Deputy Coroner Charlie Van Buskirk identified the skeletal remains found in Eureka on Thursday — just four days after they surfaced on Feb. 17.

The man was a 46-year-old Eureka resident named Robert Cunningham Powers II.

Van Buskirk phoned the family — who live out-of-the area — Thursday night after identifying the remains.

Powers was last seen in August 2000, when he walked away from General Hospital against doctor recommendations, Humboldt County Coroner Frank Jäger said.

He was reported missing on Dec. 27, 2000. “He was a little bit eccentric and they didn’t have regular contact with each other,” Jäger explained of Powers and his family.

Powers lived at 1823 California St. His remains were found in a stream-bed near Avery Street, which is nearby the hospital.

The bones appeared to have been in the stream bed for about eight years, Jäger said.

Since Powers’ home was much farther away, it can be presumed that when he left the hospital, he came upon his final resting place, Jäger said.

It appeared Powers had healed from brain surgery, Van Buskirk said Monday. But, there was no indication that he had any mental health conditions according to available medical reports, Jäger said.

Van Buskirk — who has worked at the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office for almost 20 years — keeps all the local missing-person reports in a file.

That was the first place he looked when the skeletal remains surfaced.

“Charlie is what we call our missing persons man up here,” Jäger said. On Monday, Van Buskirk said he recollected a man going missing after leaving a hospital near where the bones were found.

Sure enough, Van Buskirk had the missing person’s report from 2000 in his file.

Believing he was on the right track, Van Buskirk retrieved the missing man’s X-rays from a hospital archive Thursday evening, Jäger said.

“(Then) it was clear it was the right person,” Jäger said, who was not present, but spoke with Van Buskirk on the phone during the final analysis.

Cracking cases is one of the things that makes the job fun, Jäger said, adding, “It’s a really great feeling to know that you’ve solved the case and you can make the phone call to the family, and let them know it’s all over.”