Dr. Franc Fallico on Saturday acknowledged "intense public interest in the case" but said his office did not want to compromise the quality of its work by trying to determine the cause and manner of Schloss' death with a weekend-shortened staff.
Had police urged him to complete an autopsy as soon as possible, said Fallico, he and his staff would have worked the weekend.
According to Anchorage police and the FBI, Schloss, a 52-year-old psychiatric nurse, vanished Aug. 3 or 4 and was reported missing Aug. 6. Her body was found in thick woods a few hundred yards off a subdivision road five miles from downtown Wasilla.
Authorities declined to say anything about the condition of the body except that it was partially decomposed. Nor would they say who found the body and notified Alaska State Troopers. They said the person was unconnected to the case.
The general area is known to be a destination for partying teenagers, police said.
The body was identified as Schloss' from a comparison of dental X-rays, Fallico said. Those records were retrieved from a private dentist in Anchorage and were compared to her post-mortem X-rays by another private dentist in Anchorage, Terrence Tauschek, a forensics specialist who's under contract to the state, according to Fallico.
"That comparison (was) made to a scientific certainty," he said.
A police department statement Friday night said, "APD homicide detectives indicate there is clear evidence that Ms. Schloss is a victim of homicide."
Fallico, however, said he's yet to determine precisely what killed Schloss -- "the injury or disease that begins the process that leads to death" -- or the manner of her death, whether homicide, suicide, accident, natural circumstances or something unknowable.
Police have said Joshua Wade of Anchorage is a "person of interest" in the case. Wade, 27, had been sought by the police until he was captured two weeks ago today. He is in jail.
Wade has not been charged in Schloss' death. Instead, federal authorities have charged him with several counts of fraud and identity theft because, they said, Wade used Schloss' bank card at two Anchorage ATM machines to steal $1,000 in early morning withdrawals from her account on Aug. 5 and 6.
A receipt for one of those transactions was found in a jacket that police have said is Wade's, an item recovered when they searched the Sand Lake house next door to Schloss'. Police said Wade had been living there before and after her disappearance.
A federal judge last week called Wade a flight risk and ordered him held without bail.
Police also said Wade's DNA was discovered on the steering wheel of Schloss' car, which had been missing until Aug. 9 when it was found parked at an air cargo facility.
Wade was acquitted in 2003 in the 2000 killing of Della Brown but was convicted of tampering with her body and served several years in prison.
Important warning about e-mails purporting to be from the adn.com staff.