by Sabrina Salas Matanane

Guam - Human remains recovered at Tarague Beach belong to missing airman Alec Dye.

In a release from Andersen Air Force Base on Sunday, Brigadier General Andrew Toth of the 36th Wing Commander offers condolences stating "We have lost a valuable member of our Air Force family. Airman Dye will be missed by members of his unit and all who had the opportunity to serve with him. Our thoughts and prayers during this time of loss continue to be with his family, friends and co-workers."

As we've been reporting, the airman was reported missing at the beach on Monday morning. An estimated 180 individuals from local and military forces teamed up to conduct the search. On Thursday, unidentified human remains were recovered in the vicinity Dye was reported missing.

According to the island's chief medical examiner Dr. Aurelio Espinola, the autopsy will take at least four days to complete. He does however confirm that the remains were only bones and that he was able to positively identify the remains using military dental records.

Dye was deployed to Guam from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. The 24-year-old is from Indiana.