Michelle Le's body found by slain teen's mother
(CBS/KPIX/AP) SUNOL, Calif. - The search volunteer who found the body of missing nursing student Michelle Le is also the mother of a murdered daughter, authorities said Tuesday.
Pictures: Missing Calif. nursing student
Carrie McGonigle, whose 14-year-old daughter Amber Dubois was killed in 2009, found Le's remains in Niles Canyon on Saturday morning. Police have labeled Le's death a homicide, reports CBS station KPIX.Le's family members are now planning a memorial service for the 26-year-old nursing student.
"We are grieving and preparing a memorial service for her--a proper goodbye," read a statement issued by her family after the Alameda County coroner's bureau confirmed that the body found by McGonigle was Le's.
"Our family has greatly appreciated, and would be at a loss, without the help of so many people and volunteers," they said.
Le disappeared on May 27 from the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Hayward. She left the medical center in Hayward around 7 p.m. on May 27, telling a classmate she was going to go to her car during a break, Hayward police Lt. Roger Keener said.
When she didn't return, her instructor went to the parking garage looking for her and called police to report her disappearance. Le's car was found the next morning around 9 a.m. parked about half a mile from the medical center, Keener said.
Keener said investigators found bloodstains in the vehicle, and it was later determined that the blood was Le's.
The suspect in Le's killing, Giselle Esteban, 27, was taken into custody on the morning of Sept. 7. She was arrested on suspicion of murder, although Le's body hadn't yet been found then.
Keener said footage from security cameras at the Kaiser Permanente parking structure showed that Esteban was present around the time of Le's disappearance.
Additionally, he said, evidence found inside Le's car indicated that Esteban had been in the vehicle.
He said cellphone records show from wireless tower activations that Le and Esteban traveled along the same route leaving the area just after Le vanished.
Esteban appeared in Alameda County Superior Court on Monday on the charge that she murdered Le, but her plea entry was postponed because she hasn't yet finalized her legal representation.
Picetti granted Auer a delay and ordered Esteban, who is seven months pregnant, to return to court on Sept. 28 to finalize her legal representation and possibly enter a plea.
Keener said police were still investigating a motive for the crime.
Complete Coverage of Michelle Le on Crimesider
