Five months after going missing while out for a hike in the snow-covered mountains of Southern California, British-born actor Julian Sands, most famous for his role in the Oscar-acclaimed movie ‘A Room with a View’, was declared dead on Tuesday. He was 65.
According to the San Bernardino County sheriff’s office, the actor’s mostly skeletal remains that were found by hikers on June 25 in the area where he had gone missing were positively identified as his by the coroner.
The cause of his death is still under investigation, the department stated in a statement.
Sands, an avid outdoorsman and mountaineer, went missing on Jan. 13 after hiking alone earlier that day in the Baldy Bowl region of the San Gabriel Mountains, roughly 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Los Angeles.
Due to avalanche risks and bad t trail conditions, a search party organised at the time was called off 24 hours later. According to the sheriff’s department, many more searches came up empty-handed, including a big sweep performed days before Sands’ remains were eventually discovered in the Mount Baldy wilderness region.
Phone signals s detected on Sunday, Jan. 15 indicated Sands had gone towards Mount Baldy’s ridge, likely the last indication he was still on the move, according to the sheriff’s department at the time.
The sheriff’s department shared a message from Sands’ family on June 21, after the agency’s latest search but before his remains were discovered, thanking search teams for their efforts and sounding a note of resignation about his fate.
“We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, love of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer,” the statement said.