(09-20) 10:26 PDT HAYWARD -- Human remains found Saturday in Sunol Canyon in Alameda County have been identified as those of missing nursing student Michelle Le, Hayward police said Monday night.

But the Alameda County coroner has yet to determine how Le died, said Hayward police Capt. Darryl McAllister.

In a statement, Le's family said, "Our family has been notified that this weekend, we have found Michelle."

They said they were planning a memorial service for Le to give her a "proper goodbye."

"Thank you for your support, prayers and thoughts. Our family has greatly appreciated, and would be at a loss without, the help of so many people and volunteers," the statement said.

The defendant in Le's slaying, former high school friend Giselle Esteban, 27, of Union City, made a brief appearance Monday at the Hayward Hall of Justice but did not enter a plea. She will return to court next week.

A court-appointed attorney who appeared on Esteban's behalf, Andrea Auer, said after the hearing that she is unsure whether she will be able to represent her. Asked how Esteban was doing, Auer said, "She's coping."

The decomposed remains were found by a volunteer - 10 days after Esteban's arrest - off a dirt path between Foothill Road and railroad tracks, west of Interstate 680 and south of the Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton.

Cell phone records show that after Le disappeared from Kaiser Permanente Medical Center's garage in Hayward, both women's cell phones "traveled on a similar path" to the Niles and Sunol Canyon areas in Alameda County, police said.

Le was last seen May 27, when she went to her car during a break in a clinical nursing lesson at Kaiser. Police believe that Esteban attacked her in the hospital's garage.

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Steve Clark, a former Santa Clara County prosecutor who is now a defense attorney, said Monday before the remains were identified, "If this is in fact Michelle Le's body, this is a huge piece of the prosecution case, because it then establishes Michelle Le is dead. They get over that hurdle. But it may be also that there are forensic indications of how Michelle died.

"They're going to spend a lot of time in an autopsy trying to establish cause of death," Clark said. "Now, it is difficult because the body has been gone for many months, but it is an important piece of the puzzle, and it's also something that the defense is going to want to analyze, to see if cause of death can be established - or lack of a cause of death. That's helpful to the defense."

Le, who lived in San Mateo, was a student at Oakland's Samuel Merritt University and hoped to become a nurse practitioner like her mother, who died of cancer when Le was a teenager.

"I join Michelle's classmates and others in the SMU community in profound sadness over the death of Michelle Le," said university President Sharon Diaz. "Our board, administrators, faculty, staff and students offer our deepest condolences to Michelle's family and many friends. This kind of senseless violence is difficult to understand. Michelle had so much to live for and sought only to give to others - her life was so pointlessly taken."