(CNN) Remains believed to be those of a missing 2-year-old Virginia boy were found Wednesday morning in a steam plant that converts trash to energy, ending days of searching in a case where the boy's mother is charged in his disappearance, police said.

The remains, suspected to be Noah Tomlin's, were found at the city-owned steam plant in Hampton just before 9 a.m., nine days after his mother reported him missing from their Hampton mobile home, Hampton Police Chief Terry Sult said.

The plant is where city waste goes to burn. The combustion interacts with a water supply, creating steam that is piped to the nearby NASA Langley Research Center, which uses the steam for power.

City police officers -- suspecting the boy's body may have been taken to the plant or a landfill -- spent days sifting through about 2 million pounds of garbage by hand, Sult said.

The remains were not incinerated, said Sult, who declined to otherwise describe the remains' condition or say how they arrived at the plant. A medical examiner will examine the remains for formal identification, he said.

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