WWII soldier to be buried in San Diego after 79 years thanks to DNA analysis

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — An American soldier killed in Europe during World War II will finally be buried in San Diego now that his remains have been identified thanks to advanced DNA analysis.

According to a press release from the U.S. Army, Tech Sgt. Matthew L. McKeon, a native of Euclid, California, was killed in action during a battle with German forces in the Hürtgen Forest on Nov. 9, 1944. The 25-year-old soldier’s remains could not be recovered during the battle, and despite the American Graves Registration Command’s efforts between 1946 and 1950, McKeon’s remains were not able to be identified.

He was officially declared nonrecoverable on Dec. 15, 1950.

Fast forward to 2021, and a historian from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency found a lead while studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area. They determined that one set of unidentified remains recovered near there in 1946 possibly belonged to an American servicemember who went missing from combat in Nov. 1944, the Army’s press release says.

In June 2021, the remains were disinterred from their burial site at Ardennes American Cemetery, where they were buried in 1950, and sent to the DPAA lab at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, for identification.

“McKeon was accounted for by the DPAA Jan. 12, 2023, after his remains were identified using dental, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome (Y-STR) and autosomal DNA analysis,” the Army says.

McKeon’s name is engraved on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery, along with others who are still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name at the American Battle Monuments Commission site in Margraten, Netherlands, to show that he has finally been accounted for.

McKeon’s remains will be interred at the Miramar National Cemetery on May 23.

During the war, McKeon was assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.