POLICE have found the decomposed body of a missing man on the remote property used as Gino and Mark Stocco's final hideout.
The father-and-son fugitives were arrested on the central western NSW property on Wednesday morning after eight years on the run.
Fairfax Media has been told the caretaker of the remote property, Pinevale, disappeared in suspicious circumstances about four weeks ago.
Hours after arresting the pair in a dramatic covert operation, police started searching the property's thick bushland for a body.
A police spokesman said at 3.45pm that a body had been located on the property, believed to be a 68-year-old man who has been missing since October 8.
Investigators fear Gino, 57 and Mark, 36, may have had some involvement in the man's disappearance, Fairfax Media has been told.
Heavily armed police surrounded the 385-hectare property on Wednesday morning after receiving intelligence that the Stoccos were hiding out there.
Police arrested the pair without incident and no shots were fired.
Local farmers said Pinevale, 50 kilometres east of Dubbo, was extremely remote and the Stoccos must have had prior knowledge of it before heading there in recent days.
"It's not something you drive past at all," said nearby farmer Matt O'Leary. "It's a pretty good hiding spot."
Pinevale is located down a little-known bush track, Tonniges Lane, outside the tiny town of Elong Elong and is mostly dense bushland that is inhospitable to crops or livestock.
It was bought about 18 months ago by a Sydney-based man who would visit for no more than a few days each year, locals said.
The owner raised the alarm with police in recent months after being unable to contact his caretaker.
Former owners Deanne and Tony Sultana described the hidden property as perfect for hunting, holidaying and riding horses and motorbikes.
Their real-estate advertisement last year said the property had numerous remote motorbike and horse tracks, two homes, a workshop, tractor sheds, storage sheds, wooden stock yards, five dams and new fencing.
It is the perfect property "to escape to when you have had enough of city life", their ad said.
Mr O'Leary said the property backed on to the Goonoo State Forest and was mostly thick bushland, perfect for hiding out.
"It's not prime agricultural land at all; there's no way you could earn an income."
It's believed the Stoccos had worked on farms in the area over recent years but Mr O'Leary said he had never seen them in Elong Elong.
The pair had been on the run for more than eight years, wanted for a sting of property and violent crimes across NSW, Victoria and Queensland.
