Acting NT Police Commissioner Michael White said police did not think her death was suspicious.

"It is more than likely she was just camping in that area or happened to be that she passed away there," he said in Darwin on Monday.

"This circumstance is unique as there was never a missing person's report filed... maybe she's been disenfranchised with the family."

Mr White said police at the time explored all avenues to identify the woman.

The case was potentially stalled because of a lack of thorough record keeping when the body was found, detective Toby Wilson said.

"So one of the main issues is the actual records ... now there's a lot more information available," he said.

Det Wilson said police were optimistic the facial image would trigger the memories of the woman's family or friends.

"That could be photographs, they could just be simple things in terms of birth certificates, it could just be that she lives on in people's memories," he said.

"The family may not actually realise she was a missing person or might have just believed that she'd left and gone somewhere."

Last year, new forensic technology helped solve the case of a missing Tiwi man who disappeared without a trace in 1996.

While his family believed he had started a new life in Alice Springs, technology matched his remains to those of a man found in a ditch near Darwin Airport in 1996.

"That family were thankful and relieved that we were able to give them closure," Mr White said.

"The key message today is it gives family who have missing people in their family, the ability for closure."

There are 170 people missing in the Northern Territory. 

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