ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- The remains found in a wooded area last week in Orange County, Florida, are those of Caylee Anthony, authorities confirmed at a news conference Friday.
"It is with regret that I'm here to inform you that the skeletal remains found December 11 are those of the missing toddler," said Dr. Jan Garavaglia, the Orange County medical examiner.
The remains were confirmed to be Caylee's through a DNA match, authorities said.
Garavaglia said the cause of death was homicide, but she could not determine how Caylee was killed.
Casey Anthony, 22, faces charges including first-degree murder in the June disappearance of her daughter. She could face a sentence of life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors said this month that they would not seek the death penalty.
Authorities said they called the jail where Anthony is being held to let her know about the discovery.
Caylee's remains were found last week a half-mile from Casey Anthony's parents' home, in the area where a meter reader first directed police.
At the news conference, Garavaglia said that the remains were completely skeletonized and that no tissue was present. She said there was no trauma to the bones before Caylee's death.
Dr. Michael Bell, a forensic cardiopathologist and chief medical examiner of Palm Beach County, said hairs could still exist if the remains were completely skeletonized.
Garavaglia said toxicology testing was still being done on the remains.
The announcement marks the end of a six-month search for the 2-year-old.
"This is a sheriff's nightmare," Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary said. "I think there's been an open wound in the community. No child should have to go through this, and we have far too many incidents like this across the country all the time."
Roy Kronk, the meter reader who found the remains and called the department four months ago, directing them to the site three times, came forward Friday.
He read from a prepared statement, telling reporters that "back in August of this year, I previously reported to Crimeline and to the sheriff's communications center that I had spotted something suspicious, a bag in the same area."
"I have been and will continue to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation by the sheriff's office and the FBI," Kronk said. He refused to provide details of what he saw at the site where the remains were found.
His attorney, David Evans, told reporters that Kronk "has no connection whatsoever to this case, has no connection whatsoever to the Anthony family or any of the proceedings that have gone on before. He is here as a concerned citizen and no more. Those who have specified to the contrary could not be more wrong."
Evans said Kronk was asking for privacy for his co-workers, who have been the subject of "intrusive news-gathering activities." Some of those colleagues, he said, "protected his privacy and sacrificed their own in doing so."
At a Thursday news conference, Capt. Angelo Nieves, a Sheriff's Department commander, said investigators were looking into whether Kronk's tips, called in August 11, 12 and 13, were properly followed up.
In one of those phone calls, Kronk reported seeing a gray bag on the side of the road, Nieves said. On August 13, a deputy responded to the site and did a "cursory search" but found nothing, Nieves said.
Nieves said Thursday police were getting more information from the tipster and the deputy who responded to the tips. He said the department was investigating the "thoroughness" of the deputy's response but would not identify the deputy.
The meter reader "is not a suspect," Nieves said. "He is a credible witness."
Nieves' latest announcement is raising questions about whether police missed several chances to find Caylee's remains.
Kronk is not the only one, or the first, to have pointed police toward the site containing the remains.
KioMarie Cruz, Casey Anthony's childhood friend, also told police to investigate the same wooded area near Hidden Oaks Elementary School a month before the meter reader, according to CNN affiliate WFTV.
In an interview with detectives, according to WFTV, Cruz said that she and Anthony "pretty much used to hang out there most of our time," would "snack on food for hours" and went there to "get away from our parents."
The Sheriff's Department followed up on that tip, but the wooded area was covered in floodwaters, preventing a search. Nieves said the water may have been present at the time of the meter reader's tips as well.
Nieves also said Thursday that searchers combing the site after the skull's discovery had found "significant skeletal remains" consistent with those of a small child on the outer perimeter of the search area.
The area will be enlarged, and processing and searching of the site will continue, probably into the weekend, he said.
Some of the remains were sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, in an effort to identify them.
Sheriff's spokesman Carlos Padilla said last week that authorities believed the remains were Caylee's for three reasons: No other children were reported missing in the area; the remains were consistent with those of a child of Caylee's age; and the remains were found near the home of the grandparents, where the 2-year-old and her mother were living just before Caylee disappeared.
--Courtesy CNN.com.
