Human remains found this month outside Bonny Doon have been linked to the 2009 murder of 29-year-old Elias Sorokin.

Sorokin was beaten in a garage in Santa Cruz and his Toyota pickup was dumped and burned in the Santa Cruz Mountains, yet his body remained missing since his disappearance.

On Sept. 6, a skeleton was found by a utility worker near Smith Grade Road and Warren Drive. DNA extracted from it matched Sorokin, police said Monday.

Nick Sorokin, Elias Sorokin's father, has said for years that he wanted to find his son.

"(Elias Sorokin's) departure from us was a great loss which has no replacement," Nick Sorokin said Monday.

"At the same time we are comforted believing that he rests in peace and that here on Earth the perpetrators of the heinous crime against Elias were caught and convicted due to the diligence and perseverance of the Santa Cruz Sheriff's Office, Santa Cruz Police Department and the (Santa Cruz County) District Attorney's Office." Elias Sorokin, who lived in Los Angeles, was an expert tree trimmer and a partner in a fashion company.

His father said it was somewhat fitting that he was found in the forest because of his close work with trees.

"His temporary resting place for four years a picturesque canyon full of redwoods was a setting he loved so much in life. As an arborist, he was called a 'tree man' by many and even in death he earned his title, nurturing the trees around him." When the remains were found this month, Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies initially said they could not identify even the gender of the person because they had been there so long. It required lab work.

Monday, Santa Cruz Deputy Police Chief Steve Clark said the pieces fit together.

Members of Sorokin's family met with investigators last week to view the remains and tour the site, police said.

"The body was found approximately one mile from where his burned vehicle was found on a fire road off of Smith Grade Road," Clark said.

Prosecutors said Elias Sorokin was on his way from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles when he stopped in Santa Cruz on July 20, 2009.

Sorokin went to the home of hairdresser Stewart Skuba at Skuba's Felix Street home to sell marijuana, prosecutors said.

Sorokin was then beaten in the garage, loaded into his own Toyota pickup and taken to Smith Grade Road. It was not clear when Sorokin died, but he was dumped near Smith Grade Road and Warren Drive.

His pickup was left about one mile from it on Smith Grade and destroyed with fire. The pickup was found charred about one week later, authorities said.

"At that time, an intensive effort was launched to locate the body, including hikers, ATVs, helicopters and fixed wing aircraft," Clark said.

After Sorokin's death, three men were arrested and tried in Santa Cruz County Court on murder and robbery charges -- despite the fact that Sorokin's body had not been found.

Stewart Skuba and Kenneth Clamp both were convicted of murder and robbery. Another man, Adam Hunt, was convicted of robbery.