Sheriff confirms that missing Little Rock businessman's remains found in state park

FILE - In this Feb. 19, 2008, file photo, Melinda Glasgow, wife of contracting executive John Glasgow, is interviewed in North Little Rock, Ark. The remains of John Glasgow, who went missing in 2008, have been found in Petit Jean State Park. Conway County Sheriff Mike Smith confirmed that hikers found a skull on Wednesday, March 11, 2015, about 150 yards off Red Bluff Drive in the park. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston, File) (The Associated Press)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The remains of a Little Rock construction executive who went missing in 2008 have been found in Petit Jean State Park.

Conway County Sheriff Mike Smith confirmed that hikers found a skull on Wednesday afternoon about 150 yards off Red Bluff Drive in the park. The remains were taken to the State Crime Laboratory Thursday morning where they were identified as those of John Glasgow, according to Smith.

Glasgow, the CFO of CDI Contractors LLC, was last seen leaving his Little Rock home on the morning of Jan. 28, 2008. A tourist's photo showed that by that afternoon, his SUV was parked outside the Mather Lodge at Petit Jean State Park. No other signs of Glasgow had been found since.

The firm, owned by Dillard's and the estate of co-founder Bill Clark, built or remodeled many of Dillard's 300-plus department stores and put up some of Arkansas' signature projects, including former President Bill Clinton's library and the headquarters of Heifer International.

A search crew of 20 was dispatched Thursday to the area where the remains were found, but the search has been suspended due to poor weather conditions.

Arkansas Parks official Tim Scott said that about 85 percent of the park was searched when Glasgow went missing.

Glasgow was legally declared dead in 2011.

Judge H. Vann Smith wrote at the time that "The circumstantial evidence of John's death is substantial. John has been missing for three years without any credible information surfacing in that period that would suggest he might be alive somewhere."

In that same year, a twice-convicted felon named Jonathan Brawner told his lawyer and the Little Rock Police Department that he knew where Glasgow's body was buried. Brawner said that he had been recruited by "thugs from Malvern" to whom he owed money to help bury Glasgow in a bean field near England in Lonoke County.

The bean field was searched, but no remains were found.

Glasgow's family will hold a news conference later Thursday.