In handing down his findings, Coroner Cooper said he found Hunt offered Ms Butterworth a ride home to New Norfolk on August 25, 1969.

Coroner Cooper found Hunt pulled over on the Lyell Highway and strangled Ms Butterworth to death, and dumped her body near the Derwent River.

“On the journey to New Norfolk Mr Hunt stopped the FB Holden, strangled Miss Butterworth in the vehicle and thereafter disposed of her body on the southern bank of the Derwent River, past the Lime Kilns area roughly halfway between Granton and New Norfolk,” Coroner Cooper said.

It was put to the inquest that when Hunt was arrested for the brutal murder of car saleswoman Susan Knight he admitted to also killing Ms Butterworth.

Evidence of former police officers Barry Dillon and Ken O’Garey was that Hunt picked up Ms Butterworth from the bus stop and during the journey to New Norfolk he pulled over and tried to kiss her, before strangling her to death and dumping her body at the water’s edge.

Hunt denied the admissions.

“I am satisfied to the requisite standard that the confessions described by Mr Dillon and Mr O’Garey of Mr Hunt as to his involvement in the disappearance of Miss Butterworth took place as described by them and that those confessions were true,” Coroner Cooper said.

The inquest had heard evidence of incompetent police investigations, and that Ms Butterworth was mistakenly classed as a runaway. 

It took months, and even years, for a proper investigation to get underway. 

“Indeed, few officers involved in the investigation, other than Detective Inspector Plumpton, Senior Constable Rushton, and Detective Constable Millhouse emerge from this case with any real credit,” he said.

“It is a matter of real regret that it was not until 2011 when Inspector Plumpton, Senior Constable Rushton and Constable Millhouse became involved in the investigation that it was dealt with appropriately and professionally.”

Outside the court, her brothers Jim and John said they would be pushing to have criminal charges laid on Hunt.

“We’re very pleased with today’s results,” Jim said.

“You move on, but you never forget.”

Ms Butterworth’s fiance John Fitzgerald said naming Hunt as the killer gave him some closure, but he still wanted to find her body.

He had a message for Hunt.

“Just tell us where Lucille’s remains are, please,” he said.

“We need to know, it’s the most important thing.”

Tasmania Police is preparing a file for the DPP.

EARLIER: A coroner will on Monday hand down findings into the 50 year-old disappearance of Hobart woman Lucille Butterworth.

A coronial inquest was held during 2015 into Ms Butterworth’s suspected murder in 1969.

The 20-year-old typist and part-time model vanished from a Claremont bus stop, and her body has never been found.

It is one of the state’s most baffling cold cases.

Convicted murderer and rapist Geoffrey Charles Hunt was named the main person of interest, and took the stand to give evidence at the inquest.

Hunt denied knowing Ms Butterworth, despite living near her fiance in New Norfolk.

Witnesses described seeing a turquoise “old bomb” car near the bus stop at the time Ms Butterworth disappeared.

Hunt told the inquest he sometimes drove a turquoise Holden, but did not drive it on the day in question.

One of Hunt’s colleagues gave evidence that he got a ride home with Hunt on August 25, 1969 when Ms Butterworth disappeared, which placed him in the area.

The evidence of former police officers was heard, including evidence that Hunt admitted to the murder of Ms Butterworth in 1976.

Hunt denied the admissions.

Another person of interest, convicted rapist John Lonergan, was named.

The inquest heard evidence from Lonergan’s former wife who believed he was the culprit.

Lonergan had called in sick to work the night Ms Butterworth disappeared, and his wife recalls him using the incinerator at their home.

Counsel assisting the coroner Simon Nicholson told the inquest Ms Butterworth was unlikely to get in the car with someone she did not know.

The inquest also heard evidence of botched police investigations, and that Ms Butterworth was initially classed as a runaway. 

It took months, and even years, for a proper investigation to get underway. 

Ms Butterworth’s brothers Jim and John have attended every day of the lengthy inquest.

Her unofficial fiance John Fitzgerald has also attended.

The family have been desperate for answers, and fear the inquest is their last hope.