GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — The Mesa County Sheriff's Department says a hiker's discovery of a human skeleton in a partially buried car could be related to a missing person's case going back more than 20 years.

Sgt. Matt Lewis tells the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel the case involved a man who lived in Mesa County. The hiker was near John Brown Canyon Road southwest of Gateway when he reported the crashed vehicle Thursday.

Update 5/14 the KKCO website has confirmed the identity as that of Ronald Vasey, who disappeared in 1987 when he was 65-years-old. He had made suicidal threats and attempts at the time of his disappearance so all evidence points to suicide as his cause of death.

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