CityNews has learned the human remains found at Don Valley Golf Course are of a woman, and that women's clothing including a bra was found at the scene.
But police remained tight-lipped and declined to comment.
The skeleton and clothing were found Tuesday on the golf course
in the city's north end near Highway 401 and Yonge Street possibly by students who were surveying the wooded area or by two people walking there.
The remains, estimated to have been there for two to three years, were first reported on Thursday afternoon. The area remained cordoned off until late Friday afternoon so a forensics team could conduct its investigation.
Barbara McEachern, who lives across the street from the golf course, said she first noticed the police cars and unmarked vans on Tuesday, and was shaken to learn about the human remains.
"It bothered me last night," she said.
Police say the families of missing people were contacted Thursday as a courtesy, including the mother of Mariam Makhniashvili, who disappeared in September 2009.
Lela Tabidze told CityNews that Toronto police called her at home on Thursday morning and urged her, "not to get too upset, and wait for the results" of forensic tests.
“Police have not told me any more details about the investigation,” she said. “Police are not telling me when they will have more information.”
Mariam was 17 years old when she disappeared on Sept. 14, 2009, on her way to class at Forest Hill Collegiate.
A passerby discovered the teenager’s backpack in an alleyway near Mount Pleasant Road and Eglinton Avenue about a month after her disappearance. However, it did not provide any key information on her whereabouts.
There had been some reported sightings of Mariam over the years: on Oct. 27, 2009, the RCMP received a report she’d been seen outside Calgary; On Dec. 2, 2009, authorities received another report she’d been spotted in Grand Prairie.
More recently, there have been media reports she was spotted at a Toronto grocery store. Those reported sightings were later refuted by police.
Alongside efforts to find her, the family remained in the media spotlight. Mariam's father, Vakhtang Makhniashvili, pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated assault following two separate stabbing incidents.
He was sentenced to six years in prison in December 2011.