After nearly four years of hoping, the family of Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, who had been captured in Iraq in 2004, found out on Sunday that their son was dead.

Maupin’s parents were informed on Sunday by an Army general that their son’s remains had been found.

After receiving the bad news, Maupin’s father expressed his suffering, but said he is less stressed now knowing that the insurgents who captured his son can’t hurt him anymore.

"My heart sinks, but I know they can't hurt him anymore," he said.

The Maupins vowed not to let the U.S. Army quit searching for their son and this included a trip to the Pentagon and another one to Cincinnati to meet President Bush. Their efforts paid off as their son’s remains were finally found, but overall it was a big disappointment to find out that he was killed.

Details, about how and where in Iraq Sgt. Maupin’s remains were found, weren’t released. The only piece of information released was that the army used DNA testing to identify to whom the corpse was belonging. The investigators also found a shirt similar to the one Maupin was wearing when he was kidnapped.

"It hurts -- it really hurts. You go through four years of hope. It's like a letdown to me. I'm trying to get through that right now," said Carolyn Maupin, Mathew’s mother.

The U.S. Army will release an official statement about the matter on Monday, said Army public affairs officer Lt. Lee Packnett.

Matt Maupin, a 20-year-old private first class at the time of his abduction, was captured by Iraqi insurgents on April 9, 2004. It all happened as his fuel convoy was ambushed near Baghdad.

A recording depicting Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by five masked men armed with automatic rifles was aired by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera a week after the ambush.

Another video showing a U.S. soldier being shot was aired by Al-Jazeera a few months later. One couldn’t tell who was the soldier because of the victim was filmed from behind.