Murder victim Karlie Pearce-Stevenson’s bank account was used to access $90,000 and her phone used to contact family to make it look like she was still alive, police have revealed.

The woman’s bank account was accessed on hundreds of occasions after she was last seen alive in late 2008, Detective Superintendent Des Bray of the Major Crime Investigation Branch told reporters in Adelaide.

Ms Pearce-Stevenson’s remains were found in the Belanglo State Forest in New South Wales in 2010.

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Her daughter Khandalyce’s remains were found near the side of a highway at Wynarka in South Australia earlier this year.

“People we believe may be the offenders and others have taken over Karlie’s identity, her telephone, her bank accounts, her Centrelink and family payments,” Det Supt Bray said.

“We need to determine if the people involved in the frauds are involved in the murder and it is most likely that one or more may be involved in some way.

“It’s clear that some of the people involved in the frauds knew without doubt that Karlie and Khandalyce were dead and continued with their role.

“In respect to what we know about the suspects involved in the financial aspects of the bank account transactions, Centrelink fraud and the use of the phone, I can say that we know that at least one offender was a male. There may have been more, and at least two are females.

“Those suspects either resided at, or are associated with or were listed in connection with, properties at Davoren Park, Hillbank, Holden Hill and Charnwood in Canberra.”

Police said a member of the young woman’s family sent money to her account and it was later withdrawn.

They said more than $90,000 went through the bank account before it was closed earlier this year.

Police also said a woman attended a Centrelink office at Salisbury in Adelaide on December 15, 2010, and produced identity papers when she posed as Karlie.

Phone used to mislead family: police

Detective Superintendent Bray said the victim’s mobile phone was kept as “some proof of life” by the offenders.

“We believe that the phone was kept by the offenders and used to provide some proof of life and to mislead family, friends, law enforcement by suggesting that Karlie was still alive because of activity on her phone,” he said.

Khandalyce Kiara Pearce and her mother were reported missing late 2009. Photo: SA Police

He said the message bank was accessed from time to time.

“We know … some of the SMSs were sent to family members, again to suggest Karlie was still alive and that on at least a couple of occasions that we know of a female falsely represented herself to be Karlie in communication with family,” he said.

Detective Superintendent Bray said the last confirmed sighting of the young woman before her death was in Canberra.

“We believe Karlie and Khandalyce were killed at different times and different locations but we can’t say any more about that at the moment,” he said.

“They were both violent and deliberate deaths.”

Police said previously that Karlie, 20, from Alice Springs and her two-year-old daughter were last seen in November 2008 driving on the Stuart Highway near Coober Pedy in outback South Australia.

They think the young mother was killed in or near the Belanglo Forest some time around December 2008.

The circumstances of Khandalyce’s death are unclear, along with when a suitcase containing clothing was dumped about two kilometres from Wynarka in South Australia.

A death notice was printed on Tuesday in the Northern Territory News for the two murder victims.