COTTAGE GROVE (AP) - A wallet discovered near a small pile of bones last week contained the identification of a man who was last seen a decade ago, the authorities said.

Lane County sheriff's investigators declined to disclose the name on the Oregon driver's license, and said they won't know for certain whose remains were found until they get a DNA match.

Detectives have yet to find relatives of the man whose name appears on the license.

“We have not officially released the name, in part because we have not been able to notify next of kin,” said Lt. Randy Smith of the Lane County Sheriff's Office.

Smith, however, said the identification card belonged to a person who was reported missing in Lane County in 1996.

The Cottage Grove resident who discovered the bones said the driver's license belonged to John Burl Cranford.

John Perry spotted the bones while walking his dog near Highway 99.

“I just kept poking around after I saw the bones, and sure enough, there was the wallet,” Perry said. “I'd walked past that area several times before, and never noticed it. It couldn't have been more than about a quarter mile from my house.”

Researchers at the University of Oregon's anthropology department are reconstructing the bones.

According to the National Center for Missing Adults, Cranford was 43 when he disappeared on Aug. 17, 1996. The center's Web site, which lists Cranford as an endangered missing adult, said he was last seen in Eugene.

“This guy probably has family somewhere that's been wondering for 10 years what happened to him,” Perry said. “Maybe this will help them get a little closure.”