(NewsNation) — Nine months after Alexis Gabe went missing from the San Francisco Bay area, her family is still looking for answers and holding on to hope they can bring her home.

Police believe the 24-year-old is dead, presumably killed Jan. 26, and the main suspect in Alexis’ murder case, Marshall Curtis Jones, is deceased. In late September, the Gabe family switched their focus from finding information on Alexis Gabe’s whereabouts to seeking information leading to her remains while still maintaining the $100,000 reward.

Jones died in June at the hands of Seattle-area police officers who were attempting to arrest him for murder.

The change in concentration, according to local outlet KRON4, took the list of search volunteers to more than 700 people.

The search has largely taken place near the northern section of Defender Grade Road in Pioneer, California, as searchers work from copies of handwritten directions police recovered while executing a search warrant at Jones’ home.

There have been fruitless search attempts of the surrounding area in July by the Antioch Police Department, and now, Alexis Gabe’s father, Gwyn Gabe, told local outlets the directions used to map out the area have been viewed incorrectly.

His assessment came after a search volunteer discovered bones after deciding to check the southern part of Defender Grade Road.

The remains were later confirmed to belong to an animal, however, and the search for Alexis Gabe continues, the sheriff’s office confirmed to KRON4.

Evidence includes a note matching Jones’ handwriting with driving directions to a remote forest about two hours from his home.

In a letter to Alexis’ family, police say they believe Jones “used the directions to dispose of Alexis’ body.”

They say he got lost along the route and had to turn his phone on, which allowed them to pinpoint his location.

The letter also says that about two weeks before Alexis disappeared, Jones told a friend he was thinking about killing Aelxis and wanted to know where the best place to hide a body would be.

The friend said he thought Jones was joking.

“They were together for three years,” Gwyn Gabe said. “He became part of our family. We had no idea he was capable of doing something like this to her.”

After months of gathering evidence, in June, investigators tracked Jones to Washington state. As they moved in to serve an arrest warrant, he lunged at police with a knife.

Officers fired at Jones, who died at the scene.

“We didn’t want him dead,” Gwyn Gabe said. “We wanted to look him in the eye and ask him ‘Why?’ (and) ask him ‘Where is Alexis?'”

Police and volunteers have scoured the area described in the note but with no signs of Alexis.

In a Facebook post last month, Gwyn Gabe said that every time his wife “sees black garbage bags on the side of the road she always stops to look and gets emotional.”

“I hope we find Alexis soon,” he said.

Police released Alexis’ car in September. It sits decorated with her favorite mementos but it’s also a reminder of what they don’t have.

“It’s unfair that we can only bring her car home and not her,” Alexis’ mother said.

Gwyn Gabe added, “I know the police are saying that our daughter is gone but our daughter will remain alive in our minds and in our hearts.”