The family of Jonathan Cote has been notified by US Officials that the body of a sixth contractor kidnapped in Iraq has been identified, The Federal Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday.

Jonathan Cote, an Army veteran and former student of University of Florida, was kidnapped in Iraq along with other 4 men. Cote, of the Buffalo suburb of Getzville, was working for Crescent Security Group when he was kidnapped with three other Americans and an Austrian on Nov. 16, 2006.

“Mr. Cote’s remains are in the United States and will be returned to his family” the FBI statement issued Wednesday evening said.

The FBI earlier identified the remains of CSG employees Paul Johnson-Reuben of Minneapolis; Joshua Munns of Redding, Calif.; John Roy Young of Kansas City, Mo.; Bert Nussbaumer of Austria; and Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, who was working for JPI Worldwide and abducted on Jan. 5, 2007, the Associated Press noted.

Since then, his father held out hope that his son had escaped and was in hiding.

“I can't be released until the prisoners from the American jails and the British jails are released,” Cote said in a video which was believed to have been recorded in December 2006.

Cote’s father said that his son’s remains are currently at Dover Air Force Base after being recovered over the weekend in Southern Iraq. He asked that the media allow the family to “grieve in peace,” and promised they would hold a conference at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

His words will remain written in a WashingtonPost.com interview, published just two weeks before he was kidnapped: “Sometimes you know you should take a step back and take it all in, be like what I am here for, why am I really doing this, like is it really worth it?”