A city police officer found himself in the spotlight this week for solving a 1992 missing person case and identifying those responsible for the 22-year-old woman's death.

Full details of the investigation, including the victim's name, have yet to be made public, but the officer responsible for clearing the case has been identified as Patrolman Kenneth Lee Mains, a city officer since 2003.

Mains' unusual investigation, done largely on his own time, was made public Thursday night when he was named the Williamsport Bureau of Police "officer of the year" during a ceremony at the start of the City Council meeting.

The investigation was described as done with the permission of Mains' superiors in the police department, but most of the leg work was done on off-duty time, including hours spent walking and searching for the woman's burial site in woods near a Bellefonte-area quarry.

According to Police Chief Gregory Foresman, Mains' assignments since joining the city department include narcotic investigations. He is assigned to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's local "Safe Streets" task force.

Comments during the public ceremony revealed the woman's death is now considered a homicide.

The "lead suspect" took his own life last October, according to Foresman, but a second suspect confessed to being present when the woman was killed and took Mains to the area where she was buried.

Foresman said charges are pending and further details, including the identities of the victim and her alleged killer, won't be released until an announcement by prosecutors in that area of charges against the second individual.

Mains had little to say when introduced at the council meeting. "Thank you," he said. "I don't really have much to say. I'm not much for words."

His response to the honor and the expressions of appreciation and praise that came with it from city officials was just as brief.

"It's my job," he said. "It's what I'm here to do and I'll continue doing it."

The officer's interest in the case began when he logged onto an Internet "missing persons" site, typed in "Williamsport" and the missing woman's name and description appeared.