Authorities have found the plane that crashed 17 years ago and the remains of its passengers, police confirmed Wednesday, ABC News reported.

Authorities have found a small plane that crashed into Michigan's Lake Huron 17 years ago and identified the body of passenger H. Brooke Stauffer Jr., bringing closure to a tragedy. According to Stauffer, 56, of Washington, D.C., said he and his fiancée, pilot Karen Dodds, were en route from Mackinac Island to a town in Michigan when their Socata TB-20 Trinidad went missing in August 2007, he told ABC News.

While Dodds' body was found shortly after the incident, Stauffer's location was unknown until a recent search operation by Great Lakes Search and Recovery, which was contracted by the family, state police said, according to the media. The search operation reportedly led to the discovery of plane wreckage near Bois Blanc Island in August 2024. State police divers found skeletal remains, and the Northern Michigan University Center for Forensic Anthropology confirmed Stauffer's identity through dental information.

Searchers have found a small plane that crashed in Michigan's Lake Huron 17 years ago and the remains of a long-missing passenger. https://t.co/bjCdgp9LIp

— ABC 17 News (@ABC17News) August 28, 2024

Prior to the plane crash, Dodds ran a company called Dodds Design, which specialized in graphic web design and marketing, according to ABC News. Stauffer served as director of standards and safety for the National Electrical Contractors Association. “He was a prolific writer, the author of several technical books, numerous magazine articles, a children's novel and a Washington, D.C. guidebook,” Stauffer said. Obituary He stated. (Related: 18 killed in plane crash during takeoff in Nepal)

The Daily Caller has reached out to Michigan State Police for more information but has not yet heard back.