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'They never had any closure right to the grave'; brother says of family's grief after human remains found

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Nova Scotia RCMP say they've recovered human remains that may be connected to a woman who disappeared from Eastern Passage nearly 22 years ago, and the woman's brother says he's greatly relieved to finally have a sense of closure in the case.

"I can't describe how good that closure feels," says Troy McLean from his home in Dieppe, N.B. "To get that behind me."

Arlene McLean was 28 when she vanished on Sept. 8, 1999.

She told her common-law husband she was stepping out around 8:30 p.m., and that she wouldn't be gone long.

She took the family car, a 1993 green Elantra, and both vanished without a trace.

The case languished for years in Nova Scotia's Rewards for Major Unsolved Crimes Program.

Frequently revisited by media around the anniversary, it was also a featured case in the web series Unforgotten, produced by Rattlebox Multimedia in collaboration with the RCMP/HRP Special Investigation Section

In a short news release issued Wednesday, RCMP revealed they'd recovered human remains related to the case, but declined to say where or when they were found.

"The investigation is ongoing to determine what happened with the disappearance, and we'll have more information available once we can provide that information," Halifax District RCMP Cpl. Lisa Croteau told CTV News, adding the force was working with the medical examiner to verify the identity.

Although surprised and shocked to get the call from investigators last week, Troy McLean says the news brings a sense of peace to Arlene's loved ones, although it comes too late for their parents.

"My father died of cancer about six months after my sister disappeared, and my mother was just four years the other day," he says. "As a parent, they never had any closure right to the grave. And, as a parent (myself) now, I can only imagine how that dogged them through the years."

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