THE family of missing man Derek Upton say their painful wait is over after a body found in the River Severn was identified as his.

Mr Upton, 64, a retired steelworker from Caldicot, went missing with a rifle on Sunday, September 25.

His car was found a day later at The Moors, and two weeks later the gun was discovered beside the River Severn.

His body was recovered on November 6 near the sea wall at Rogiet. Gwent Police confirmed the identification yesterday, but are not treating his death as suspicious.

His sister, Susan Davies, from Church Road, Caldicot, said the family is relieved to have an outcome.

She said: "We would have always wondered. Now we can do our grieving."

Mr Upton visited his sister a few days before disappearing to say his marriage of four months was over.

Mrs Davies said: "He was anxious and deeply troubled at the break-up of his marriage."

On the day he went missing Mr Upton went out to a car-boot sale, but half an hour after leaving the house he returned and told his 42-year-old son, Dean, who has learning difficulties, that "he needed to get away and sort his head out".

Later, Mrs Davies discovered he had phoned the vicar in Magor to tell him what he planned to do, who then notified police.

She said: "Nobody can believe he got to that depth of despair - something must have happened in that half-hour to make him snap."

She described her brother as a "brilliant man" with a love of nature and a "thirst for knowledge".

Mr Upton was a keen amateur archaeologist and made several important discoveries in the Severn Estuary, including some of the earliest footprints ever found. He received an honorary degree from the University of Wales for his contributions.

He also had a passion for nature and was a voluntary warden at Magor Marsh, where the learning centre is named after him.

His brothers, Gerald and Brian, also live locally, and another sister, Janet, has come over from Ireland for the funeral.

His closest friend of 15 years, Cindy McOwen, said: "He was a real Caldicot Pill boy - you can still see where he scratched his name on the metalworks wall as a lad"