Drowning was the cause of death for Terrilynn Monette, the missing West Bank teacher whose body was discovered in Bayou St. John on Saturday, according to the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office. There were no signs of trauma to her body, said John Gagliano, the coroner's chief investigator. 
 
 LSU forensic dentists confirmed Monette's identity through dental records, Gagliano said. Toxicology results are pending and the results will be ready in about two weeks, he said. NOPD's fatality unit will try to reconstruct the accident to determine what caused Monette's car to end up in the bayou, said NOPD spokeswoman Remi Braden. Meanwhile, officers in NOPD's 3rd District are working to enhance all the video evidence in the case. 
 
 "On behalf of this police department, I want to express my sincerest condolences to Ms. Monette's family, and assure them that our detectives will do everything they can to find the answers as to how this tragedy happened," Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said in a statement. 
 
 Monette's car was discovered near the corner of Harrison Avenue and Wisner Boulevard shortly before noon on Saturday. Slidell police officer Mark Michaud, who had volunteered to dive and search for the car, located it shortly before noon. The car -- matching the license plate, make, model and color of Monette's -- was pulled from the water around 3:25 p.m. 
 
 The discovery came more than three months after Monette disappeared after leaving a Lakeview bar early on March 2. For weeks, large groups of volunteers turned out to search for the 26-year-old woman, whose disappearance was covered in national media. New Orleans police led the search efforts and reviewed hundreds of hours of surveillance tapes to try to determine what happened to her. Numerous other cars were also pulled from nearby water bodies as the search proceeded. 
 
 The night she went missing, Monette had been drinking, and she told friends who were at the bar with her that she planned to sleep in her car for a while before driving to her apartment complex in the area of Robert E. Lee Boulevard and Paris Avenue. Monette, a second-grade teacher at Woodland West Elementary School in Harvey, exited a bank parking lot next door to Parlay's at about 5 a.m. and headed toward Marconi Drive. Police had thought that Monette turned left, or northbound, at Marconi, on the edge of City Park, based on red-light camera footage investigators reviewed. But her car was found farther east, in waters just past the corner of Harrison and Wisner, suggesting she likely kept going straight instead, driving through City Park before -- for reasons still unknown -- she ended up in in Bayou St. John. "Now that Ms. Monette's car has been found, we begin the second phase of this investigation," Serpas said. "Both homicide detectives and our fatality unit were on the scene today, so that they can pick up where (other) officers have left off and start finding out exactly how and why the car ended up where it did." 
 
 
 
 ||||| Story highlights Police have told Terrilynn Monette's mother they found the car and a body, she says 
 
 A police diver has found a car with a body inside believed to be Monette, police say 
 
 Monette, 26, was last seen March 2 leaving a New Orleans bar 
 
 She was celebrating with friends a "Teacher of the Year" nomination 
 
 The decomposed body found this weekend in a Louisiana bayou was identified Monday as that of a teacher missing for three months, the New Orleans Police Department said. 
 
 The statement said Terrilynn Monette, who was last seen March 2, was identified through dental records. The death was ruled a drowning, and there were no signs of trauma to the body, police said. 
 
 On Saturday, a diver with the Slidell Police Department who was volunteering to dive the waterways in the search for Monette found her Honda Accord in the bayou. 
 
 'I'm in shock' 
 
 Monette's mother, Toni Enclade, told CNN earlier that she had been notified a body was found. 
 
 "To know that she could have possibly been there for three months," she said, overcome with emotion. 
 
 Just Watched Missing teacher's car found, body inside replay More Videos ... Missing teacher's car found, body inside 01:48 PLAY VIDEO 
 
 Just Watched Mom: I'm in shock right now replay More Videos ... Mom: I'm in shock right now 02:50 PLAY VIDEO 
 
 Enclade said she does not know when she will be given a final answer. 
 
 "I can't even begin to go there right now," she said. "I'm in shock. I can't believe this. I just can't believe this." 
 
 Monette, 26, was last seen leaving Parlay's Dream Lounge in New Orleans, where she had been celebrating with friends her nomination for a "Teacher of the Year" award. 
 
 Authorities have focused a large part of their search efforts on the waterways because Monette would have had to drive across the bayou to get from the bar to her home. 
 
 A tireless search 
 
 In mid-March, an independent search and rescue team from Texas volunteer to comb the lagoons and waterways. 
 
 Family and friends of Monette put up a billboard in New Orleans and created a Facebook page, "We Love You Terrilynn Monette," to help generate tips in the search for her. 
 
 The diver who found the car and body, Slidell Police Officer Mark Michaud, has been "working closely with the Monette family" because of his expertise in diving recoveries, police Detective Daniel Seuzeneau said. 
 
 When Monette, of Long Beach, California, learned of the "teachNOLA" program, which sends educators to New Orleans to teach in impoverished areas, she packed her bags and headed to Louisiana. 
 
 "I always wanted to be a teacher, and what better place to teach than New Orleans, where passionate teachers are needed most?" she said in a 2011 video obtained by CNN affiliate WDSU. 
 
 In her first year of teaching second grade at Woodland West Elementary School, Monette turned one of the lowest-performing classes into one of the highest achieving. 
 
 It earned her a "Teacher of the Year" nomination in her school district.
– A body pulled from a New Orleans bayou on the weekend has been positively IDed as that of Terrilynn Monette, a 26-year-old teacher who went missing almost three months ago, CNN reports. Monette's body was found decomposing inside her car at the bottom of Bayou St. John. The coroner says drowning was the cause of death and there were no signs of trauma to her body, the Times-Picayune reports. Monette was last seen leaving a bar where she was celebrating a "Teacher of the Year" award nomination with friends, reports CNN. She had been drinking, and told her friends she planned to sleep in her car before driving home, adds the Times-Picayune. "Now that Ms. Monette's car has been found, we begin the second phase of this investigation," says a police spokesperson. "Both homicide detectives and our fatality unit were on the scene today, so that they can pick up where [other] officers have left off and start finding out exactly how and why the car ended up where it did."