Irish police are awaiting DNA test results as they bid to identify a body found in the Dublin mountains which may be that of missing American student Annie McCarrick. She is believed to have been the victim of a serial killer.

She is one of a number of missing persons who were last seen in the vicinity of the site where the body was found.

The 26-year-old student from Long Island was last sighted in the company of a well built man at Johnnie Fox’s pub in March 1993, close to the location at Killakee where the body was found on Friday.

McCarrick was an American student who fell in love with Ireland after studying at Maynooth University. she returned to Ireland after graduating and her mother was due to visit her in Dublin the week after she disappeared.

She told her roommates she was going for a walk in the Dublin mountains on the weekend she disappeared. A workmate saw her get off a bus in the vicinity of Enniskerry and she has never been seen since.

Police are also linking the discovery to the disappearance of local woman Eva Brennan, 39, who went missing in July that year and is also believed to have been murdered.

The skeletal remains were discovered in a forest late on Friday evening.

Experts have already confirmed to police that the remains are those of a young woman or a teenage boy.

The Sunday Independent reports that the remains were found concealed in undergrowth by a woman out walking her dog.

Further searches have recovered bones which are currently being forensically examined by state scientists in the hope they will yield a DNA sample.

The paper says a tibia and a fibia, a fragment of pelvic bone and a jawbone with some of the teeth still intact have so far been recovered in the search.

Police also found clothing in the vicinity of the bones, including a sock, a size eight trainer and a fragment of a tracksuit bottom.

Ireland’s state pathologist has indicated to police that the remains are more than likely that of a young woman or a teenage boy, sources said.

The bones and clothing have been sent for analysis at the state pathologists’ office in Dublin.

Officers are hopeful that a DNA sample will be obtained from the teeth and bones which can then be matched with the DNA samples on the missing person’s database.

The report says officers would not comment on the possible identity of the remains. They say it is too early to say how long the remains lay undiscovered in the undergrowth.

The bodies of two other murdered women have been discovered in the area in the past.