The mystery disappearance of a ­beloved son and brother has finally been solved – more than 25 years on.

Harry Woods went missing on Christmas Eve 1984 and his father, Harry snr, and ­sister Grace have never got over losing him.

Now police have revealed Harry’s remains were buried in an unmarked grave just months after he vanished.

The family launched a desperate plea through the Evening Times last Christmas in the hope they would finally be able to find out what happened to Harry.

Police reopened the case last year and after extensive inquiries, Harry’s sister Grace Walker and dad Harry, snr, now know the truth about his disappearance.

The Evening Times was involved in the original appeal and now the mystery has come full circle with the discovery of Harry’s final resting place.

It was a knock at the door the family were dreading. On Monday the police officer leading the investigation told them they had formally identified his remains.

Harry is believed to have died shortly after disappearing. His body was dredged up in the Clyde at Rothesay Dock – eight months after he went missing. He was buried by the police 12 days later in an unmarked grave at Dalnottar Cemetery in Clydebank in August 1985.

The body was exhumed last month and DNA samples were taken and three weeks later the family were told they were a match with Harry’s father.

Now after a quarter of a century the family can finally grieve for a brother and son.

His sister Grace Walker, 53, said: “After all this time we finally know what happened to Harry. My Dad and I have the answers we were looking for and can now grieve and accept some closure.

“To think that he has lain in an unmarked grave for so long is quite unbelievable, but I suppose things like that happened then. He was found in a different police division from the one he went missing in and there was little or no communication between them in those days.”

Harry, whose real name is Henry, was 32 years old when he went missing from his flat in Sanda Street, Maryhill, on December 24, 1984. The well-paid cooper was last seen by work-mates when the former Universal Containers depot, in Ruchill, closed for the festive break.

Police now believe there was no foul play but that he had simply gone fishing and fallen in the river.

When the case was reopened police looked at whether there was any trace of Harry living elsewhere, but when they drew a blank there was another option open to them.

Sergeant Jeff Harper, who led the reopened investigation, said: “We searched records in case he had started a new life somewhere. We looked through anything from council tax records, any benefit claims, but there was nothing.”

He continued: “We had exhausted everything, but considered the possibility he have been unidentified all this time.

“Given his height and build and timescale he disappeared there was only one person whose body was found in the Clyde out of nine unidentified people.

“After securing a warrant to exhume a body buried in 1985, we carried out DNA tests and it confirmed it was Harry.

“I would have loved to tell the family we had found him living the high life somewhere, but sadly it was not the case. I hope this brings some closure to them.”

Grace and her dad have now visited Harry’s grave to lay flowers and in time are planning to erect a headstone.

She added: “Sergeant Harper has worked tirelessly on this inquiry, and without him we don’t think we would ever have found out the truth.

“We have now been to the grave and it is in a beautiful, quiet area.

“Everything has happened so fast in the past couple of days, but we want to place a headstone at the grave and hold a service for relatives.

“We knew there was a slim chance of him being found alive, but it is still hard to take in. It is devastating to be told that Harry is dead.”

As reported in the Evening Times just days before Christmas last year, Harry snr, just wanted to know where his son was.

Despite an appeal by the ­family in the months after he disappeared, and intensive inquiries by the police, everything drew a blank. His family put up posters in the hope someone had seen him.

He said: “We have lived with this pain for 25 years and we need to know what happened to him. We can’t move on or even grieve for him.”

Grace added: “Every time the police have found a body, I would get a phone call, but it never turned out to be Harry.”

She spoke of how life has never been the same since he disappeared.

She said: “It’s like living a half-life in many ways, until we know what happened to him. Not a day goes by without us thinking of him. It’s has been a living nightmare.”