Skull found near Hollywood sign identified as female, coroner says

A human skull discovered on a hiking trail in the Hollywood Hills near the iconic Hollywood sign earlier this month belongs to an adult woman, a coroner's official said.

“It appears to be a female at least 20 years old or older,” Deputy Chief Coroner Ed Winter told PEOPLE.

The woman’s death occurred “between one and ten years ago,” he said.

Two hikers came across the skull March 19 in a section of Bronson Canyon Park that leads to the Hollywood Sign.

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Winter says investigators are still trying to determine her identity and how she died.

“We want to identify her and compare her to possible extinct females and we'll go from there,” he says.

This is not the first time skeletal remains have been discovered in Bronson Canyon Park. In 2012, a dog walker discovered the head of former Mexicana Airlines employee Hervey Medellin along a wooded trail near the Hollywood sign in a case dubbed “The Hollywood Head.” Police later found Medellin's hands and feet about 50 meters away.

The case has sparked widespread speculation, including theories that Medellin's death is linked to a Mexican drug cartel or even a Canadian porn actor convicted of dismembering a Chinese student during an exchange and having sent certain parts of his body to members of the Canadian Parliament.

But authorities focused on Medellin's boyfriend, Gabriel Campos-Martinez, who was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for the murder last November.