YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (AP) -- A doctor who turned up in Montana last month after staging his death in Florida has apparently committed suicide here.

Park officials found a body Thursday afternoon about two miles north of the Slough Creek Trailhead. Park spokeswoman Marsha Karle said a positive identification should be completed by Friday.

Officials began looking for Dr. Jim Jeffery on Wednesday after finding several suicide notes and identifying papers in his vehicle, which had been sitting in a parking lot in the northeastern part of the park since Sunday.

Jeffery, 40, was suspected of faking his death in late May in Pensacola, Fla., after his unoccupied boat was found banging against bridge pilings in Perdido Key with its motor still running. He had been scheduled to appear in court that day for a property settlement hearing with his ex-wife.

Investigators became suspicious when his body did not surface and they discovered he had purchased a red 2000 Chevy Blazer and closed a bank account two days before his disappearance.

On Sept. 25, Jeffery was stopped for running a red light in Bozeman, Mont. When officers ran a check on him they discovered he was listed as missing. Jeffery did not make his scheduled Bozeman City Court appearance last Thursday and Bozeman police assumed he fled the area.

In Yellowstone, his Chevy Blazer was first noted among other vehicles at a Slough Creek parking area on Sunday. When the vehicle was still there Wednesday, park rangers checked the vehicle, noted that its license plates were missing and began an investigation. Several suicide notes were found in the vehicle, park officials said.

"It's the same vehicle stopped in Bozeman and we presume it's the same person," Karle said.

Before moving to the Florida Panhandle, Jeffery had been an emergency room doctor in Monroe, La.