After the discovery of a body believed to be that of fugitive Julian Ingram in a patch of red dirt and scrub 50km from Lake Cargelligo on Monday afternoon, the community will begin a long and complex recovery.
The 37-year-old council gardener was wanted for killing his former partner Sophie Quinn and her unborn child, her aunt Nerida Quinn and her friend John Harris in the small western NSW community on January 22.
Ms Quinn, 25, and Mr Harris, 32, were killed when Ingram sprayed bullets into the front of a hatchback about 4.20pm.
Soon after, Ms Quinn's 50-year-old aunt was shot dead at her home, where 19-year-old Kaleb Macqueen was also shot and injured.
The town of 1500 immediately went into lockdown as specialist police and Army personnel descended, with locals drawing their curtains, shutting shops and deserting the main street.
Investigators considered 300 public tips, while scouring unforgiving bushland, vast properties and farm sheds for signs of Ingram.
Despite a $250,000 police reward, months passed without any significant breakthroughs.
Locals remained hypervigilant throughout, said Lifeline Central West chief executive Stephanie Robinson, whose counselling teams have been working in the community.
"That perceived threat .. (affected) their feeling of safety, moving about, letting children play, people stopped leaving their doors open," Ms Robinson told AAP.
"It's hard. There were lots of rumours, suspicion and probably a lot of intergenerational trauma."
National Parks and Wildlife Service workers stumbled upon the "very decomposed" body next to a high-calibre firearm and the white council ute Ingram fled town in.
A shotgun was found on the front passenger seat.
Western Region Commander Andrew Holland said it appeared Ingram went to the Round Hill Nature Reserve shortly after the murders and police no longer believe he was assisted to flee.
An unconfirmed sighting of Ingram on the highway to the outpost of Mount Hope initially directed search crews further west to the Nombinnie forest.
The complexity of the search could be compared to putting a helicopter above the Sydney CBD and looking for one person, Assistant Commissioner Holland said.
"It's a fair distance to cover and it's a massive area of land out there."
It was an imperfect ending for police and the victims' families.
Relatives of the Quinns are angry that Ingram will not face justice, a family friend told AAP.
Ingram went on the shooting rampage just hours after reporting for bail at a local police station on domestic violence charges related to Ms Quinn.
An ongoing independent investigation into the police search as well as a coronial inquest will inform any changes to domestic violence monitoring, NSW police commissioner Mal Lanyon said.
"We are committed ... to review the circumstances of the police response to domestic and family violence and bail," Mr Lanyon told reporters.
Known by some as "the pearl of the west" for its sparkling lake and proximity to the outback, Lake Cargelligo will begin to re-build.
Police Aboriginal Community Liaison Officers will work to let people know they're safe from Ingram.
Ms Robinson said locals wanted the town to be known for something other than the murders.
"We'll be working with community leaders about helping reshape the story of what Lake is about and not it just being known as 'that place'," she said.
"They're far more than that."
A post-mortem examination will be conducted on Friday to confirm the body is Ingram's.
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