LOS ANGELES — Costa Rican law enforcement officials said Friday they identified the body of former UCLA basketball player Jalen Hill more than a month after its discovery through forensic analysis of his skeletal remains.
DNA analysis involving samples from other family members confirmed the identification after Hill’s remains were found Aug. 8 in the Napoles de Tarrazu sector roughly 40 miles south of San Jose, according to Marco Monge, a spokesperson for the Judicial Investigation Police.
The cause of death was undetermined, Monge said, because of the state of the remains at the time they were found in a mountainous coffee-growing area popular with tourists because of its hiking trails. Hill entered Costa Rica on April 29, was last seen in early July and was reported missing Aug. 4, according to Qcostarica, an independent news website based in San Jose, the country’s capital. The case remains under investigation.
