SUMMIT COUNTY — While on a camping trip in West Virginia last weekend, Paul Crumrine remembers talking with his father — who went missing last year on a Utah hunting trip — as if he was there.

“Dad, you know it’s almost a year,” he said. “It’s time to come home. It’s time to be found.”

Last October, crews searched tirelessly hoping to find Carl L. Crumrine, a hunter who had become separated from his group and gone missing. But their efforts were to no avail.

Now, after a long journey, his family’s prayers for closure have been answered and Carl Crumrine is finally coming home.

The announcement came Thursday from the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, which issued a news release saying that a hunter reported finding human bones, clothing, a survival pack and a hunting rifle in the Lyman Lake area on Monday.

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Utah searchers for missing hunter remain committed despite storm moving in

Efforts to find a 69-year-old West Virginia man last seen hunting in eastern Summit County continued Saturday, but a storm was expected to bring up to 10 inches of snow and temperatures that will feel like minus-4 degrees with the wind chill to the area overnight.

The remains were positively identified on Thursday by the Utah Medical Examiner’s office, authorities said.

Carl Crumrine was last seen alive early on the morning of Oct. 14, 2019, in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest in eastern Summit County. He was reported missing later that evening when he still hadn’t returned to the group, and Summit County crews soon embarked on a search that night.

Some of his family members traveled to Utah to assist in the search, which lasted several days and even through stormy weather.

Crumrine’s remains were ultimately found about a mile from where he and his group had been camping, according to Thursday's news release. Authorities said that area is “a very dense wooded area with fallen timber.” His cause of death is under investigation.

Carl Crumrine spent a 40-year career as a coalminer, and was described by family as a very loving family man who was well-liked in his community.

Not knowing where he was for the last year has been the hardest part for his family.

“That’s definitely been very hard, very challenging,” Paul Crumrine told KSL.com. “It’s a huge weight off of my shoulders and off the family’s shoulders as well.”

With his father found, Paul said the family has been able to get closure and they are looking forward to bringing him home to West Virginia after a long time away.

“We’re happy now that he’s found,” Paul Crumrine said. “I know it’s not quite the outcome we wanted but it’s the next best outcome that we could’ve asked for.”

Knowing his father died hunting with his friends in a beautiful area helps bring peace to Paul Crumrine.

“I couldn’t think of a better way to go,” Paul added. “He’s out there doing what he loved.”

Two months after Crumrine went missing, someone pulled what authorities called a cruel stunt on an already grieving family — they sent messages on social media posing as Carl.

“It’s pretty heartless if this is, in fact, a fake profile. It is very cruel of someone to put the family through this to create more questions surrounding his disappearance,” Summit County Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Wright said at the time.

That fake page mimicking Carl Crumrine has since been deleted from Facebook, Paul Crumrine confirmed.

“That was definitely cruel. It did upset us pretty well,” he said.

On Thursday, the sheriff’s office offered condolences to Crumine’s family and thanked everyone involved who helped bring closure to them.

“Our sincere condolences are with the Crumrine family and friends as they mourn the loss of Carl,” Wright wrote in a statement. “We appreciate the many personnel, agencies and resources that worked diligently over the past year to find Carl and bring closure to his family.”

Paul, his sister and one of Carl’s hunting partners are planning to come to Utah and see where their father and friend was the past year and say some prayers in the area.

“I’m just so thankful that hunter came across him," Paul Crumrine said, adding that Utah authorities have eased the burden of this difficult experience for the family.

“They’ve treated dad with the utmost respect and really taken care of him,” he said.

Amazingly, his father’s remains were found exactly one year since Paul Crumrine last saw his father alive — on October 5.

“We had talked about hunting and how he’s going out west and he was really looking forward to it,” he said.

That conversation has brought peace and closure for the mourning son.

“If I hadn’t got to talk to him before he left, I don’t know how I’d be right now,” Paul Crumrine said.

He said he will miss hunting and sharing stories with his father the most.

“That’s what he loved to do,” Paul Crumrine said.

Oftentimes, his father would give him a call when there were turkeys in the backyard. On Friday morning, Paul said he had some turkeys in his own yard — something that will always remind him of his father.

“I just always think of him, always good thoughts,” he said.

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