The bones found in a fire pit on Fiesta Island last week were indeed human and belonged to a 79-year-old man, a spokesperson for the San Diego Police Department confirmed Thursday.
SDPD Lt. Matt Dobbs added, though, that investigators do not believe the death was the result of foul play.
"After a thorough investigation, it was determined the man died in the fire pit but no foul play was suspected in his death," the lieutenant said in a statement to the media.
Investigators were able to gather information to help identify the man but refused to release his name since he was not the victim of a crime, the agency said.
No other information surrounding the death was made available.
The human remains were discovered by Dan Conklin, who was walking along the east end of Fiesta Island at about 10:30 a.m. a week ago. The discovery prompted a large police response and a homicide investigation.
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"The body was completely burned up. The skull was in tact. It had the teeth in it," Conklin said.
SDPD officers took pictures of the remains and sent them to a forensic anthropologist, "who believed they were possibly human, based on the image," Dobbs said.
Conklin said the fire pit was surrounded by trash -- beer cans, wine bottles, a golf club, shoes, clothes and pills in a plastic days-of-the-week container -- evidence, he thought, of a large party. But that was never confirmed by police.
