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Pro BMX rider from Bucks, missing since 2013, found dead in Ariz.

A professional BMX rider from Bucks County has been found dead near the Arizona mountain where he was last seen nearly three years ago.

A professional BMX rider from Bucks County has been found dead near the Arizona mountain where he was last seen nearly three years ago.

Brian Histand, 25, of Middletown, was disoriented and acting strangely before he vanished in May 2013. Friends and relatives - his father, Michael, is a Lower Makefield Township police officer - speculated that Histand, who sometimes rode without a helmet, had suffered a concussion from repeated knocks on the head he endured on his bike. Maybe, they figured, he was OK somewhere but just unsure of who he was.

But Sunday night, his parents confirmed in a page they maintained on Facebook that Histand's remains had been recovered.

"After more than two and a half years I got the call," the post read. "The remains of my son Brian have been located on South Mountain in Phoenix. Many thanks to all that cared, helped and searched for Brian."

The morning before Histand disappeared, a police sergeant saw him praying, naked, in a field near South Mountain. But the officer determined he was coherent and let him go. Police later found his locked car and bike nearby, but no trace of him.

Histand's father had traveled to Arizona to hunt for his son, and his case appeared on various missing-persons websites and billboards.

difilid@phillynews.com