The body of 20-year-old Siam Lee was found in a secluded cane field in KwaZulu-Natal, a coastal South African province, media reports said Friday. The young woman from Durban North disappeared Jan. 4 after she received threats from a stalker, authorities reportedly said.

Lee was last seen leaving work in a black Mercedes-Benz with an unidentified man. Police are searching for the man, the local media Zululand Observer reported.

"Durban North police are appealing to the members of the community to assist in locating the man," Lt. Col. Thulani Zwane of South African Police Service said. "Police believe that he can assist in locating the missing person."

Lee's body was discovered last Saturday but her family confirmed only Thursday that the charred remains were Lee's. Authorities said Lee's body was badly burnt when they found it.

“The body was found by a farmer who was driving past,” Zwane said.

Lee's friends told local channel YOU that she had been receiving threats from a man since last October. The stalker followed Lee to her workplace and threatened her co-workers until they kicked him out.

“There was a man who’d wanted a relationship with Siam, but she wasn’t interested,” family friend Sue Foster said. “She told him so and he didn’t handle it well.”

The family believes that this man had something to do with Lee's disappearance and her death. Foster said the family had hired a private investigator to find Lee but could not locate her until police told them about the charred body that they found.

Lee’s mother, Nan, had released an emotional plea on video asking for her daughter's safe return last week.

“Bring her home, bring our baby home,” she said in the video. “If for some reason she is not being harbored or kidnapped, I know she would be home. I can only think the worst.”

Mike Myers of Mobi Claw, one of the teams involved in the search for Lee, also confirmed the news of Lee's death.

"It is with a heavy heart that we can confirm that the family have identified the body as Siam. This young girl was a victim of terrible circumstance. May she rest in peace. This has been a very complex investigation that lead in so many directions, taking us into the dark underworld. A massive team effort was launched from the get go to try and find her," he said.

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