LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. -- A partial skull and a tooth were found by searchers looking for the remains of 3-year-old Jaryd Atadero near Poudre Canyon Saturday.

The boy disappeared in October 1999 while hiking in the Comanche Peak Wilderness Area (pictured, left) with a church group and authorities believed he was grabbed by a mountain lion while running along the trail alone, although no evidence of a lion attack was ever found.

Earlier this month, hikers found the tennis shoes, sweat pants and the jacket that Jaryd was wearing the day he disappeared while looking in the area on June 4.

Alyn Atadero, Jaryd's father, was with the search group that returned to the area Saturday to look for any physical remains of the boy.

"The top of a skull and a small tooth were discovered approximately 150 feet from where the clothing was found by the hikers on June 4," said Eloise Campanella, spokeswoman for the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.

A special cadaver recovery team found the remains and said they were consistent with a three-year-old boy. A dentist identified the single tooth as belonging to Jaryd, 7NEWS reported.

For Alyn, it was a Dather's Day present he had been praying for.

"For other people, this would be a terrible thing to find out on Father's Day, but it is wonderful to me," he told 7NEWS. He said now he can get closure. He said he often returns to the area to "talk" to his son and now he knows he was nearby all the time.

Sheriff's officials, who have come under fire recently for not previously searching on foot in the area where Jaryd's clothing was found, contend the boy could not have climbed the slope alone. Campanella said adult investigators had to "scramble up the slope on all fours" to recover the rest of the boy's clothing.

It was not immediately known if searchers would return to the area to look for the rest of Jaryd's remains.