A body found burned in a shack in the North Okanagan earlier this month has been identified.

Dixon Alexis Jr. was found on the morning of November 7 after fire crews responded to a structure fire in an orchard in the 6300 block of Pleasant Valley Road in Vernon.

Crews spent several hours putting out a blaze in one of the shacks used by seasonal fruit pickers and Alexis’s body was found in the rubble after the fire was extinguished.

Spokesperson for the Vernon RCMP, Gord Molendyk, says Alexis, 44, was identified through dental records.

“His family had been notified earlier of the possibility that Dixon was the person found in the burned out building. His family had been in the Vernon area earlier in the fall picking apples and had stayed in the orchard. When they returned home Dixon stayed behind and had been living a homeless lifestyle,” says Molendyk.

He says the cause of the fire remains under investigation, but is being classified as undetermined.