Police are casting the net wide in an attempt to find the relatives of a woman whose body washed up on a Cape Town beach earlier this month.

On Friday, Western Cape police spokesperson FC van Wyk revealed that the remains belonged to a woman.

When the “human remains” were discovered on Sunset Beach in Milnerton on October 4, some hoped they could be the closure needed by the family of a man who drowned nearby or that of the Hout Bay fisherman who went missing in an anti-poaching operation.

A photo that did the rounds on social media, which was said to be of the remains, appeared to show a human skeleton with its feet still intact.

At the time, police said they would be conducting a DNA test for the person’s identity and a post-mortem to establish the cause of death.

“The DNA results show that the bone structure of the human remains that were found at Sunset Beach, Milnerton, is that of a female and the cause [of death] is unknown,” Van Wyk said.

Officials were unable to determine the woman’s identity.

The investigating officer has asked anyone who has reported a female relative missing in the area to come forward for DNA samples.