Investigators say even though Carrie Olson has been found, there is still a lot to do.
Now they must work to determine how she got from the Quad Cities to Minnesota, how she died and who, if anyone, is a suspect.
Carrie Olson, 29, of Davenport, was last seen at a Rock Island gas station in December 2013.
A property owner found her body Saturday, April 5, 2014, on land in rural Dakota County, Minnesota, about six miles south of the city of Hastings.
"It's an area of about five- to six-acre home sites. One of the land owners was out placing a trail camera, to look for wildlife on his property, and that's when he found Carrie," said Tim Leslie, Chief Deputy for the Dakota County Sheriff's Office.
Police confirmed April 8 that the body had been identified as Carrie Olson.
Initial information, indicating her body had only been there for 36 hours before it was found, may not be accurate according to Leslie.
"That was an early theory on the part of some investigators. What we're now doing is working with the Hennepin Crime Medical Examiner's Office to determine the actual - how long the body was there based on the weather and those kinds of situations, and that's open for determination by the scientific community," Leslie said. "We may never know exactly when, how long she's been there, so we're working with the medical examiner's office to figure that out."
Dakota County authorities first publicized the discovery Monday, April 7.
"I think we put it out midday, around lunchtime on Monday, and I think by maybe 5:30 we had what we thought was an early sign that it could be Carrie," Leslie said.
That's when they began the process of working to confirm the body was Carrie Olson.
An autopsy has been completed but other tests are being run in an effort to determine the time and cause of her death.
Investigators from Rock Island and Davenport police departments will travel to Hastings, Minnesota to meet with Dakota County investigators according to an April 9 statement from Donald Schaeffer, Assistant Chief of Davenport Police.
“Once that is accomplished, it should determine which agency is in the best position to proceed with the investigation, and the other two agencies will take supportive roles,” Schaeffer said.
Leslie also confirmed the cooperative work happening between all of the law enforcement agencies involved.
Investigators are also cautious about what information they release, so they don't reveal something that might jeopardize the case.
"There's a lot of moving parts, and we want to be very careful and be very deliberate in how we step forward from here," Leslie said.