A Malojloj family's eight-day-long search for 22-year-old Archenin Kathleen Mwarepue has ended.

The Guam Police Department confirmed they found the decomposed remains of a woman matching her description. 

Her stepmother Jusitha Tio told KUAM they are in shock to hear Arche won't be coming home. 

Today, GPD and Guam Fire Department officials conducted a search around Malojloj looking for signs of Arche.

Authorities say a drone aerial search of the Malojloj cliff line led them to an area where her remains were spotted. 

Arche was reported missing on July 4. 

Earlier today, we asked Police Chief Stephen Ignacio why wasn't the expanded search done sooner. He responded after the family expressed their disappointment in the handling of the case. 

"That missing person is actively being investigated," he said. "We have gone back and done extensive interviews with friends and family members. We have reviewed known surveillance videos…We are going to be meeting to determine what other course of action is necessary and going to be discussing the possibility of conducting a search of the Malojloj area at least within the immediate vicinity of the residents and see where that takes us and if we need to move forward in the next few days to expand the search and bringing in other resources. So we continue to work that case actively and we continue to work with the family and investigate this case."

In other cases of missing persons cases, there's often a visible response, including drones launched and a foot patrol. In this case, the family had not seen anything. We asked Ignacio about the perception the response initiated. 

"It all goes back to the initial investigation," he said. "It is my understanding that this was not an isolated incident. In this case, she has gone before and left the residence but has come back. I think the concern is there has been many days that passed. We take all these things into consideration because majority of the time people report a person missing but then the person just needed time away from the family and they return. I understand the concern from the family because Archenin has not returned yet and so now we are continuing to expand that search and investigation. Another thing is when a person is reported missing, the follow-up is done my CID, but we were also busy with the homicide, so we took this case away from CID and I have having Juvenile Investigations Section take the lead of this complaint…So we are taking whatever resources available and putting them towards these cases that have a priority."

That priority came days later.  Now the question raised --  could have started this expanded search much sooner?

There's no word on how long Arche may have been deceased. Police say it's too soon to say if they suspect foul play.