Every day for the past 27 years, Becky Sager Guess prayed about the whereabouts of her 30-year-old brother, who vanished after making a withdrawal from a northwest Harris County bank on June 7, 1984.

She feared for her brother, George "Bud" Sager Jr., but says police refused to investigate his disappearance as a missing persons case. Sager's pickup was discovered abandoned at a Conroe shopping center on July 3, but no clues were found in the truck, Guess said.

"It was devastating to me," said Guess, of Warren, Ark. "I didn't know what to do or where to go."

So she and other family members waited.

Guess finally got some answers in November after Thomas Duroy, a Montgomery County cold case squad detective, learned through DNA tests that a skull discovered in Walker County in 1989 was that of her brother, a former Harris County employee.

Guess had contacted Duroy after seeing a cable news program about cold case investigations.

"I just couldn't give up," said Guess, 60. "He was my little brother. I loved him."

Duroy said he was intrigued by the unique circumstances of the case.

Someone collecting cans discovered the skull along Interstate 45 on Dec. 18, 1989, and reported it, he said.

Inside the skull was a note. It said the skull was found in the woods but that the author could not get involved. Police have a scanned copy of the note, but haven't determined who wrote it.

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Police link woman's DNA to remains of long-missing brother