-
Apr 23, 2008 9:22 pm US/Pacific
-
Digg |
Facebook |
E-mail
|
Print
Wrong World War II Remains Sent To Stockton Family
Reporting
Ron Jones
STOCKTON (CBS13) ―
Stockton resident and Navy hero Wesley Stuart was shot down over the South Pacific during World War II, while flying near the Philippines. The Navy shipped home a body and said it was Wesley, but 62 years later, the family has found out it wasn't him.
The death of 20-year old Wesley is still being felt by his family. "It was the most traumatic moment of my life," said Wesley's sister, Mary Ellen Roberts.
Mary lives in Stockton, and was just 12 when she and her parents learned her big brother was killed in action during World War II.
"My mother fell on the sidewalk, screaming," she recalled. "I'll never forget that."
Wesley's crew crashed somewhere over the tiny island of Palau. The wreckage was never discovered, but the Navy thought they had found his body and sent it home.
"That was the proudest day of my life," Mary said. For some reason, Wesley's mom never believed the body was his, but took it anyway.
San Francisco Professor Pat Scannon and his organization Bent Prop are on a mission to find missing wreckage and crew members in the Pacific. In 2003, they found Wesley's destroyed plane, but no body.
Mary always wondered if that was actually her brother in that crypt near Stockton. "I asked the Navy to send someone and do DNA testing on the bones, but they wouldn't do it."
Mary paid $11,000 to have the testing done herself. Forensic experts tested the bones, and say they are not Wesley's.
She doesn't know who the remains belong to or where Wesley's remains actually are. It's still a mystery for her and for a family who doesn't even know their loved one has been sealed in the wrong crypt for more than six decades.
"I hope they find his family," Mary said. "He's been well taken care of for 62-and-a-half years."
The Navy now has the bones of the unknown sailor for DNA testing in Hawaii, but there are no results yet. Wesley's crypt in Stockton will not be marked as Wesley Stuart, US Navy, Missing In Action.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)