WEST GLACIER – Bone fragments recovered last summer in Glacier National Park have been identified as the remains of Yi-Jien Hwa, a hiker who went missing in 2008 during a weeklong, 100-mile solo trek through the park’s rugged backcountry.

The bone fragments were among several pieces of evidence listed on Hwa’s equipment list, which were found by a hiker last July and thought to have belonged to Hwa, a native of Malaysia who was attending seminary school in Kentucky.

This week, the remains were positively matched to the missing hiker through DNA analysis at the National Missing Person’s Program at the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, Glacier Park officials announced Wednesday.

The search effort began Aug. 21, 2008, after emergency officials received word from Hwa’s family that he was three days overdue from a lengthy and arduous planned hike in the park’s backcountry. Searchers never found Hwa’s body despite an extensive ground and air search that followed the detailed backcountry itinerary Hwa obtained for the trip.

After more than 2,500 hours spent searching in difficult terrain and challenging conditions, the search effort was scaled back in September 2008.