A body discovered in Ramona Wednesday night has now been officially identified by San Diego police as missing Serra Mesa resident, Mehria Mansury, 79.
On Friday, homicide investigators from the San Diego Police Department held a press conference and confirmed that the body found face-down underneath a tree near the Barona Reservation area is the missing woman.
Officials said they identified the body through fingerprints. They would not say what condition the body was in when they found it.
Investigators said they received a tip between Monday and Tuesday indicating that Mansury was possibly in the Barona area. When search teams scoured the area near San Vincente Road and Wildcat Canyon Road, they made the grim discovery.
Police said an upcoming autopsy will determine Mansury’s cause of death.
In the meantime, Mansury’s daughter – Ghazal Mansury, 42 – has been arrested on suspicion of her mother’s murder. Ghazal’s boyfriend, Lucio Moreno, has also been questioned by police in connection to the crime, but was released Thursday night after questioning.
Police say there may be more suspects involved in the disappearance and slaying of Mansury, but those details were not released on Friday. Officials did say Ghazal had been considered a person-of-interest in the case since the beginning based on interviews with Mansury’s family members.
On Wednesday night, deputies and police officers launched a homicide investigation in Ramona after discovering the body. At the time, they did not release many details, including the victim’s identity.
NBC 7 spoke with SDPD Lt. Jorge Duran who said investigators had received a tip about the body and went to Ramona to investigate whether or not the body was in any way connected to Mansury's case.
Lt. Duran said it appeared the body had been at the Ramona site for a while and had sustained some type of “animal activity.”
Meanwhile, on that same night, police served search warrants at Mansury’s Serra Mesa home in the 2800-block of Amulet Drive. Her daughter, Ghazal, also lives at the residence. Ghazal was escorted from the home and questioned by police. On Thursday, she was arrested in connection to her mother's murder.
Mansury was last seen at her home around 8 a.m. on Sept. 24. Over the past week, dozens of law enforcement officers have searched San Diego County for the missing woman.
All along, officials have said they considered Mansury a “missing person-at-risk,” but would not elaborate on the open case.
On Monday, officials said Mansury was still missing but said investigators did not suspect foul play. That same day, the reward for information on Mansury’s whereabouts jumped to $6,000 after the woman's friends added donations to the reward being offered by San Diego Crime Stoppers.
Last week, NBC 7 spoke with the missing woman’s family members who said Mansury’s live-in daughter last saw Mansury on Tuesday, but didn’t report her missing. Family members said that when relatives visited Mansury’s home on Wednesday, the house was a mess. A concerned relative called police and the extensive search efforts for Mansury began.
