The Orange County Sheriff's Office Wednesday officially confirmed what a private investigator told News 13 Tuesday: remains found in east Orange County are of missing woman Tia Bonta.

The sheriff's office says the case is now an active death investigation, and they will explain this afternoon what the next steps will be.

On question remains how Bonta's body ended up on the side of a road near the Lake Pickett area.

And whatever answers they find, the Bonta Family told News 13 they hope it helps them understand how their 24-year-old daughter died.

"I was kind of hoping that she made a big mistake and that she would want to come back. That's there, that's always there. But the dreaded news ... I kind of expected it," said her father Kevin Bonta.

After not seeing his daughter for more than a year, Kevin Bonta says he knew something had to have happened to keep her from her family and from her son Kingston.

When news that a body was found just about 10 miles from the last place she was seen alive, Bonta says he immediately thought of his daughter.

Then he saw the pictures of rings found on the body.

"I've got my girl back," Bonta said. "I said I was going to find her body. I didn't know how. I was out there with shovels digging, hoping I didn't hit her body."

He will never get to hug his daughter again, but knowing where she is has given Bonta solace he says he thought he would never find.

Now he says his family is working with law enforcement to bury his daughter soundly, but that is just the first step.

Next he wants answers and believes finding Tia is the first step in figuring out what happened to her.

"We want justice for what happened. I can't tell you what happened, cause I don't know," he said.

On Tuesday night, the Bonta family's private investigator told Spectrum News 13 that they learned those remains were Bonta's. The case went cold until the Orange County Sheriff's Office released photos of rings that found with those remains.

"We've all suspected this, so we knew the outcome would probably be grim, but at least now the mom has some type of closure and she knows that her baby isn't laying out in the woods, buried in a whole bunch of palmetto grass," said James Copenhaver, the Bonta Family private investigator.

Investigators looked into the last person who was known to be with Bonta, but no arrests have been made.

Family members believe Bonta was murdered and they hope to find answers soon.

Tia Bonta's family is asking anyone with more information about her disappearance, which was on July 31, 2016, to come forward.  

Anyone with any information about the crime is asked to call Crimeline at 1-800-423-8477.