Santa Barbara police officials have finally identified the decomposed body that was found at a location between Santa Catalina Residence Halls and Santa Ynez apartments last May.

Following an investigation made by officials with the UCSB Police Department and Santa Barbara County Sherriff’s Office, the body was identified as 63-year-old Thomas Lee Broad, an Isla Vista local and transient. Although the cause of death is still undetermined as a result of the body’s highly decomposed condition, foul play is not believed to be a factor.

Investigators processed the incident by collecting evidence found at the scene — including personal property — and completing extensive DNA work in collaboration with the Sherriff Department’s Coroner’s Bureau.

UCSB Police Department Detective Sergeant Rob Romero said the investigation took a number of months due to the extensive nature of the investigation.

“We have to do a DNA analysis to confirm the identity. It’s a time-consuming process. We have to go through records of DNA and use presumptive DNA from kin to determine a match; that takes a long time,” Romero said. “There are also a lot of other cases that the team works on and is overloaded with, such as sexual assault and murder.”

 A version of this article appeared on page 6 of January 11th, 2013’s print edition of the Nexus.