More than 60 years later, one family still has questions.
The Department of Defense announced Friday that the remains of a World War II serviceman – once believed to be a Stockton airman – are instead the remains of a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., man killed during World War II.
The funeral for aviation radioman 1st class Arthur C. Miller is scheduled for today in New York.
Miller was a crew member aboard a Navy TBM-1C Avenger that took off from the USS Enterprise on Sept. 3, 1944. The aircraft was struck by enemy fire and crashed on a hill on Peleliu Island in the South Pacific.
The Army later investigated the crash site and recovered partial remains. They identified Wesley Stuart, a 20-year-old Stockton man who enlisted in the Navy because he wanted adventure. Stuart was later buried in Manteca.
But the family always doubted they were Stuart's remains.
"I grew up with my mother saying, when the coffin came home, 'That is not my son. It's someone else's son, and I will take care of him," Mary Ellen Roberts told The Bee in 2008.
That year, the family paid for DNA testing of the remains. They were sent to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory for mitochondrial testing.
The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command then made a positive identification of Miller's remains.
Stuart's family felt it was important to identify the remains, even decades later.
"My mother never thought it was her son and I wanted to find out," said Mary Ellen Roberts, who was 12 when her brother shipped out in January 1943. "That's why I paid $8,000 to have the DNA test done."
Roberts now wonders about her brother's remains.
"Where is he?" she said. "I don't think they'll ever find him."
Call The Bee's Jennifer Garza, (916) 321-1133.
What You Should Know About Comments on Sacbee.com
Sacbee.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. (See our full terms of service here.)
Here are some rules of the road:
• Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button to notify the moderators. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
• Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
• Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
• Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and send him a direct message.
• Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
• Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
• Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
• Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Sacramento Bee does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at feedback@sacbee.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the user name of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to feedback@sacbee.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.