When he wearied of waiting for the Air Force to give him the news he dreaded, Harold Simmons drove to Wyoming to find out if his son's body had been found.
Now, Simmons is convinced the body discovered April 17 alongside a Uinta County, Wyo., road is that of his son, Bret.The 21-year-old airman disappeared two days before, the day he was scheduled to be discharged from the Air Force and catch a flight from Salt Lake City to Boston.
After discovery of the body, a week passed without positive identification. Finally, the Simmons family could wait no longer.
"We just had to get out of here," said Simmons, who has been staying at Hill Air Force Base until he can reclaim what he believes is his son's body.
Authorities are tight-lipped about the investigation, refusing even to release the cause of death. The FBI reportedly has been asked to join the probe.
Simmons, his brother-in-law and a friend made the 21/2-hour drive to Evanston on Friday. The father waited Saturday as the two other men identified the body at a local mortuary.
"There's no doubt about it, it's Bret," he said.
The men also visited the site where the body was found, about 50 miles north of Evanston on a parcel of government land where ranchers graze their sheep.
But as of Sunday night, Simmons still could not take the body back with him to Beverly, Mass. Wyoming officials require scientific proof for identification, even though Uinta County Attorney Jim Anderson says he is "99.9 percent convinced" the remains are Bret Simmons'.
Officials said such proof has been delayed because the young man's Air Force record was put in the mail to Texas last week, and without it they are unable to compare fingerprints.