Julian Sands.Photo: Kurt Krieger/Corbis/Getty

VENICE, ITALY - SEPTEMBER 3: (EDITORS NOTE: Image has been digitally retouched) Julian Sands attends the photo call for ‘The Painted Bird’ during the 76th Venice Film Festival on September 3, 2019 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Kurt Krieger/Corbis via Getty Images)

Human remains have been found in the areaJulian Sandsdisappearedon California’s Mount Baldy, authorities have confirmed.

“At about 10:00 a.m., civilian hikers contacted the Fontana Sheriff’s Station after they discovered human remains in the Mt. Baldy wilderness,“San Fernando Police Department said in a statementreleased on Saturday. “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,” the statement said.

Representatives for Sands did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The discovery comes after the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department shared a statement from the Sands family last week, five months after the 65-year-oldA Room with a Viewactor went missing while hiking Southern California’s Mount Baldy in January.

Mount Baldy.Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise via Getty

A hiker heads down a trail in Sycamore Canyon Wilderness Park on a clear day with Riverside and Mount Baldy peak in the background on a warm afternoon as high winds and Red flag warnings are expected in Riverside on Monday, November 22, 2021.

“We are deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian,” they said.

“We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer.”

The sheriff’s office added in the tweet, “Although missing hiker, Julian Sands, was not located during the recent search mission, the case remains active. We want to thank all the individuals who assisted in the June 17 search and the previous search missions.”

Crews continued their search for theLeaving Las Vegasstar over that weekend using helicopters, drones and infrared devices, but were still unable to locate the missing actor, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.

Officials had also previously attempted toretrace Sands' steps and ping his cell phonein hopes of locating the English star.

Along with the department’s update, it shareda statement from the family of Sandswho extended their gratitude to the “heroic search teams” who continued to aid in the search for the missing actor.

RELATED VIDEO: Actor Julian Sands Missing After Going Hiking on Deadly Mount Baldy in California

While the sheriff’s department added in anadvisory notice that same daythat helicopters and drones continued to use infrared devices to search for Sands, there had been no sign of the actor thus far.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff-Coroner Department also announced Jan. 23that a second hikerin the area — Jin Chung of Los Angeles —had been missing since Sunday. (Chung, 75, waslocated alivethe following day.)

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department public information officer Gloria Huerta told PEOPLE on Feb. 10,that they “remain hopeful but know the outcome may not be what we would like.”

Julian Sands.charley gallay/wireimage

Julian Sands Still Missing Nearly 1 Week After He Went Hiking on Deadly Mt. Baldy

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An avid hiker, Sands toldThe Guardianin 2020 that a “remote peak in the high Himalayas, such as Makalu” topped his bucket list — and thatthe closest he’d ever come to deathwas during an excursion in the Andes Mountains in the early 1990s, when he and three others were “caught in an atrocious storm above 20,000 feet.”

“We were all in a very bad way. Some guys close to us perished; we were lucky,” he added.

The actor’s brother Nick Sands said in January that he believed Julian, whom he affectionately calls “Jules,” was “gone,” telling theCraven Herald & Pioneeron Jan. 24, “He has not yet been declared missing, presumed dead, butI know in my heart that he has gone.”

“However, sibling rivalry being what it is, it would be just like him to walk out of there and prove me wrong,” Nick added.

source: people.com