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Michael I. Kufrin remained tight-lipped while members of the parole board questioned him about his girlfriend's 1988 disappearance.

He kept quiet about the case while serving five years at the Utah State Prison for an unrelated crime.

But new evidence may speak to answers that have been muted for decades.

Answers about Peggy Sue Case's death.

State medical examiners confirmed Wednesday that human remains uncovered earlier this week belonged to Case. The remains were uncovered at the Spanish Fork duplex Case and Kufrin shared.

Kufrin, then 32, lived with Case for five years before she was reported missing in July 1988, according to Salt Lake Tribune stories published at the time. Friends last saw 28-year-old Case leaving a hot-tub party in Payson on July 9, 1988, with Kufrin, whom witnesses described as jealous of the way Case had interacted with other men there.

On Wednesday, Spanish Fork police named Kufrin as a "person of interest" in Case's disappearance, and Lt. Matt Johnson confirmed that law enforcement officers believe Kufrin is living in Illinois. If the Utah County attorney's office files charges, Johnson said, police there will detain Kufrin.

"We are totally convinced he killed her," Case's father, Richard Ellsworth, told a Tribune reporter in 1990. "The only thing we need is her body to connect him. Otherwise it's a perfect case."

Case's family told police Wednesday that they wanted privacy and did not wish to speak with news media.

The Tribune tried to contact Kufrin by phone Wednesday afternoon, but that attempt was not successful.

According to a Spanish Fork Police Department news release, medical examiners used dental records to identify the woman, but they have yet to determine the cause of her death.

Her bones were recovered Monday after a man residing in the home Case and Kufrin shared noticed soil sinking in the cellar's dirt floor. He dug down 18 inches, found Case's skull and called police, who uncovered more of Case's skeletal remains, which were wrapped in plastic mesh and a blanket, Johnson said.

After Case was reported missing, then-Spanish Fork police Detective Carl Johnston investigated, digging up the backyard and the cellar's dirt floor. He remembers looking for areas where the ground had been disturbed, he said Wednesday, and though officers didn't see any, they dug. Johnston said there were no policies in place at the time about how far to dig into the soil.

In the days after the party, Kufrin called Case's employer to report that she was ill. He then told her employer that she'd left the state to buy a car and would not be returning to work, Tribune articles say. Suspicious of what Kufrin told them, Case's co-workers reported her missing.

Kufrin had been in contact with Case "a few times" by phone, he told police, but later stopped cooperating with the investigation.

Police discounted "several stories" Kufrin gave them in the months after Case's disappearance, Tribune articles say. "We feel he has not been straight with us," a 1988 news release from police said of Kufrin.

In March 1990, Kufrin was convicted of an October 1988 vehicle theft and received a punishment of zero to five years in prison. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss all charges if Kufrin would produce evidence that Case was alive, but Kufrin apparently was unable or unwilling to do so.

About 10 of Case's family members attended Kufrin's initial parole hearing on Oct. 5, 1990, in hopes of addressing the Utah Board of Pardons, but they were refused the chance to speak because Kufrin's prison sentence was not related to the Case investigation.

During the parole hearing, Kufrin refused to answer questions about Case's disappearance and demanded that he serve the maximum sentence of five years without the possibility of parole rather than address such inquiries.

At the time, Johnston told The Tribune, it was "frustrating having everything you need except her."

After his release, Kufrin moved back to his home state of Illinois. Every year, Johnston said, he would call Kufrin's mother to ask whether she had learned anything about the case, but she never did.

Johnston would also call Kufrin every year — and, typically, after he introduced himself, Kufrin would hang up, the retired detective said.

Case's Utah County family had a burial plot set aside for her, Johnston said in a 2015 article, though he hadn't been in contact with the family for years, he said this week.

Johnston said he hoped the newly found remains will bring Case's family "some closure" and renew the investigation.

Case was sweet, said Sally West, a neighbor in the adjoining duplex unit who'd moved in about six weeks before the woman was reported missing. "I never heard them arguing," West said of the couple next door, but after Case was gone, Kufrin's behavior became "really, really strange" and West felt uneasy around him.

He'd told West that Case "took off with a couple of guys from this party and that she'd sober up and call him in a couple days." On another occasion, West said, Kufrin "beat" on her door late at night while holding a bloody machete. He showed West a spot in the driveway where there was blood and said he'd stabbed a stray dog with it.

The last time West saw Kufrin, she said Wednesday, he told her he was going to move to a motor home with Case and asked for West's help loading Case's heavy cedar chest into a work truck. He told West he was leaving in the morning, she said, but instead left in the middle of the night.

Before Case's remains had been confirmed Wednesday, West said the case weighed "really heavy on her family's heart, and on mine as well."

"I knew her well enough to like her," West said of Case. "It just breaks my heart."

It's been 29 years, West said, but she hopes more people will step forward with information to bring "justice for Peggy."

Twitter: @mnoblenews