In extraordinary scenes, Far North Regional Crime Co-ordinator Detective Inspector Geoff Marsh was interrupted mid-press conference about 9.45am today to be told a skeleton had been found dumped in a rainforest gully at Cowley Beach, about 20km south of Innisfail.

It comes just a day after her former partner Graeme Colin Evans led police to the thickly-forested ridge line above a sugar cane field, where he allegedly disposed of her body in a violent crime of passion in April 2010.

“Her body had been simply placed on the earth,’’ Detective Inspector Marsh said.

“It appears there was no effort to conceal her location.’’

Just three hours after 20 police including homicide detectives and 20 SES crew were deployed up an isolated farm track for the search, a human skull and skeleton believed to be the body of Ms Lapham was spotted in the jungle gully.

Ms Lapham, who had a three-week-old boy at the time, was last seen after she entered a room at the Innisfail’s Riverside Motel.