Northern Ont. group discovers abandoned four wheeler connected to a man who went missing in 2017

Sudbury -

It was quite the discovery last weekend for a group of ATVers out on a ride who ended up finding the four wheeler belong to a man who has been missing for four years.

Paul Yelland, who was 66 at the time he went missing, was last seen Oct. 23, 2017, in the area of Beaver Lake near Watabeag Lake. It's a remote area west of Kirkland Lake.

At the time of his disappearance, Ontario Provincial Police said he was “possibly operating a red 2006 Honda TRX four wheeler with the Ontario License plate RT758.”

Glenn Waldron said he was just out for a regular trail ride last Friday with his daughter, her boyfriend and his other daughter's boyfriend when they decided to go down an overgrown trail.

“All of a sudden we had to stop to cut a tree and my daughter’s boyfriend happened to look up and here’s an ATV sitting there up against a log,” said Waldron, who found the vehicle.

“So he figured it was the guy's bike for sure. But when we got to the bike, it had a license plate on it and it matched for the missing person from Watabeag. So then we found his helmet just a little ways from the bike.”

After confirming the bike matched the license plate that was connected to Yelland, the group called 911.

“The next day four police officers showed up with their ATVs and I said ‘well we’ve got to go out back the same way we came out,’" Waldron said.

"So we started in there and it was getting rough and then it started raining, and as we were going we come across another tree that had to be cut and everybody was stopped."

At that point, he said one of the officers looked beside his ATV and saw something on the ground.

"So he got off his bike and moved all the brush,” he said.

Waldron said the officer found human remains on the side of the trail, about 700 metres from where the four-wheeler was found.

CTV News has not been able to confirm with OPP if the remains found are Paul Yelland. But on Monday, OPP confirmed human remains had been discovered in a "very desolate area" in the northwest section of the Kirkland Lake OPP detachment area.

The investigation is ongoing, police added.