• Leeton turns out to mourn Stephanie Scott

Stanford worked as a cleaner at Ms Scott’s workplace – Leeton High School – and was charged with murdering the teacher on Easter Sunday.

The discovery of Ms Scott’s remains came as a major breakthrough for police, who had been searching for her body since Wednesday night.

Sources said it appears Ms Scott’s body was taken to the remote location, dumped in bushland and burned.

It comes after police divers pulled Ms Scott’s laptop from an irrigation canal outside of Leeton on Friday morning.

Divers were led to the location after witnesses saw a man dumping an object in the waterway, 6.5 kilometres from where Ms Scott’s car was found on a rural property on Thursday.

“I saw a car park across the road, saw a man walking in through the grass and up the channel bank,” Paul Halls said.

“I thought he was going to take a photo of the channel or something.

“When he came back down I asked the guys if he still had his iPad or whatever in his hand and he didn’t.”

Mr Halls was at a large shed across the road when he saw the man about 4pm on Easter Sunday.

Fellow witness Brendan Lyons said he saw a man run up the bank towards the channel and throw something he was carrying in his hand into the water.

“We rang and told (police) on Wednesday when we heard what had happened,” Mr Lyons said.

Sources have confirmed the laptop pulled from the canal belonged to Ms Scott, an English and Drama teacher at Leeton High School.

The discovery may offer little comfort to Ms Scott’s family, who will continue the dreaded wait to find her body on the day the teacher was meant to get married.

Ms Scott was due to wed her fiancee Aaron Leeson-Woolley among close friends and family in Eugowra on Saturday.

Instead her parents, siblings and close family will spend the day waiting for any news on the whereabouts of their daughter’s remains.