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Remains identified as Idaho 9-year-old

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(CNN) -- Investigators said Sunday that DNA testing "positively identified" human remains found in Montana last week as those of missing 9-year-old Dylan Groene.

The remains were found in the Lolo National Forest in western Montana, and sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia.

Capt. Ben Wolfinger of the Kootenai Country Sheriff's Department in Idaho confirmed that the lab made the identification.

"Out of respect for the Groene family and to maintain the integrity of the investigation and prosecution of this matter, there will be no further comment regarding these results," Wolfinger said in a press release from the group of agencies investigating the case -- led by the sheriff's department, the FBI and Idaho state police.

Dylan and his 8-year-old sister, Shasta, were reported missing May 16, when their mother, older brother and mother's boyfriend were found bound and beaten to death in the mother's home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Employees and patrons in a Coeur d'Alene restaurant spotted Shasta July 2 in the company of Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, a registered sex offender in two states. Shasta was reunited with her father and was said to be doing well.

Duncan was charged with two counts of kidnapping with the intent to rape, commit an unnatural act or perform a lewd and lascivious act upon a child under the age of 16.

He has not publicly responded to the charges. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 19.

Wolfinger said last week that investigators believe Duncan also was responsible for the triple homicide, although he has not been charged in the killings.

"The investigative team has stated that at this time, and according to the evidence they have at hand, they believe that Joseph Duncan is the only person responsible for these crimes," Wolfinger said Wednesday. (Full story)

Duncan had already been charged in Washington with failure to file a change of address with the state sex offender registry and in Minnesota with being a fugitive from charges of child molestation and attempted molestation filed earlier this year.

Duncan was convicted in 1980 of raping a 14-year-old boy at gunpoint in Washington when he was only 16. Sentenced to 20 years in prison, he was released on parole in 1994, but three years later returned to prison for violating parole.

He completed his term in July 2000 and almost immediately moved to Fargo, North Dakota, where he enrolled at North Dakota State University and registered with the state's sex offender registry.

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