Remains of missing Fort Bliss soldier found in Arizona coal chute

Six months after an unidentified body was found at a coal plant near Cochise, Arizona, officials have linked the remains to a 21-year-old soldier who went missing from Fort Bliss earlier this year.

Pvt. Devon Lee Ward had been missing from the Texas post since May 25, according to the "Finding Private Ward" Facebook page set up by his friends and family. The body was discovered June 27, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

"At this time we're not putting out any statements," a Fort Bliss spokesman told Army Times on Friday, deferring to the Cochise County Sheriff's Office.

The Pima County Medical Examiner's Office used Ward's fingerprints to make the identification, as deputies reported finding partially decomposed bones and body parts at the Apache Generating Station.

The sheriff's office is investigating the circumstances of his death. No other information, including the cause of death or how Ward ended up there, was immediately available

Maureen Ward, the soldier's mother, described her son as having Asperger syndrom -- a high-functioning form of autism -- to an El Paso news station in June.