The family of Hannah Mathura, whose remains were found in the backyard of her Butu Road, Valsayn home, learned of the results of a DNA test on her remains through the media.
Mathura, 18, was last seen in June 2017.
On March 12, police found remains buried in the backyard of the house after one of her relatives told police she had been killed and buried there.
The remains showed what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the skull.
Police collected the bones and did a DNA test to confirm the identity of the remains.
Lawyer for the Mathura siblings, Sanjiv Boodhu told Newsday they woke up to the news of the DNA results in the newspaper.
He said no-one from the TTPS had contacted them and any information they had gained was done through the media.
“At this point in time, (we) have all come by the information by way of the newspaper this morning and from no other source. That is to say that the police have not, for the record or at all, informed us of any of their conclusions.
He said in the absence of any official confirmation, the siblings’ position on the investigation remains unchanged.
“Given that we found out about it in the newspaper, we are yet to conference with the Mathura children and establish a way forward.
“They stand and ready and willing to continue assisting the police in their investigations as best as they can, as they have done.”
The lack of official notification may also be hampering plans for Hannah’s family to give her a proper funeral.
Boodhu said he is unable to discuss any plans for the burial of the remains with the Mathura siblings unless they receive official confirmation from the police.
“We’re really hamstrung in terms of taking any proper instructions or even advising our clients as to whether those things are applicable at all, given the fact that we have no official word from the police.
“If we receive that on the record and from the police, then we will be in a position to advise or discuss those things. But at this stage we really can't have too much of those types of conversations with them given that the correspondence has to really be coming from an official source for us to act upon it.”
A senior police officer told Newsday the police did not release the information as the results could not conclusively prove the remains were Hannah's.
The officer said based on the information available the police "deduced" the remains were Hannah’s.
"We didn't have a sample from Hannah to compare (the remains) to, but the test proved this person is an offspring of Hannah's parents.
"Seeing as we have birth records and all the other siblings are accounted for and we have no death record for Hannah, we have to deduce that it is her."
The officer said the cause of death has also not been conclusively determined yet adding while the police have received an expert opinion, they are awaiting further feedback based on a detailed report from the pathologist.
Up until Monday afternoon, Hannah’s family had not yet been officially told of the results.
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