MANILA, Philippines (AP) – Philippine authorities on Wednesday found a body they believe to be that of a missing American Peace Corps volunteer in a northern mountain town where she disappeared during a hike more than a week ago, an army general said.

Major General Rodrigo Maclang told The Associated Press that a body matching the description of Julia Campbell, 40, from Fairfax, Va., was found buried with one foot protruding from the ground near the village of Batad. It was not clear whether she had been buried by someone or if she was covered by debris during a fall.

General Maclang said it was too early to determine if foul play was involved.

Regional police chief Raul Gonzales said U.S. Embassy officials were on their way to the remote area to identify the body. He said the body was fair-skinned and clad in clothes similar to those that Campbell was last seen wearing.

Campbell went missing April 8 in the area about 160 miles north of Manila. Police said earlier she may have fallen off a cliff.

Provincial police chief Senior Superintendent Pedro Ganir said by telephone on Tuesday that Campbell, wearing blue denim jeans, black shirt and a shawl, was last seen buying soda from a local store.

She was only wearing sandals and had bought a bus ticket to return to Manila by April 9, indicating she did not plan to extend her stay or make a long hike to a spot to view the area’s famed mountainside rice terraces, he said.

Campbell is one of 137 Peace Corps volunteers currently in the Philippines. She had been teaching English at the Divine Word College in Albay province’s Legazpi city, southeast of Manila, since October 2006. She previously taught at a public school in Donsol in nearby Sorsogon province, said Nora Gallano, assistant dean of Divine Word’s College of Liberal Arts.

On Tuesday, Philippine national police chief Oscar Calderon ruled out the involvement of communist rebels in Campbell’s disappearance, and he said there was no indication that she was abducted by lawless elements or the communist New People’s Army “because the area has been cleared of insurgents.”

In 1990, the NPA seized Peace Corps volunteer Timothy Swanson and held him for 50 days on central Negros island. He was later released unharmed.

In June that year, the American government ordered the evacuation of Peace Corps workers from the Philippines after receiving intelligence that rebels may try to kill or kidnap them. But by that time, Swanson already was in rebel hands.