Suffolk County police identified human remains found in the basement of a Lake Grove home as a man who went missing decades ago.

One night in 1961, Mike Carroll's father George disappeared, leaving his mother to raise her four children alone.

"The story was that he went out for cigarettes and he never came home -- but his wallet was still here," Carroll says.

But that story never sat well with Carroll. He says he hired researchers, psychics and even paranormal investigators to come to the house.

It turns out that George Carroll was in the home all along, buried 5 feet beneath the concrete basement floor. Mike Carroll's sons found human remains under the basement during an excavation.

Suffolk police confirmed on Wednesday that the bones belong to George Carroll. They also say they've investigating the death as a homicide.

Mike Carroll says he's heard many stories over the years about who may have killed his father and why, but he won't speculate. Instead, he says the positive identification is justice enough for him. He wants people to remember his father as a good father, as well as a motorcycle-riding, hardworking and cool guy.

Mike Carroll's mother died in 1998. He says his focus now is to make sure his veteran father gets a proper burial, hopefully at Calverton National Cemetery.