The agonizing search by relatives of Joseph Brancato, the Marine recruit who disappeared in November, is now over, as authorities said Thursday that his body was discovered in the brush alongside Interstate 95 in Canton on Wednesday.

Brancato, 21, was reported missing Nov. 18 in Roslindale’s Mendelssohn Street area, where he was living and training with ex-Marine Gunnery Sergeant Frank Lipka, a Marine recruiter who has since been named as a person of interest in what was once a missing-person case.

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office confirmed in a statement that Brancato’s remains had been recovered and that an autopsy was performed Thursday.

“Cause and manner of death remain undetermined and under investigation pending further testing,’’ the statement said. “The matter remains under active investigation by Massachusetts State Police detectives attached to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office working with Boston Police detectives.’’

Lipka was the sole recruiter at the Roslindale office where Joseph Brancato was processed, Ed Buice, a spokesman for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, has said in an e-mail. Brancato was living with Lipka in the hopes of passing the physical tests necessary to become a Marine, his family has said.

In Winthrop, an emotional scene played out outside the two-story home on Otis Street where Brancato had lived with his mother and grandmother before moving in with Lipka.

“I’m never going to be the same; I lost my son,’’ his mother, Kim Brancato, said, before becoming overcome with emotion.

Her son, she said, “was like the mayor of the city.’’

“He knew everybody,’’ she said.

Brancato attended a vocational high school, was a fisherman, and badly wanted to be a Marine, she said.

“He was Joey,’’ she said. “There was no one like Joey.’’

When she learned that a body had been found off a highway in Canton on Wednesday, Brancato said she went into shock.

“I still had a little bit of hope that Joey would walk through the door and this would all be just a big nightmare,’’ she said.

His grandmother, Midge LeBaron, said the family is looking for answers. she said she prayed every night for her grandson while he was missing.

“It’s hard right now . . . because I don’t know how he died,’’ she said. “You know, I don’t want him to have suffered.’’

Kim Brancato said her son wanted to “fight for this country and he hooked up with the wrong person,’’ meaning Lipka.

Lipka was arraigned on Monday in West Roxbury Municipal Court on charges unrelated to Brancato’s disappearance, and bail was set at $10,000 cash.

He was charged with assaulting a pizza delivery driver during an incident last September.

A police report filed in the case said homicide detectives learned of the alleged assault of the driver as part of an “ongoing investigation . . . in relation to the disappearance of Joseph Brancato.’’

In the weeks since Brancato disappeared, Boston police and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service have searched wooded areas along Turtle Pond Parkway in the Stony Brook Reservation in Hyde Park on multiple occasions.

Brancato’s body apparently was discovered by happenstance. According to Morrissey’s office, a motorist pulled over in the breakdown lane and saw the remains Wednesday afternoon on a curving part of I-95 where the highway branches off from I-93.

While on the side of the road, the person saw “human remains a modest distance off the roadway.’’ Responding State Police troopers confirmed the sighting and oversaw the recovery of Brancato’s remains.

Travis Andersen of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. John R. Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com.