The Nova Scotia Justice Department says it has paid out its first cash reward under the province’s Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes program.

The program was established eight years ago in a bid to solve cold cases. Under the program, the province will pay up to $150,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in certain cases.

The department says the recipient of the $150,000 reward provided a tip that led to the arrest and conviction of two brothers in the disappearance of Melissa Dawn Peacock, who vanished in November 2011.

“If it wasn’t for a tip…I don’t even want to think about where we’d be today,” says Peacock’s mother, Ruth Slauenwhite. “We might still not have answers. How families can go on without answers is beyond me.”

Peacock’s case was added to the program in May 2012, joining dozens of other unsolved homicides and missing persons cases.

The department says a tip was left on the program's telephone line that same month and Dustan Joseph Preeper and Joshua Michael Preeper were arrested that summer.

“That information led police to lay charges against two individuals,” says Roger Merrick, director of public safety.

Dustan Preeper, 24, and Joshua Preeper, 20, received life sentences after pleading guilty last month to first-degree murder and second-degree murder, respectively.

“I can say thank you, but that doesn’t even come close to what I feel,” says Slauenwhite. “They gave us answers and they brought Melissa Home.”

Police say information from the same person also helped solve the July 2010 homicide of Ben Hare, which was not part of the program.

Dustan Preeper pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Hare’s death.

This is the first time the province has handed out the $150,000 reward since the program started eight years ago, which Merrick says is significant.

“Not just because it shows the success of the program, but it shows that we’ve had convictions in a homicide where we would have had people walking around the street that have committed murder,” he says.

There are currently 77 cases in the program and, to date, 84 calls have come in. In addition to last month’s conviction in the Melissa Peacock murder, tips from the program have led to arrests in three other cases.

Those cases are before the courts and the Nova Scotia Justice Department hopes the payout will prompt more people to call with information on other unsolved crimes.

“We could have some information out there that people may not think is really valuable, but every piece of information is valuable in solving these cases,” says Nova Scotia Justice Minister Lena Metlege-Diab.

“Come forward for sure,” says Slauenwhite. “You’re giving the family answers they need.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Jacqueline Foster