Medical examiners on Thursday positively identified the remains of a fugitive former Los Angeles policeman wanted for a grudge-driven killing spree, formally ending the largest manhunt ever conducted by Southern California law enforcement.

The remains, charred beyond recognition, were removed from the burned-out ruins of a mountain cabin where Christopher Dorner, 33, made his last stand on Tuesday in a deadly shootout with authorities that ended with the cabin going up in flames.

Medical examiners used dental records to conclusively determine that the remains were those of Dorner, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said, bringing to an official end an exhaustive search for the former Los Angeles police officer who was fired in 2008.

Dorner, who also served as an officer in the U.S. Navy reserves, was accused of killing four people, including a sheriff’s deputy shot during the standoff on Tuesday in the San Bernardino Mountains.

He had been on the run since last Wednesday, when he was named as the prime suspect in the slaying of a couple in Irvine, south of Los Angeles. The search intensified last Thursday after he was accused of killing a policeman and wounding another in an ambush in Riverside, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles.

Law enforcement converged later that day in the San Bernardino Mountains after a pickup truck identified as Dorner’s was found abandoned and burning in the snow near the ski resort community of Big Bear Lake.

The ensuing manhunt, described by authorities as the most extensive ever in the region, stretched from the California desert north of the mountains to the Mexican border.

But Big Bear remained a central focus of the search until Dorner resurfaced two days ago when it was discovered he had broken into vacation home, tied up a couple there and made off in a stolen car.

An angry manifesto posted last week on Dorner’s Facebook page claimed he had been wrongly terminated from the Los Angeles Police Department and vowed to seek revenge by unleashing “unconventional and asymmetrical warfare” on police officers and their families.

During the manhunt, Los Angeles assigned special security details protect about 50 members of the department and their families who were believed to be in particular danger of being attacked.

Authorities also posted a $1 million reward for information leading to Dorner’s capture, the largest sum ever offered in a Southern California criminal investigation, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

Beck and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said on Thursday that officials of the more than 20 jurisdictions and organizations that contributed to the reward would meet to “collectively determine whether any individual or individuals qualify for it.”

(Reuters)