Murder detectives are expected to reveal on Monday whether female remains discovered in a stream are those of a missing grandmother. Police found the body on Friday in East Ayrshire during a search for 51-year-old Anne Brown.
The post-mortem examination of the female sparked a murder hunt, though it has yet to be established whether Ms Brown is the victim. Detectives were initially reluctant to associate the two cases but later acknowledged a link could not be ruled out.
Officers said they are confident they will solve the case.
The grandmother went missing nine days ago. Her car was found abandoned on a road a short distance from the site of the body discovery near Craignaught Farm in Dunlop.
Det Ch Insp Peter McPike of Strathclyde Police said: "Members of the public should be reassured that everything that can be done to identify the dead woman and find out who is responsible for her death is being done as quickly as possible."
Ms Brown has not been seen since leaving her mother's home at 6pm last Saturday. She was reported missing along with her 20-month-old grandson John but the toddler was traced a week later following an appeal.
Police said toddler John was with his 21-year-old mother in Glasgow.
Ms Brown had been planning to travel to her North Ayrshire home in Burnhouse but her car - a black Ford Focus - was found blocking the road the next day.
"I believe that this car may be relevant to our investigation," Det Ch Insp McPike said.
The investigations focus on the back road between Neilston and Dunlop. Police are keen to hear from anyone who may have been driving in the area on the weekend of 18-19 October and might have seen something unusual.
Last updated: 27 October 2008, 08:54
The links provided allow you to bookmark this page into your favourite social media website. For users with JavaScript disabled copy and paste the URL from the address bar into your chosen social bookmarking site.