STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. (AP) – An eastern Missouri sheriff says skeletal remains he believes to be those of a Missouri lobbyist’s wife missing since 2014 could be identified within days.

Ste. Genevieve County Sheriff Gary Stolzer told The Associated Press on Thursday he’s “99 percent” certain the remains discovered Tuesday night on Lynn Messer’s sprawling property are those of Messer.

He says clothing found with the remains matched Messer’s apparel, and the remains showed evidence that the person had had hip surgery, as Messer did.

Messer was 52 in July 2014 when she went missing from a 250-acre family farm near Bloomsdale, in eastern Missouri.

Stolzer says a key to the investigation will be a pathologist’s determination of what caused the death.

Messer’s husband, Kerry Messer, is a Jefferson City lobbyist.