SAN DIEGO -- Coroner's investigators identified the body found Friday in the Cleveland National Forest as that of 24-year-old Brittany Hart, whose alleged killer was charged in her death about a week before her body was found, 10News reported.

Hart, who lived in Santee, disappeared May 24, and her body was found stuffed in a plastic garbage can near Interstate 8 and Buckman Springs Road by a group of forest service workers on Friday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Robert Steven Carson, 40, a registered sex offender, has been charged with murder and is being held without bail. Sheriff's investigators said that they found blood on the basement floor of Carson's home, and that cell phone records show he had an extended conversation with Hart around the time of her disappearance.

Carson was convicted of rape in 1986, according to The Union-Tribune. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor sexual battery. The last time, he was charged under the state's "three strikes" law, but only got three years of probation. The law calls for 25 years to life for three-time felons.

Carson, arrested June 5, has denied an allegation of murder, but detectives say cellular telephone records show he was in contact with Hart and in the same general area. Detectives say blood evidence was found in the basement of Carson's Spring Valley home.