More than a year has passed since a motorist found the body of 61-year-old Christine Garth along a remote road in southern Limestone County.

Garth’s daughter, who lived with her mother on Garrett Road, told authorities her mother had called someone for a ride around 9:30 p.m. Feb. 16, 2015, because she didn’t have a car.

About 10:35 p.m. a motorist driving home with his children saw a person on the side of Zion Church Lane and called for help. Garth’s coat and shirt were beside her; her body bare from the waist up on a night with temperatures below freezing.

Limestone County sheriff’s investigators consider the death suspicious, Chief Investigator Capt. Stanley McNatt has said.

Investigators believe someone picked up Garth between 9:45 and 10 p.m., Sheriff Mike Blakely said at the time of her death. Garth’s daughter said she did not know who picked up her mother. The person Garth called told authorities he did not pick her up.

Investigators at the scene initially found no physical signs of trauma to Garth’s body, including gunshots, stab wounds or bruising from blunt-force trauma, the sheriff said. There was no initial sign of sexual assault, he said.

Garth died within 30 to 45 minutes of the time she left her home and was found along a dead-end road leading to Mount Zion Church, a road traveled mainly on Sunday.

Whether Garth died of foul play, of natural causes or of some other cause is what law enforcement officers must know before they can charge someone or close the case. Although the answer may lie in the autopsy results, which will include toxicology tests, the results have not yet been returned by the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Huntsville.

At the time of Garth’s death, the sheriff said the pathologist who performed the autopsy wanted to wait for toxicology results before ruling on the cause of death. The sheriff didn’t know how long that could take.

Increased use of forensic evidence combined with a tightening state budget over the past few years has increased the workload on forensic scientists at the Huntsville morgue and at two other morgues in the state. That has triggered longer waits for autopsy and toxicology results.

While law enforcement officers looking for answers have resigned themselves to the time it takes, the slowness can take a toll on family members seeking truth and closure.

Anyone who has information about the case is asked to call the Sheriff’s Office dispatch at 256-232-0111.