Bushland remains are of double murderer

THE hunt for one of the state's most wanted men is over, with the discovery of the double-murderer Stanley Maguire's corpse in bushland north of Sydney.

The skeletal remains of the 59-year-old were found on Tuesday evening by a bushwalker about 40 metres from the Old Pacific Highway.

A preliminary examination suggested Maguire may have killed himself with a shotgun, possibly the one he used to kill a Wollongong miner, Stephen Holmes in November.

Some articles were recovered near the corpse.

Maguire has been on the state's most wanted list since he killed the 41-year-old father of four with a shotgun after an argument.

Mr Holmes's widow, Angela, said her husband had gone across the road to confront Maguire about the "insanities" he was repeating "over and over".

"My husband had had enough," she said last year. "He asked him to be quiet. And he pulled a gun and killed him."

Maguire's red Nissan Pulsar hatchback was discovered a day later, abandoned on the side of a road near Mount White north of Sydney. Police scoured the area but failed to find him.

It quickly emerged that Mr Holmes was the second man Maguire had killed. In 1993 Maguire ran over and shot another miner, John Vickers, in the car park of a Central Coast RSL.

Maguire was found guilty of manslaughter and spent seven years in jail before being released in 2002. He moved to Woonona but fled after he shot Mr Holmes.

Yesterday the mother of Mr Holmes, Yvonne, said the discovery meant they wouldn't have to "face him in court". "We won't have to relive it all."