Elmira police believe their search for a man missing since 2009 has come to end, as skeletal remains were found in Chemung County. As our Bill Mich tells us, locating the remains was all part of a plea agreement with the man accused of killing the victim over three years ago.

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CHEMUNG COUNTY, N.Y. -- Late Tuesday night and into Wednesday, police were in Catlin recovering human remains from a hay field and hedge row. Police believe they are the remains of Douglas Hubbard who has been missing since 2009.

Elmira police were led to the scene by Robert Storms, the man who killed Hubbard and agreed to tell police where he hid the body as part of a plea agreement.

"In talking with council and discussing the case and discussing it with law enforcement, we really wanted to find the body so to get some closure for the family," said Chemung County District Attorney, Weeden Wetmore.

Storms agreed to plead guilty to first degree manslaughter with a ten year prison sentence. He said he hit Hubbard over the head with a frying pan during an argument, which ended up killing him. The District Attorney says conditions like Storms and Hubbard being the only witnesses and being unable to recover a body led to the plea agreement resolution.

"We knew that the defense could point out that the victim here had been dealing drugs and perhaps had a tendency to lose his temper so that some of those issues might tie in with a potential self defense theory," said Wetmore.

The remains have been taken to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office to be identified. The DA says Storms will be sentenced on August 17th.