State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidyis to conduct a postmortem today on human remains recovered by gardaí from Lough Gill, Co Sligo.
The remains were recovered on Tuesday by gardaí investigating the disappearance of Melissa Mahon (14), from Rathbraughan Park, Sligo town, on September 13th, 2006.
Gardaí said last night that the remains, taken from waters near Parkes Castle, two kilometres (just over one mile) from Sligo, have been removed from the scene and transferred to Dublin.
It is believed that, depending on how much is revealed in the postmortem, the skeletal remains could then be transferred to Britain for special laboratory identification tests. It could take up to six weeks before the results are known.
Supt Michael Barrett, who is heading the investigation, said last night that it was impossible to say whether the remains were those of the missing teenager.
He said that, at this stage, it still had not been established whether the remains were those of a man or a woman.
The Garda sub aqua team and local gardaí searched Lough Gill and the surrounding areas for nearly two weeks, following fresh information about the missing girl.
Detectives were told she had been killed and that her body, wrapped in a duvet or sleeping bag, had been dumped in the lake.
Divers also discovered what a senior officer described as "bits and pieces" of material in the same area, but tests had yet to be conducted to establish if they were linked to the remains.
A Garda spokesman said last night that the search had now been "scaled down", but the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the remains was "very much ongoing".
Gardaí are in constant contact with Ms Mahon's parents.
They still live in Sligo, but at a different address to the one where their daughter was last seen.
A St Brigid's cross of rushes, with Ms Mahon's photograph attached, has been left in a plastic folder near the scene of the discovery of the remains, with the message "Rest with the angels, Melissa".