A south Mississippi family has finally found answers to an eight-decade mystery.
Highlights
- Private Andrew Ladner disappeared during World War II, during the Battle of Buna-Gona.
- His remains were discovered in April 1943 and buried at a temporary U.S.
- cemetery in the nearby village of Soputa.
- The still-unidentified remains were later moved to the Philippines and buried in another cemetery in 1949.
- A review of unknown casualty records prompted the exhumation of Ladner’s body in November 2016.
- New technologies including DNA analysis allowed researchers at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to identify the body.