Remains of missing man, 47, found in rural East County

Human remains found Thursday in rugged, hilly terrain near Dulzura have been identified as a 47-year-old man whose family last saw him two days before Christmas at a home in that area.

Christopher Paul Parkhurst was diabetic and had suffered a stroke sometime before he went missing Dec. 23, according to sheriff’s officials. His family reported him missing Jan. 3, telling authorities he was last seen at a Potrero home on Horizon View Drive, a rural dirt road about halfway between state Route 94 and Barrett Lake.

His remains were found near Barrett Lake Road in Dulzura, according to sheriff’s homicide Lt. Thomas Seiver. The county Medical Examiner’s Office identified Parkhurst’s remains, but are awaiting autopsy results to determine his cause and manner of death.

It was unclear who found Parkhurst’s remains Thursday, but U.S. Border Patrol agents alerted sheriff’s deputies to the discovery, Seiver said in a news release. Satellite images show the area he went missing from is not far from the place where his remains found, but they are not connected by a road and are mostly undeveloped, rocky and shrubcovered hills.

Sheriff’s officials first sought public help in the case Jan. 12, nine days after Parkhurst’s family reported him missing. On Jan. 24, homicide detectives, deputies from the Campo substation and more than 80 volunteers with the sheriff’s search-and-rescue team scoured the area near where he was last seen.

The remains were found about a mile northwest of where the detectives and volunteers conducted their “all-day search” that Sunday, Seiver said.

Anyone with information about Parkhurst’s death is urged to call the sheriff ’s homicide unit at (858) 285-6330, or after hours at (858) 565-5200. Tipsters can also call San Diego County Crime Stoppers’ anonymous tip line at (888) 5808477.