Search for Missing Nursing Student Missing Michelle Le Turns Up Body in Sunol, CA (UPDATE: Body ID’d as Michelle Le)

A search for missing 26 year old nursing student Michelle Le has discovered a body Saturday located in near a secluded dirt trail in the Bay Area community of Sunol, CA.  According to  Sgt. J.D. Nelson of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, a badly decomposed body was found at about 10:30 AM in Sunol Canyon, a remote, rugged area off Interstate 680 between Pleasanton and Sunol near Verona Road. The body is too badly decomposed to determine if the remains were those of a male or female.

Missing: Michelle Le

The body was discovered about 10:30 a.m. by member of a search party made up of family members and volunteers looking for 26-year-old Michelle Le, who went missing in May.

Investigators said it could not immediately be determined whether the body was that of Le. Because of the condition of the remains, not even the gender could be discerned, according to a news release by the Hayward Police Department. Police said the Alameda County coroner’s office will make a determination on the identity.

Facebook: Help Find Michelle Hoang Thi Le – Missing from San Mateo, California

Michelle Le went missing on May 27, 2011 after she left a Hayward hospital, where she was training, in order to retrieve something from her car. Police have previously arrested Giselle Esteban, a high school friend of Michelle Le in Union City on a murder charge.

According to affidavit from  Hayward police Inspector Fraser Ritchie, there was video surveillance footage that showed Esteban at the scene before and after Le’s disappearance. Also, there was blood and DNA evidence connecting Estaban to the disappearance as well as both women’s phones had “traveled on a similar path” from the hospital to other locations in Alameda County immediately after Le disappeared.

Police said they found traces of Le’s blood inside her SUV and physical evidence that Esteban had also been inside the vehicle, as well as Le’s DNA on one of Esteban’s shoes.

Cell phone records also show that both women’s phones had “traveled on a similar path” from the hospital to other locations in Alameda County immediately after Le disappeared, the affidavit said.

UPDATE I: Missing Nursing Student’s Body Identified as Michelle Le

The body discovered in California’s Niles Canyon earlier this week has been confirmed as that of missing California nursing student Michelle Le, according to the Hayward Police Department.

The cause of death has yet to be determined by the Alameda County Coroner, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.