ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- Extra counselors are on hand Monday at Escondido High School to help students cope with the weekend discovery of 14-year-old Amber Dubois' skeletal remains, more than a year after the freshman disappeared while walking to school.

The North County high school planned a candlelight vigil to remember Amber for monday night.

"Amber has been lost to us but she'll be remembered in the memories of our staff and students," EHS Principal Rich Watkins told reporters Monday morning.

Despite a prolonged search by law enforcement, her family and volunteers since she disappeared, Amber's body was not found until Saturday.

"The discovery was made in the early morning hours of Saturday, in a very rugged and remote section of Pala," Escondido police Chief Jim Maher said at a news conference.

Pala is in northern San Diego County, about 25 miles from Escondido. Amber's body was found west of Pala Temecula Road, about three miles north of the historic Pala Mission. It was the same area where the remains of 7-year-old Leticia Hernandez was found 15 months after she disappeared from her Oceanside home in 1989, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Maher said detectives were following a lead when Amber's body was found.

"Positive identification was subsequently made by the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office late Saturday afternoon by way of a dental records comparison," Maher said. "Her parents were notified in person by Escondido and sheriff's investigators Saturday night."

Maher did not take questions because of the ongoing investigation.

Amber returned to public attention after the arrest of John Albert Gardner III, 30, in connection with the disappearance and death of 17-year-old Chelsea King in nearby Rancho Bernardo.

Gardner -- who was ordered held without bail after pleading not guilty to raping and murdering Chelsea -- is a registered sex offender who lived in Escondido when Amber disappeared.

Investigators were looking into any involvement he might have had with the girl, or in other unsolved crimes.

Because Maher did not take questions, the source of the tip or any possible role played by Gardner was unclear. But Bill Garcia, a private investigator hired by Amber's family shortly after she disappeared, told the Union-Tribune he was told by a person with firsthand knowledge of the case that the tip about the location did not come from Gardner.

"The entire Chelsea King event emotionally pulled at somebody who had this information," Garcia told the newspaper. "They've seen the community in a lot of pain. Someone who had been afraid to say something finally came forward."

Amber's father, Maurice Dubois, took a moment to thank everyone in the search for Amber, especially the hundreds of volunteers who looked for the girl every weekend for much of last year.

"They were the most dedicated people you could ever imagine," Maurice Dubois said. "Without them, we couldn't have done anything."