Covered in seaweed and grime Leo Lipp-Neighbours car is brought from the bottom of Nelson Harbour.

The skeletal remains found inside a submerged vehicle at a Nelson harbour are those of Leo Lipp-Neighbours, who was missing for seven years.

Police confirmed the identification on Wednesday afternoon, marking an end to one of New Zealand's most gripping missing persons cases.

Nelson Bays area commander Inspector Mat Arnold-Kelly said: "Police acknowledges that this confirmation brings some closure for the family and extends their sympathies to Mr Lipp-Neighbours' friends and family."

SUPPLIED Leo Lipp-Neighbours with his mother Charlotte Lipp.

The remains were found inside Lipp-Neighbours' orange station wagon when it was recovered from the water last week.

READ MORE:

* The agony of losing Leo

* How Leo's car was found

* Q&A: The Leo Lipp-Neighbours case

* Looking for Leo

Lipp-Neighbours was last seen leaving his Nelson flat in the station wagon about 4am on January 24, 2010.

BRADEN FASTIER The car linked to missing student Leo Lipp-Neighbours is lifted on to a Port Nelson wharf on Tuesday night.

He told a friend something like: "I'm going to be at one with nature." And then he disappeared without a trace. He was 19.

Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Johnston said the entire police file would be reviewed to assist the coroner's investigation.

The police investigation was now focussed on determining how the car came to be in the water, he said.

BRADEN FASTIER / FAIRFAX NZ Leo's parents Charlotte Lipp and Colin Neighbours inspect the car wreck with Detective Sergeant Mark Kaveney.

Leo's orange Toyota station wagon was recovered from the water at the wharf in Wakefield Quay on April 4.

It was covered in seaweed and slime. It looked like it had been underwater for seven years.



But to the small crowd that had gathered at the wharf, it was clear that it was a station wagon.

Police confirmed the next day that skeletal remains were found inside the car.

BRADEN FASTIER/FAIRFAX NZ Police continue to investigate Leo Lipp-Neighbours car after it was lifted from the bottom of Nelson Harbour on Tuesday night.

The car was forensically examined and pulled apart by police as they worked to determine how it came to be in the water, only a couple hundred metres from a busy arterial road.

Where the car was found only added to the mystery. How did a young man disappear without a trace two kilometres from home?

The search for Leo spanned from Marlborough to Golden Bay. His family, friends and volunteers combed the region, looking anywhere a car might be able to leave the road and disappear.

MARION VAN DIJK Emma Eagle and her daughter Lily Eagle, 4, place flowers at the Wakefield Quay Port Nelson wharf where Leo Lipp-Neighbours car was found.

Divers have worked in that area inspecting ships in the years since. People went fishing off the wharf.

Graduates of Nelson Girls' College jump into the water there on the last day of school each year.

And all that time, Leo was there.

It was a coincidence that his car was found on the morning of April 3. Crew from the super yacht, Fidelis, berthed at the wharf were diving in the water to inspect an anchor when they saw what they thought was a tyre.

The chance sighting on the seabed led to commercial diver Bruce Lines being called.

On that Monday afternoon he confirmed it was a car that looked to have been there for some time. The car was orange.

Nelson's most senior police officers were soon on the scene and it became clear that the discovery in the water was serious.

When the car was lifted from the water after dark and placed on the wharf at Port Nelson, Leo's parents and friends gathered for a short ceremony.

Prayers were said. Leaves were laid on the front seat. Leo's mother sang "You are my sunshine".

Some of the people in the crowd cried. A woman said she knew the parents and her heart was breaking for them.

Others said it must be good for the family to have closure, whatever that means for the bereaved.

Leo's friend Ben Clark, believed to be the last person to see him alive, said: "The overall feeling was that we are glad he is home."