A private investigator working with the Lane County Sheriff’s Office recovered the body of a 42-year-old Eugene man reported missing Feb. 19, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday, April 22.

Michael Trevor Owen Naughton had last been known to be in the Vida area, roughly 20 miles northeast of Springfield. He was seen after the vehicle he was driving ran out of gas in the Gate Creek area, according to the sheriff’s office and information from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

The private investigator reported finding him Tuesday on an abandoned spur road more than a mile east of where searchers had found Naughton’s vehicle, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.

Deputies responded to the site Tuesday, and the sheriff’s office said in a news release there was no indication of a crime in connection with Naughton’s death.

After Naughton was reported missing, Lane County Sheriff’s Search & Rescue used search dogs, drones and, with help from other agencies, helicopters to search for Naughton, the sheriff’s office said.

Since the initial phase of the search, sheriff’s office detectives along with the sheriff’s Search and Rescue team worked closely with the private investigator hired by Naughton’s family, spending “hundreds of hours searching” for him, the sheriff’s office said.

Downed timber from the 2020 Holiday Farm Fire blocked a path to recover Naughton’s remains, and volunteers with the sheriff’s Search and Rescue spent several hours Tuesday using chain saws to clear a path allowing the recovery, the sheriff’s office said.