FRANKLIN — The skeletal remains doscovered in the Nantahala National Forest last Saturday are those of missing hiker John Bryant, authorities announced Monday.

However, they would not say how the 80-year-old Horse Shoe resident might have been killed.

Sheriff Robert Holland in Macon County, where the remains were found, said investigators consider the death a homicide. He said he could not release further details because of the ongoing investigation.

Bryant had been missing since October, when he disappeared while on a hiking trip with his 84-year-old wife Irene.

Her body was found in the Pink Beds area, north of Brevard, on Nov. 9. She was killed by a blow to the head.

Investigators have identified Georgia drifter Gary Michael Hilton as the suspect in the murders. Hilton, 61, pleaded guilty to the murder of another hiker, Meredith Emerson, in Georgia last week and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.

John Bryant’s skull and pelvic bone were spotted by a hunter on an offseason scouting trip about 30 yards down a bank off a Forest Service road near Old Murphy Road in the area commonly known as the Switchbacks. The hunter called 911 from his parents’ house nearby.

The area is more than two hours’ drive from the area where Irene Bryant’s body was found.  Her body was partially covered by leaves about 25 yards from where the couple’s SUV was found parked along Yellow Gap Road.

Someone used the couple’s ATM card in Ducktown, Tenn., the day after she was killed on Oct. 21. Ducktown is two hours from where John Bryant’s body was discovered.

Authorities say they found a license plate on Hilton’s van that had been stolen from Brevard when he was detained in Georgia for questioning about Emerson’s death.

Georgia authorities and the FBI say that Hilton spent time in HIwassee, Ga., which is just across the state line from where John Bryant’s remains were found, last October.

North Carolina investigators questioned Hilton about the case for the first time last Thursday, but he asked for his attorney and refused to answer questions about the Bryants.

Emerson was believed to have been kidnapped in Union County while hiking on New Year’s Day. She was beaten to death and then decapitated. Her remains were found 50 miles from where she had vanished.

Hilton was the last person seen with her and he had tried to use her credit card.

Hilton also is suspected in the death of a woman in Florida.