LAKEVIEW ­— Human remains were discovered on Sunday morning by a hunter in the Panhandle National Forests, Bonner County sheriff’s officials confirmed on Tuesday.

“The Bonner County Sheriff’s Office responded to the location and initiated a suspicious death investigation. The human remains have not been positively identified. Further updates will be provided as the investigation progresses, Undersheriff Ror Lakewold said in a statement.

The remains were discovered shortly after 10:30 a.m., according to a Bonner Dispatch call log. The precise location where the remains were discovered was redacted from the log, although it shows they were discovered off of U.S. Forest Service Road No. 278, a mountain road that traces the southeastern shoreline of Lake Pend Oreille.

The location is conspicuous because it is the same general area where ground and aerial searches were conducted in the fall of 2017. Authorities were seeking the whereabouts of Mirissa Serrano, a 27-year-old Montana woman who was reported missing while visiting the area.

Officials have been tight-lipped about the disappearance, although Danny Harold Neep was arrested in the search area for illegally possessing a 20-guage shotgun and a .22-caliber rifle. Neep, 62, was barred from possessing firearms due to felony convictions for forgery and unlawful weapon possession in California, court records indicate.

Neep was ordered to serve a two- to four-year term on the weapons possession charges in July. He has not been charged in connection with Serrano’s disappearance, although Chief Deputy Prosecutor Shane Greenbank has said Neep was the last person with whom she was seen.

Serrano’s family members, meanwhile, have publicly implicated Neep in the disappearance on social media and in at least one published news story.

Neep is serving his sentence at the Idaho State Correctional Center in Kuna, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. He becomes eligible for parole in February 2020, IDOC’s website indicates.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.