LEWISTON — The remains of a woman found in a freezer in a storage locker last month will be shipped to an out-of-state lab for analysis, police said Thursday.

Police are seeking to identify and determine the cause and manner of death of the remains discovered on Oct. 22 by family members of Francis “Frank” Julian of Lewiston. Julian died on Oct. 1. He had rented the storage unit at outer Lisbon Street in 1992.

Police believe the remains may be those of Kitty I. Wardwell, Julian’s former girlfriend, who went missing in 1983. She had last been seen with Julian.

The remains had been transported to the Maine State Crime Lab in Augusta in the freezer due to their fragile condition, police said.

“The DNA testing at the … lab has been hampered by the condition of the remains, and that work will now be sent to an out-of-state laboratory for additional analysis,” said Stephen McCausland, spokesman for Maine State Police.

That additional work is expected to take several weeks to complete, he said.