(CNN) -- Police tentatively identified remains found on a remote farm as the Virginia Tech student who disappeared in October during a Metallica concert.
Morgan Harrington, a 20-year-old education major, went to the concert at the University of Virginia's John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, Virginia, on October 17. She was separated from her friends and was the subject of repeated searches.
Police said skeletal remains were found in a hay field on a 700-acre farm with no public access point.
Police said there was significant evidence, but declined to specify what leads them to believe the remains are Harrington's. They said however an autopsy should confirm the identity.
During the concert, Harrington left her friends to use the restroom, Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne Geller said Wednesday, and when she did not return they called her on her cell phone at 8:48 p.m. She told them she was outside the arena and could not get back in because of its policy, Geller said, but told them not to worry about her and that she would find a ride home.
There are restrooms inside the arena, Geller said, and police do not know how or why Harrington got outside. Witnesses who saw her outside the arena said she did not appear to be with anyone, Geller said.
At about 9:30 p.m. that night, witnesses reported seeing a person matching Harrington's description walking on a nearby bridge, Geller said. No further sightings were reported.
Harrington's purse, with her identification and cell phone inside, was found the following day in an overflow parking lot near the arena, Geller said. A friend had driven Harrington's car to the concert, she said, and so was still in possession of the car keys when they got separated.
Harrington was reported missing the day after the concert, when she did not show up at her parents' home to study for a math exam with her father.
Working with police and the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center, the Harringtons organized community searches, saying they would not give up home their daughter would be found.
The couple was joined at a press conference after her disappearance by Ed Smart, whose daughter Elizabeth was abducted in 2002. She returned home nine months later after police found her in the custody of suspect Brian David Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee.
Harrington said he reached out to Smart last week to seek advice on how to go through the disappearance of a child.
Harrington was wearing a black Pantera T-shirt, a black miniskirt, black tights and black boots when last seen.
