AUSTIN (KXAN) - Since July 2011, the family of Elizabeth Escobar has waited for any information that might lead law enforcement to the person who killed her and left her body burning inside an abandoned car on a lonely road in Manor.

And for nearly that long, they also waited for the results of DNA testing that provide investigators the break they need to finally make an arrest.

"Life goes on, but it doesn't for her," said Escobar's cousin, Trish Rivera. "And it's not fair, you know. It's not fair."

Waiting for DNA results is not uncommon for criminal cases in Texas. Demand for DNA testing has increased by 32 percent at the crime lab operated by the Texas Department of Public Safety in Austin. That increase has created average wait times of four months for DNA results.

"The state lab is overwhelmed with every other agency that doesn't have their own lab and has homicides, too, and sexual assaults and that DNA is in that lab, so it gets held up there," Travis County Investigator Alan Howard told KXAN in July 2012.

Escobar's family waited more than 12 months for DNA test results to come back in her still-unsolved case.

The body of Escobar was discovered along the side of a country road near Manor in Travis County.

"She tried hard," said Rivera of her cousin, who was 24 and a mother of two. "She was battling her demons, but she was a good person."

DPS does DNA testing for law enforcement agencies in Texas' 254 counties. Officials said the Escobar case is complicated because evidence was submitted shortly after the crime and then additional evidence was submitted in February and April of 2012.

"DPS has processed a total of 15 samples in this case, and currently there are no test results pending," said DPS spokesman Tom Vinger. "The DPS Crime Lab will continue to work with investigators on this case, and provided assistance as requested."

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DNA testing demand delays justice