(KERO) — A World War II soldier who died in battle has finally been accounted for.
According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, Army Tech Sgt. Matthew L. McKeon, 25, of Euclid was accounted for on Thurs, Jan 12. McKeon was reported to have been killed in action on Nov 9, 1944, however, his remains were unable to be recovered.
McKeon died while fighting German forces in the Hürtgen Forest in Germany. After the war, the American Graves Registration Command searched the area of Hürtgen multiple times between 1946 and 1950 to find Americans who were lost at war, but the command was unable to find his remains. He was declared "nonrecoverable" on Dec 15, 1950.
In 1946, McKeon's remains, then identified as "X-4458 Neuville," were discovered near Hürtgen. X-4458 Neuville was buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950. After a Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency historian began studying American deaths in Hürtgen, it was determined that the remains possibly belonged to a soldier who had gone missing in combat in November 1944. X-4458 Neuville was then disinterred in June 2021, before being sent to a laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska.
Scientists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System identified X-4458 Neuville as McLeon using dental and anthropological analysis, as well as mitochondrial, Y chromosome, and autosomal DNA analysis.
McKeon will be buried in San Diego, California. Meanwhile, a rosette will be placed by his name in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, where it was recorded on the Walls of the Missing among others lost in World War II.
