CURRY, Ala. (AP) — Seven years after his death, Robert Michael Estill is finally being laid to rest in peace.

Estill was killed in July 2002 in the Curry community. His remains were found over a year later and have been kept as evidence since then.

In December, the man charged with his murder, John Edward Abbott, pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Now Estill’s family is planning the proper burial that has long been denied him.

“We’re going to have to bury him in a baby casket, but at least we’re finally going to get to have some kind of service,” said Pat Jones, Estill’s sister.

Jones said her brother was a kind, generous man who loved people and the outdoors. As a teenager, he worked on oil rigs in Texas. Later in life, he enjoyed carpentry and tinkering with cars.

Charity Mills, Estill’s daughter, said her dad’s favorite clothing was western wear.

“He always wore his cowboy boots, blue jeans, belt, Western shirt and a cowboy hat,” Mills said.

In July 2002 Estill was driving through Curry when he saw a group of people he recognized on the side of the road.

He stopped, unaware that helping them fix their broken vehicle would be his last act on Earth.

“They blindsided him. He was struck from behind with a ballbat and was beaten from that point on,” Jones said.

Mills believes the motive for her father’s death was to rob him of his Social Security check and prescription pills, both of which he had picked up that day.

The group drove Estill’s lifeless body around for a while before dumping the 41-year-old in a wooded area near a spot off Smith Lake Dam Road where Estill enjoyed swimming during the summer. He was stripped of everything, including his clothes.

Jones waited to file a missing persons report for her brother until December 2002.

Jones said it wasn’t unusual for Estill to go a few months without contacting his family. However, she grew suspicious after someone she refers to as one of Estill’s “so-called friends” called her on Christmas and said something had happened to him.

Jones was also concerned because Estill battled an addiction to prescription drugs during the final years of his life. Jones said her brother’s degenerative disc disease contributed to his substance abuse, which led him to befriend the wrong people.

Estill’s murderer was among the group of “so-called friends” who attacked him and continued to cash his disability checks after his death. Abbott, the man who pled guilty to his murder, is also a distant cousin of Estill’s children on their mother’s side.

Authorities found what was left of Estill’s remains in February 2004. The discovery provided investigators with only a single DNA sample, according to Jones.

“It (the body) was left out in the heat of the summer and it decayed naturally quicker. There were just a few bones found when they discovered his grave,” she said.

Testing revealed a relatively close match to a DNA sample Mills provided, but it was impossible to get results that were 100 percent accurate. In the meantime, his family clung to the chance that Estill might still be alive.

“I prayed for it to be a mistake,” Mills said.

After Abbott pled guilty and was sentenced last month, Estill’s remains were returned to his family in 10 Manila envelopes.

Jones also held out hope to the end that the bones left in the Curry woods did not belong to her brother. But when she held them for the first time last week, she knew the truth.

“I felt the left hand. I didn’t have them open the envelopes, but I could feel where the nub was where my brother had lost his finger when he was in his early 20’s. Then realization hit me that I may not see the whole body laying there, but I knew. It was like he had just died,” Jones said.

Graveside services for Estill are planned for Saturday. He will be buried next to his parents, Robert and Barbara Estill, at Pocahontas Cemetery.

Jones said she hopes going through the motions of a service will relieve the mental burden that she and Estill’s three children have been carrying for so many years.

“Now I know that I’m going to be able to put what’s of him in the ground safely … Mama will have her baby back,” Jones said.