Human Remains Found in Area Where Actor Julian Sands Went Missing on Hike

Authorities announced Saturday that they have found human remains in the area where actor Julian Sands went missing during a hike this past January. Identification should be completed next week, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department added.

Sands, a prolific British actor appeared in films like Warlock, The Killing Fields and Ocean’s Thirteen, was reported missing in over five months ago after he went hiking alone in the Mount Baldy area northeast of Los Angeles; Sands was reportedly an avid hiker and mountaineer.

Sands’ family and other search parties attempted to retrace the actor’s assumed path, but the searches were put on a months-long pause due to extreme winter weather conditions and residual ice and snow in the Mount Baldy area.

However, the search for 65-year-old Sands resumed last week, with 80 volunteers, law enforcement agents and drone operators conducting the search. Ultimately, it was hikers who stumbled upon the human remains in the Mount Baldy wilderness.

According to the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, “Fontana Station deputies, along with the Sheriff’s Department’s Emergency Operations Division, responded to the scene. The decedent was transported to the Coroner’s Office, pending positive identification. Identification should be completed next week at which time we will update this press release. No further details are available at this time.”

The New York Times reports that Sands was among over a dozen hikers who required a search-and-rescue operation in January; two other hikers died from injuries they sustained in a fall. Following Sands’ disappearance, the sheriff’s department issued a warning to other hikers hoping to explore the area.

On Wednesday, as the search resumed, Sands’ family issued their first statement via the sheriffs’ office, “We are deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian. We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer.”