STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. (AP) – Authorities in eastern Missouri’s Ste. Genevieve County are investigating the discovery of skeletal remains in a rural area where a woman missing since 2014 had lived.

Sheriff Gary Stolzer tells media outlets the remains were found Tuesday night by a hunter, and that the FBI has been called in to assist in the investigation.

Stolzer says it could take months to identify the bones, and he says it’s too early to say whether they relate to the case of Lynn Marie Messer. She was 52 in July 2014 when she was reported missing from a 250-acre family farm near Bloomsdale.

Messer was the wife of Kerry Messer, a Jefferson City lobbyist and the Missouri Family Network’s president.

A message Wednesday for Stolzer by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.