Police have confirmed that the remains discovered Friday in a cave in Kanagawa Prefecture are those of Lucie Blackman, the 21-year-old British hostess who went missing last July.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said dental records were required to identify the decomposed remains in an autopsy earlier in the day.
"I'm afraid it's an unfortunate outcome for the parents and family of Lucie," Akira Hiromitsu, head of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, told a news conference announcing the results of the autopsy Saturday .