In the year and a half since his son has gone missing, David Coan has heard plenty of theories of what might have happened.

Eighteen-year-old Christopher Robin Coan left the Cedar City Subway sandwich shop where he worked on Sept. 3, 2007, and has never been seen again.

"We were getting tips from everybody and anybody, with a lot of scenarios of him being held captive or in bondage or was close to death somewhere," said the father. "One psychic even told us he was in a shallow grave. But he did what we anticipated, and that was going for a drive after work."

A body believed to be that of the missing Enoch man was pulled Thursday from a vehicle that had rolled off a remote mountain road and tumbled 1,500 feet down a canyon, about 7 miles from Cedar City, said Enoch Police Chief David Browning.

A Cedar City resident was looking for his dog along Right Hand Canyon Road when he spotted the vehicle Wednesday night.

David Coan said Thursday that as tragic as the news was, it was a relief to finally know what happened.

"In the past few months I began to have the feeling that he was no longer with us," he said.

The remains were in the 1994 Chevy Blazer belonging to Christopher Coan, said Browning, who has been handling the investigation into the man's disappearance.

Law enforcement and Coan's family have been searching for him since his disappearance. Volunteers handed out flyers. Search teams combed Iron County's many canyons and wide back country. Enoch police pursued tips from the public -- all of which appear to have been false.

One tip said Coan and his Blazer were at a Park City gas station a few days after his disappearance. An animal control officer in Silver City, N.M., thought she spotted the Blazer there.

Rex Rushton said he was tramping through thick vegetation in the snowy mountainous area late Wednesday afternoon looking for his dog, Zippo, when he saw the vehicle and immediately suspected it was Coan's.

"Everybody in the communities knew he was missing and was looking," said Rushton, who reported what he found to police.

Iron County search and rescue teams, along with members of the county sheriff's office, spent most of Thursday recovering the remains and vehicle.

Browning said Coan was identified by clothing at the scene that matched a description of clothes he was wearing when he was last seen. The vehicle identification number also matched the number on Coan's Blazer.

Browning said the remains will be sent for identification to the Medical Examiner's Office in Salt Lake City.

David Coan described his son as easy-going with a fondness for music, books and history, especially of the Vietnam War and D-Day invasion during World War II.

"You never saw him without a book," said Coan.

Coan said he does not know how to thank the community for their outpourings of concern and volunteer efforts to find his son.

He said search and rescue members had walked the road the Blazer tumbled off of several times without seeing it. In addition, four-wheel club members organized searches and a friend offered to look from the air for the missing man.

"We flew over the spot where they found Chris to within 500 feet and saw nothing," he said.

Coan said a memorial service is being planned for his son with details to be announced at a later date.

Besides his father, Christopher Coan leaves behind his stepmother, Shannon, and brothers Patrick, 24, and Shaun, 16.

"Him [Christopher] and Shaun were always together like peas and carrots," said David Coan.

Browning said even though he was 18, Coan had just received his driver license and was not an experienced driver.

"That road is steep with sharp curves where you have to go from driving 45 [mph] to 15 really fast," he said.

Browning said he has looked all over Iron County for Coan, including along the road past the place where the Blazer was found.

"You couldn't see the vehicle from the road," said Browning. "It's just too deep a thicket."