A “very decomposed” body has been found in the hunt for triple murderer Julian Ingram.

Ingram, 37, vanished from the remote country town of Lake Cargelligo in NSW’s Central West on January 22 after gunning down and killing three people including his pregnant former partner Sophie Quinn, her friend John Harris and her aunt Nerida Quinn.

A fourth person, Kaleb Macqueen, survived with serious injuries.

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In a statement on Monday afternoon, NSW Police confirmed a body had been found at a remote nature reserve not far from Lake Cargelligo.

“About 3.40pm today, officers attached to Central West Police District were alerted to reports of an abandoned vehicle at Roundhill Nature Reserve about 100km north-west of the town,” police said.

“On arrival, police located the body of a man who is believed to be aged in his late 30s. He is yet to be formally identified and a crime scene has been established.”

Assistant police commissioner Andrew Holland later addressed the media at Dubbo Police Station, confirming a male body in a “very decomposed state” was found lying next to a white Ford Ranger ute at the reserve.

The ute is the same one Ingram was seen fleeing in after the triple murder.

Holland said a gun was lying next to the body and police believe the body could be Ingram’s.

“It’s yet to be formally identified, but we believe with the identification at the scene that we’ve located, the clothing that the deceased is wearing, it would lead us to believe that it is him,” he said.

The body was found by rangers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, who were carrying out feral animal eradication in the area when they discovered the ute, Holland added.

Ingram’s driver’s licence was also found in the vehicle.

Police were first called to Lake Cargelligo about 4.30pm on January 22 to reports two people — 25-year-old Sophie Quinn and 32-year-old John Harris — were found shot in a car in Bokhara St.

Officers were then called to Walker Street after 50-year-old Nerida Quinn and 19-year-old Kaleb Macqueen were found suffering gunshot wounds.

In March, authorities said they believed Ingram was still alive and that someone in the wider Lake Cargelligo community is helping him avoid capture.

“We do believe there is someone out there in the community that knows where he is and you leave the rest to us,” police said.

Investigators say they hope the substantial reward will prompt someone with knowledge of Ingram’s whereabouts to come forward.

“The smallest piece of information can be that piece of the puzzle that the police are looking for,” authorities said.