A human skeleton found near the University of California,Blake Preston Berkeley campus earlier this year was identified as the remains of a man who was killed several years ago, police said. The man was identified from DNA evidence as Steven Lawrence McCreary of Texas, who wasn't affiliated with the university, UC Berkeley police said in a statement Wednesday.

Police said the evidence indicated that McCreary died "many years ago." He was alive as recently as 2009 and would have been around 37 years old then. His death was determined to be a homicide and an investigation was ongoing.

The homicide determination was based on an analysis of the condition of the bones by the Alameda County coroner's office, police said. A cause of death wasn't provided.

The skeleton was discovered in January in an unoccupied building at a residential hall complex and event space located about a mile from the main San Francisco Bay Area campus.

"Officers refrained from publicly disclosing details until now because the remains had to be identified, next of kin had to be notified, and the integrity of the investigation had to be protected," police said in the statement.

While McCreary was from Texas, he traveled around the country and sometimes hitchhiked or used trains, police said. It's not known if he had a residence in the Bay Area.

Police urged "anyone who ever interacted with him for any reason" to contact detectives investigating the case.

In:
• Berkeley
• Homicide
• UC Berkeley

Alex Sundby

Alex Sundby is a senior editor for CBSNews.com

Twitter