'Murdered' woman found after 25 years

An Australian woman missing for more than 25 years, has been found after a recent coroner's hearing generated publicity.

Kathleen Marie Aitken from New South Wales was last seen by her family in 1976, and was located through a number of sources.

Before her discovery, Ms Aitken's mother and two of her sisters told a Westmead Coroner's Court they believed her father, Sydney Aitken, killed her.

"He wouldn't kill anybody by wanting to, but he had a filthy temper and I think that's what might have happened," the woman's mother Sylvia Ross, 80, told the Coroner's Court.

But Mr Aitken, 73, insisted his daughter was alive and had visited him in the late 1980s.

Police said they had only ever treated the disappearance as a missing person's case, which was now closed.

It's reported that Ms Aitken, 52, had three children in their 20s, and had changed her name.

Mrs Ross said she had not yet spoken to Ms Aitken but was happy to know she was alive. "We're going to let her cool off a little bit before we go to see her, but I don't know what made her leave home like that, it's a big mystery."