The Stillwater County Sheriff's Office announced Monday investigators have identified the human remains found in a remote area near West Rosebud Lake in November 2019.
The remains belonged to Michael Moler, a 63-year-old man from Midland, Texas, said Sheriff Chip Kem in a news release. Kem also serves as the county's coroner.
The county partnered with the Montana Medical Examiner's Office, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and Othram, Inc., a company that specializes in tracing DNA to aid in cold cases.
Othram was able to use a technique known as Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing and other genealogy work to trace the ancestry DNA of the remain, then match DNA testing to identify Moler.
Authorities are continuing to investigate, but the sheriff's office does not suspect foul play.
The remains were discovered nearly four years ago by two hunters. Several items of clothing, bones and a shotgun were found in the search area, ad investigators believed the bones and other items had been there for several years.
