The family of Paul Miller is hoping remains found last week in Joshua Tree National Park are those of the missing Guelph man.
On Friday of last week, skeletal remains were found by Joshua Tree National Park rangers in a remote, rocky, steep location away from any trails.
“My gut tells me it’s him,” Miller’s sister Dawne Robinson said by phone on Monday. “We are kind of in a holding pattern at the moment, just really hoping it’s Paul and that we can finally bring him home.”
The family has sent Paul’s dental records to investigators for a positive analysis.
“They said it would probably be a couple of days before they will know for sure if it’s Paul,” said Robinson.
Paul was last seen July 13, 2018, before going on an early morning solo hike at Joshua Tree National Park before he and his wife Stephanie were to fly home to Guelph later in the day.
Since then the family has been desperately waiting for word on what happened.
In May, Robinson was among a group of friends and family who searched the park for the missing man, but they ultimately came up empty.
In the months since the ground search, an effort was underway to receive a permit allowing drones to search the area. It took some time for the approval because drones are not permitted to be flown in National Parks in the United States.
“We had been trying for quite some time to bring in some trained drone pilots because there are a lot of areas in the park we couldn’t really get to because of the steepness of some of the canyons and the cliffs,” said Robinson.
When the drones were finally allowed to search the park, they took over 10,000 high resolution photographs in three days.
