I think official identification is made at post mortem, if it's possible, and determined by the 'medical examiner' (I follow so many US cases I sometimes forget the UK terms!)Can anyone explain to a layman why it’s taken over 6 hours and counting to release the identification? Even though it’s been 3 weeks they would know quickly if it was her or not, by clothes alone. Is this out of respect for the family? I have no experience of this sort of procedure but I am confused why they haven’t released that info yet.
Police can probably tell the family that a certain item was found when retrieving the body, or just that the body was female and consistent in height, weight, hair colour, and that based on that they expect it to be identified as her, but it's the post mortem that will provide the definite identification, not police observations or suspicions.