Human remains found near a highway overpass have been identified as belonging to Sydney woman Samah Baker, who was murdered by her jealous ex-boyfriend more than four years ago.

A woman found the body on July 28 in grassland near the Hume Highway on the outskirts of Goulburn, about 200km southwest of Sydney.

NSW Police on Thursday said the remains had been forensically identified as belonging to 30-year-old Ms Baker, who was murdered near her Parramatta apartment in January 2019.

James Hachem, 37, is serving a minimum 18-year prison term for the killing, which his sentencing judge described as a “great human tragedy”.

He was found guilty of Ms Baker’s murder last year despite investigators being unable to find her body.

In a statement on Thursday, her family said their grief had been compounded by their inability to have a funeral or say goodbye to their loved one.

“The news of her remains being discovered four-and-a-half years later isn’t a neat resolution, but it does offer a small measure of what we’ve been longing for all this time,” they said.

“Each development in the case feels like a reopening of our barely healed wounds, reminding us of the harsh reality of our loss.”

Ms Baker had been in an on-again, off-again relationship with Hachem for more than three years, however the month before her murder she ended it after meeting a new partner.

He lured Ms Baker out of her apartment with a concocted story about his parents being involved in a car accident before killing her in a jealous rage.

Hachem later went to Bunnings and bought various items including a double sheet, gloves, cleaning products and a digging trowel, before driving to isolated rural areas.

NSW Supreme Court judge Robertson Wright said Ms Baker’s murder had caused a great loss, describing the victim as “a captivating person who made those around her feel whole”.

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By Peter Bodkin in Sydney