By Kevin Taylor | The Wetumpka Herald

It has been nine years, but now family members of Richard Wayne Adams can be at peace.

Elmore County Sheriff Bill Franklin said the state Department of Forensic Sciences contacted his office earlier in the week to positively identify Adams, whose decomposed body and skeletal remains were found near Possum Trot Road in the Deatsville community Feb. 25, 2009.

At the time when Adams’ remains were found about 40 yards from the banks of Lake Jordan, forensic sciences could not identify the remains.

Franklin said Adams’ skull was sent to Louisiana State University and later to the University of North Texas. DNA was retrieved and put into the Combined DNA Index System.

“They got a hit and were able to positively identify the remains,” Franklin said. “We then contacted his relatives.”

Adams was from the Verbena community in Chilton County, Franklin said.

In 2009, when Adams’ remains were found, evidence showed that he had suffered a gunshot wound to the head and the gun was found under his body.

Franklin said forensics confirmed it was a self-inflicted wound.

Adams was found under a makeshift shelter, and at that time investigators believed Adams’ body had been there up to a year after his death.

Adams would have been 57 years old this year.