ALEXANDRIA — A body found in a farm field in west-central Minnesota is likely that of a missing college student, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.

A farmer in Orange Township found the remains Monday afternoon and called the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, according to Sheriff Troy Wolberson.

Wolbersen said in a statement Tuesday that investigators believe the remains are those of 18-year-old Laura Ann Schwendemann, a freshman at the University of Minnesota, Morris, who had lived in nearby Starbuck. Schwendemann was last seen Oct. 14 at a gas station in Alexandria with a man known to her, investigators have said. That man is under investigation, the sheriff said.

The woman’s grandmother, Dagny Schwendemann, of Starbuck, said Laura had stopped by her home alone on Sat. Oct. 10 and nothing seemed to be amiss or out of the ordinary.

Schwendemann said her granddaughter got good grades at Minnewaska Area High School, but hadn’t yet decided on a course of study at Morris.