Police unearthed human remains that they believe are those of missing Hollywood actress Adea Shabani.
On Tuesday morning, the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office and their coroner’s division discovered the remains of a woman in a shallow grave in the Spenceville Wildlife Area in Penn Valley, California, according to a Facebook post by the sheriff’s office.
During a press conference on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told reporters, “At this point in time, we believe that those remains are the body of Miss. Adea Shabani.”
“We cannot say that conclusively at this point in time because the condition of the remains prohibited positive identification,” he continued, adding that they believed Christopher Spotz, a man authorities identified as Shabani’s boyfriend, was “somehow involved in her death.”
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An autopsy on the body will be performed on Wednesday in which the identity, cause and manner of death will be determined.
“We believe it to be a homicide,” the LAPD spokesperson said. “However, until the conclusion of the autopsy… we won’t be able to determine that definitively.”
Spotz died by suicide on March 22 in a California stand-off with police — which only intensified the search for Shabani, 25, who has been missing since February.
According to Fox-11 Los Angeles, police pursued the man in a chase from Hesperia to Corona with an unnamed passenger before he shot himself in the head, dying on the scene.
PEOPLE confirmed that investigators have impounded the Tacoma and a crime scene unit has been combing it for forensic evidence related to the Shabani case.
Shabani, who is originally from Macedonia, moved to L.A. to study acting. She had been in the area for less than two years, according to KABC.
After Shabani’s disappearance, her mother flew from her home of Macedonia to help with the search, putting up fliers in the area, KABC reported. Her family has also hired a private investigator.
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.com.
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