PORTLAND – Police continue to investigate the disappearance and death of a Portland woman whose remains were found in Waldo County last month.

The partial remains of Elena Lozada, 24, were found last month in a wooded area of Northport, off Route 52. Lozada’s mother had reported her missing in July.

Police consider Lozada’s death suspicious. Police say they are disclosing little about the investigation because they do not believe the release of more information will benefit the case, said Lt. Gary Rogers, head of Portland’s police detectives.

He said he expects more information to become available, but not in the immediate future.

“The case is still working. There are leads we are following up on,” Rogers said Tuesday.

Lozada’s family, meanwhile, is grieving and struggling with many questions.

Lozada’s mother, Carrie Cronkite of the Aroostook County town of Westfield, fears that her daughter was murdered. She believes Lozada’s body was dumped in Northport, because her daughter had no connection to the area and would not have been wandering there.

Lozada’s family had planned a prayer vigil for April 29. After the discovery of the remains, it turned into her memorial service.

More than 250 people gathered at the Family Christian Center in Presque Isle to remember Lozada. The eulogy was written by her mother and read by Mary Lawrence, who was a youth minister when Lozada was a girl. Lozada spent her early childhood in Queens, N.Y.

The eulogy celebrated the chubby cheeks that Lozada was born with, the speed she brought to her middle school track team, her contagious laughter, and an artistic side that moved her to write and oil paint. It spoke of her love for her family and friends, and her giving nature.

Cronkite’s eulogy also documented her daughter’s descent into drug addiction and her ultimately unsuccessful efforts to break away from it.

Cronkite has said she learned after her daughter’s disappearance that she had been advertising as an escort on Craigslist.

Throughout her struggles, Cronkite wrote, Lozada held on to the strong faith she had developed as a girl. In one of her many notes to her mother, Lozada wrote, “I pray that in the end when we make it to heaven, that we can fly like the angels do.”

Lozada’s family has not yet been able to lay her to rest. Her remains are still at the Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta. When they are released, Lozada will be buried with Cronkite’s mother, Goldie Brantley, in New Jersey.

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at:

akim@pressherald.com