FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- The mystery surrounding the disappearance of a toddler in the rugged Comanche Peak Wilderness is one step closer to being solved. Clothes belonging to 3-year-old Jaryd John Atadero were found Wednesday near where the young boy disappeared in 1999, 7NEWS reported.

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Allyn Atadero talks about the discovery of his son's clothes

The boy's father, Allyn Atadero, confirmed the discovery in an interview with 7NEWS reporter Ronda Scholting.

The clothes were found by hikers about 550 feet from the Big South Trail. The area, about 60 miles west of Fort Collins, had been searched several times when Jaryd (pictured, below) disappeared.

The hikers, who were familiar with the high profile case of the missing boy, brought some of the items to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office and left some items in that area as a reference point. Deputies from the Coroner's Office, the Sheriff's Office and emergency services went to the area Friday to conduct an additional search and retrieve the rest of the items.

Then on Friday, they sent a picture of the clothing to Jaryd's father, who immediately identified them as belonging to Jaryd.

Recovered were a pair of pants, with one leg missing, a pair of shoes and a pullover jacket with some rips in it.

"I recognized the jacket quite well," said Allyn Atadero. "They are the shoes, the sweats ... they definitely are Jaryd's clothes."

Investigators will send the clothes to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for further testing and DNA analysis.

Jaryd was last seen running between two groups of adult hikers on the Big South Trail on Oct. 2, 1999. Jaryd and his 6-year-old sister Joslyn were accompanying 11 members of a Christian group, who were staying at a cabin resort run by Allyn Atadero, who had stayed behind. Investigators said Jaryd was running ahead of the group every so often so that he could hide behind boulders and trees and jump out to say "Boo." The boy apparently was missing for 15 to 25 minutes before a woman who had been asked to watch him realized he wasn't with either group.

Despite a massive search effort by a team of more than 60 people and search dogs, the only sign of the boy were possible tracks about a mile up the trail from Colorado Highway 14.

"It's all a big mystery. I don't know what to think any more. I don't know what to believe anymore," Allyn Atadero said.

The trail where he disappeared was renamed the Jaryd Atadero Trailhead and now bears a memorial marker to the little lost boy.

Jaryd's father, a physical education teacher at Deer Creek Middle School in Jefferson County, told 7NEWS he believes the discovery of the clothes (pictured, left) brings up more questions than answers because the evidence shows that perhaps Jaryd died on the mountain, but the manner of his death is still unclear. No remains were found on Thursday.

"They haven't even been able to find a trace of Jaryd ... there doesn't appear to be any blood on the clothing," he said.

At the time, it was theorized that a mountain lion might have attacked the small boy, but no evidence of a mountain lion attack was ever found.

"If my son died on that mountain -- that's all I want to know," Atadero said.