KATHMANDU, Feb 19 - The body of a foreign lady recovered from Nagarjun forest on Feb 11 in a decomposed state has been identified.

The medical reports identified the dead body as that of German tourist Sabine Ursula Gruneklee, 31, who had gone missing in Nagarjun forest four months ago, police officials involved in the investigation said on Sunday.

The doctors, after reading all the medical reports, informally declared that the body has been identified. The post-mortem report prepared earlier had failed to identify the body.

The reports of DNA, teeth, hair and bone marrow tests verified the identity of the body, said the doctors.

French tourist Celine Henri, 32, and Sabine Ursula Gruneklee, 31, had gone missing in the same forest on Sept. 3 and October 15 respectively.

The police had recovered the body, decomposed beyond recognition, in the forest tightly guarded by the army on a tip-off from the locals.

Grass-cutters spotted a decayed and shrunken body entangled in the branches of a tree on a cliff in the forest and informed the police.

The body was immediately taken to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital at Maharajgunj for forensic tests the same day.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Pitambar Adhikari said, ?We have got unofficial information from the forensic doctors that the body was of the German lady,? adding, ?The written document will come to us on Monday evening. We have already informed the German embassy and the concerned officials.?

?The long grey hair and teeth's test made it easier to identify the body,? he added.

Several search attempts were conducted in the past few months but to no avail. French and German teams with sniffer dogs were also involved in the search mission, but were left clueless.

The police couldn't find the French tourist Celine's body.

The disappearances came to light after Celine's family members reported to the French embassy in Nepal in October that she had been out of contact since September 3. Celine had left Hotel Pilgrim in Thamel that morning for Nagarjun forest, leaving her belongings at the hotel. She never came back.

On October 16, a search team from the French embassy led by Ambassador Michel Jolivett found some women's garments in the area. The police found blood stains on trodden grass in the forest. Tests revealed that the body stains matched with that of Sabine whose disappearance was reported on October 19.

Sabine was to receive her boyfriend Peter Doolan at Tribhuwan International airport on October 18. She never reached there. Sabine had stayed in Thamel's Hotel New Horizon from October 7-14.

She moved to Hotel Blue Horizon, also in Thamel, on October 14 and left for Nagarjun, leaving her belongings at the hotel.

She was carrying a jack wolfskin backpack, EC debit card, some cash, her ID, a diary and a canon lxus camera. Police never recovered the valuables. But, her driving license and passport were recovered from the forest during police searches.

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