Skeletal remains discovered earlier this month in McMinn County, Tennessee, have been confirmed as belonging to David Dewayne Abbott, a Georgia man who was reported missing on June 23, 2016.
Abbott’s remains were found seven years later in a wooded area off Highway 30 west of Athens, Tennessee in McMinn County on October 19, reports The Chattanooga Times Free Press.
McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy said during a news conference Wednesday that retired Fort Oglethorpe Police Detective Steve Blevins, who was the detective assigned after Abbott’s initial disappearance, continued to investigate the case, reports The Chattanooga Times Free Press.
The body was located in Athens, less than a mile from where Abbott left his car. He was 43 years old when he disappeared, and his family later told police he had schizophrenia and other health problems, Local 3 News reported.
According to Guy, investigators found no signs of foul play. He explained that it appeared Abbott “walked into a wooded area and died shortly after leaving his truck on County Road 126,” according to WDEF.
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The remains were found by hunters in the woods on Oct. 19 and then sent to the Knox County Regional Forensic Center for a forensic autopsy. The Forensics Center was not available for comment when reached by PEOPLE.
“We were contacted on Monday by retired Fort Oglethorpe Detective Steve Blevins about the possibility of a person being connected to a case that Detective Blevins worked on in 2016,” Guy said, according to The Chattanooga Times Free Press. “Detective Blevins contacted the forensics center regarding his cold case and they were able to confirm the identification as David Abbott, of Fort Oglethorpe.”
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“He stayed on top of this, even in his retirement,” Guy said of Blevins, per Local 3 News. “Sometimes you just need to find out the truth and be able to make some decisions for the family.”
“We are happy to have located Mr. Abbott, confirmed his identity and brought some peace to his family,” Guy said, ABC News Channel 9 ABC reported.
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“We feel like he’s been ripped out of our lives,” Abbott’s fiancee Regina Snyder told News Channel 9. “Weeks turned into months that turned into years with no answers.”
“How? Why? I mean, I don’t understand how those locals didn’t see or smell anything so close to work, so close to the road,” Snyder said. “I feel lucky that we found him.”
“He didn’t get to see me as a mom. He didn’t get to meet my little girl,” Abbott’s stepdaughter Mikkayla told News Channel 9,
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Blevins told News Channel 9 the case has been open for too long. “We should have gotten to him,” he said. “I’ve never had a missing person case that lasted this long.”
PEOPLE did not immediately return a call from the McMinn County Sheriff’s Office for comment Friday.
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