A serial killer who stalked railroads from Illinois to Texas directed Florida deputies Saturday to the skeletal remains believed to be those of a runaway Woodstock teen, missing for three years but long suspected to have been one of his victims.

Police said Angel Maturino Resendiz, dubbed the "Railroad Killer," killed Wendy Von Huben, 16, and her boyfriend, Jesse Howell, 19. Howell's bludgeoned body was found near railroad tracks in Ocala, Fla., on March 23, 1997, a month after he and Von Huben left Illinois.

About 30 miles south of that spot, police Saturday found the remains believed to be those of Von Huben, about 35 feet from the tracks in Oxford, Fla.

On Thursday, Resendiz had told Marion County, Fla., sheriff's deputies where he left a young woman's body, police said.

Police had suspected Resendiz as the killer since the Texas drifter was arrested last year after a string of slayings along railroads in Illinois, Kentucky and Texas. Resendiz's lawyers have conceded he killed at least eight other people along railroad tracks in the three states.

"Immediately we, along with every other department that had a death that occurred anywhere near railroad tracks, went out to [Texas]," said Deputy James Pogue, spokesman for the Marion County Sheriff's Department. "They were overwhelmed with how many officers were in line to talk to Resendiz."

But a court order prevented them from talking to Resendiz until his trial in Texas was completed, Pogue said. In the meantime, the Marion County department started corresponding with Resendiz about the Florida slayings via mail.

In his letters, Resendiz provided police with information that could be known only by the killer, they said. He also drew maps showing where Von Huben's body could be found, but the maps were not specific enough, Pogue said.

On Thursday, two Marion County detectives traveled to Texas, where Resendiz is awaiting execution in the rape and murder of a Houston-area doctor, to speak with him.

Resendiz provided detailed directions to the body and described how he killed Howell by striking him over the head with a piece of hose from a rail car, then dragged his body away from the track, Pogue said.

In the months after Von Huben's disappearance, her family held out hope of finding her alive.

Three months after Howell's body was found, the family started receiving suspicious phone calls, including some from females claiming to be Wendy.

That led them on a tireless campaign to find her. They distributed leaflets in the Chicago area and did interviews on national television. The TV show "Unsolved Mysteries" also featured a segment on the case.

Now the case appears to be solved, said Woodstock Police Chief Joe Marvin, who helped the family search for the teen.

"The only thing that I can see as any type of positive in it is the fact it [brings] closure for the Von Huben family, that they know now," he said.

Wendy Rachel Von Huben