The human remains found in a car discovered March 29 in Zuma Canyon have been positively identified as those of Jeffrey Scott Howard, a Thousand Oaks resident who had been missing since Dec. 21, 2006.

Hikers discovered the car, and the skeleton in it, after they saw something shining in the distance and went to investigate. The car, Howard's 2003 Hyundai Elantra, was under deep brush 800 feet off KananDume Road and would have been completely hidden if not for the sparkle of light, the hikers said.

The Los Angeles coroner identified the remains using Howard's dental records, said Ed Winter, assistant chief.

The sparkle of light that led the hikers to the car was a miracle for Howard's father, Stan.

A minister for 20 years, Stan Howard had been praying to find his son. Though he and his family had hoped Jeffrey, 42, would be found alive, they are grateful to finally have an answer.

"It was good news and bad news. We'd hoped he was living in a fugue state somewhere. Now we're living with what it is," Howard said.

At 2:30 a.m. that December day Jeffrey Howard told his wife, Thuc, that he had a severe headache. He left in his car with about $80 but without the cellphone he usually carried, his father said.

When Jeffrey didn't come home, his family, friends and the police searched for him everywhere they could imagine, Stan Howard said. They had been up and down Kanan Road numerous times, looking for signs of a car going off the road, he said. Howard said his son liked going to the beach to relax and perhaps had been on his way there to watch the sunrise.

"It is tough to go through the grief experience, a normal human emotion. The grief has been elongated with the disappearance, but we will make it through," Howard said.