ground, so the initial dig in that area from the excavator was quite quick to locate that body.”

Batchelor said the search location had been decided on after “several investigation strategies” were employed by detectives.

“It was a very mixed emotion,” Batchelor said.

“They did get comfort that her body had been located but obviously the emotions of reliving what had happened to their mother, they were quite upset at the same time.”

While confident the remains belong to the grandmother, detectives are awaiting forensic confirmation while attempting to determine a link between the location and a man accused of her murder.

The 47-year-old man was arrested at Wagga Wagga Police Station in 2023 over Sensoy’s death and remains before the courts.