Nearly nine months after a missing woman’s remains were found in Santa Clarita, coroner’s officials say they are unable to determine how Maricela Garcia died.

The 26-year-old Tarzana woman’s cause of death had been deferred for months pending toxicology tests and tests on Garcia’s organs and brain.

“Skeletonized remains were discovered and the cause of death is undetermined,” Lt. Larry Dietz of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner said this weekend.

Assistant Chief Ed Winter of the coroner’s office added Monday that coroner’s officials evidently did not get back anything telling from the toxicology tests.

“(The body) was mummified on the hillside in the Santa Clarita area,” he said. “As far as law enforcement is concerned, it remains as unsolved until they get any other information.”

RELATED STORY: Family of missing Tarzana woman says her disappearance ‘appears to be organized’

Garcia was last seen at a Goodwill store in Reseda on the night of January 12, where she had been shopping with her younger sister, Sarah. Garcia told her sister she wanted a cigarette and would be back shortly, according to family members. She left the store at about 7:22 p.m., was seen walking near her tan BMW and never returned.

Maricela Garcia, 26, has been missing from Reseda since Jan. 13, 2017, the LAPD said on Tuesday, Jan. 17. She was last seen wearing a white tank top with a white beanie, black jacket and dark jeans. (Photos from Facebook)

Maricela Garcia

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Henry Garcia retraces the steps of his missing daughter Maricela outside the Goodwill in Reseda Thursday, January 26, 2017. Maricela Garcia disappeared on January 12, while shopping with her sister. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Friends and family gather outside the Goodwill in Reseda on Thursday, January 26, to hold a candlelight vigil and retrace the steps of 26-year-old Maricela Garcia, who went missing from the location on January 12,2017. Garcia was shopping at the store when she told her sister she wanted a cigarette and would be back shortly but never returned. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

Maricela Garcia recites part of the Rosary at a vigil for her deceased daughter with the same name at St. Bernardine of Siena Parish with Father Robert McNamara at her side. Woodland Hills, Thursday, April 6, 2017. (Photo by Brenda Gazzar)



Three days prior, Garcia, who had battled substance abuse, told her sister she was guarding a secret that she would not reveal.

RELATED STORY: Maricela Garcia remembered at vigil: ‘I’m certain that she is with us’

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Troy Ewing, who works in the department’s Homicide Bureau, had previously said they “suspect foul play” because of the somewhat remote area where Garcia was found.

A local resident walking his dog discovered the remains on March 7 in the area of Golden Valley Road west of Robert C. Lee Parkway, according to sheriff’s officials. The spot is about 19 miles from where Garcia was last seen.

The Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit was initially investigating the case, which prompted significant media attention and an outpouring of community support.

The detectives handling the case could not be reached on Monday.

Older brother Edgar Garcia said it was “so unfortunate” that her death has been ruled undetermined.

“They are trying. They have a lot of information. Until they get more information, it’s probably going to be hard to figure out,” the 31-year-old said. “There wasn’t much left in the remains.”

But he said he’s hopeful that authorities will know one day what happened to his sister in the last hours of her life.

“Any kind of crime always leaves traces behind; just because they haven’t figured it out yet doesn’t mean they won’t,” he said, adding his belief that whomever did this to his sister will likely strike again.

The biological anthropology student at UC Davis said he spent Thanksgiving with his mother and sister, Sarah, in Los Angeles, where Maricela’s absence was strongly felt. Maricela would have turned 27 on Dec. 10.

“You can try to ignore (the feeling of loss), but it’s never going to go away,” he said.