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News Release

Press Release | Aug. 17, 2011

Soldier Missing From Korean War Identified (Murray)

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and returned to his family for burial with full military honors.

Army Cpl. James S. Murray, 22, of Shinnston, W.Va., will be buried on August 20 in his hometown. After the 1953 armistice, it was learned from surviving POWs that he had been captured in January 1951, marched north to a POW camp in Suan County, North Korea, and died while in captivity during an allied air raid in April 1951.

Between 1991-94, North Korea gave the United States 208 boxes of remains believed to contain the remains of 200-400 U.S. servicemen. North Korean documents turned over with one of the boxes indicated that the remains, contained in the box, were exhumed near Suan County. This location correlates with Murray’s last known location.

Analysts from DPMO and the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) developed case leads with information spanning more than 58 years. Through interviews with surviving POW eyewitnesses, experts validated circumstances surrounding the soldier’s captivity and death, confirming wartime documentation of his loss.

Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA – which matched that of his sister and nephew – to identify Murray’s remains.

For additional information on the Defense Department’s mission to account for missing Americans, visit the DPMO web site at http://www.dtic.mil/dpmo or call (703) 699-1169.