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Family confirms that body found in woods was Jacksonville father missing for months

John McNamee's family came all the way from Ireland to help find him. A search party Saturday ended with the discovery of remains, now identified as McNamee.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a previous, related report.

A story of family putting their lives on hold to find their lost loved one has come to a tragic end. 

Human remains found during a search party for Jacksonville father John McNamee, who had not been heard from since May 25, have now been identified.

The body recovered by police is McNamee, a statement from his family confirmed.

Police said the cause of death is undetermined at this time. 

The family was searching woods are behind the Quality Inn on Airport Road in Jacksonville Saturday. 

McNamee's truck was found parked behind the Quality Inn shortly after his disappearance, though he had not been a guest there, police reports showed. 

Family told First Coast News they have found clothes and suspected that McNamee had been there.

The family was told to go home after that. 

Later, police sent out a release saying they had now found human remains. They notified the family Monday afternoon that McNamee was dead.

McNamee was from Ireland, though he lived in Jacksonville for more than a decade. 

Family said McNamee called all the time, and when they didn't hear from him, they knew something was wrong, police reports show.

Several members of McNamee's family flew overseas to help find him. 

The family's statement says: 

"On Saturday, July 9, members of Withlacoochee Regional Search and Rescue Team (Ocala, Marion County) along with Chief Samuel J. Matychak took Independent HRD (Human Remains Detection) Dogs Handlers Stephanie and David Hollingsworth (Live Oak), First Response Search Team HRD Dog Handlers Tjasa Landes and Juli Wilkison (Tallahassee), Florida Search & Rescue (volunteers around in Florida) and volunteers of Set Free Church Jacksonville on a private search of the area where John’s pick up truck was found back on May 26. During this search the remains of our beloved John were located.

We are truly grateful to those who all helped in finding John and enabling us to bring him home.

Thank you to Jacksonville Sheriff office for all their help and assistance during these difficult weeks.

Thank you to the everyone who assisted us by sharing information, posting flyers and helped in any way.

We will never have enough words to describe how grateful we are.

As a family we are truly devastated on the passing of our beloved John and we ask for privacy and space at this time to allow us to grieve."

    

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