Remains found near hiking area where British actor Julian Sands went missing, sheriff says

(LOS ANGELES) — Unidentified human remains were discovered by hikers in the Mount Baldy Wilderness Area in California on Saturday morning, the San Bernardino County Sheriff said.

The remains were discovered near where British actor Julian Sands went missing in January.

Hikers discovered the remains at about 10 a.m. on Saturday and contacted authorities, the sheriff’s office said.

“The decedent was transported to the Coroner’s Office, pending positive identification,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release.

Identification should be completed within a week, the release said.

Sands, 65, was reported missing by his family on Jan. 13 after he’d gone hiking near the Mount Baldy Bowl area of the San Gabriel Mountains outside Los Angeles.

The discovery of the remains came more than a week after authorities resumed their search for Sands with on-the-ground teams, drones and helicopters.

“Since January, the Sheriff’s Department has conducted eight searches (ground and air) specific to Mr. Sands, with volunteer searcher hours exceeding 500 hours,” officials said in a press release on June 17. “Additionally, eight unrelated search and rescue operations have been conducted in the Mount Baldy area.”

The remote terrain where Sands went missing made the search difficult in January, officials said at the time.

Search and Rescue teams on the ground, which are often made up of volunteers, had been pulled off the mountain in January due to the hazardous state of trails and the risk of avalanche.

ABC News’ Caleigh Bartash, Teddy Grant and Morgan Winsor contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.