Defense Department officials announced Wednesday that they have identified the remains of 2nd Lt. Martin P. Murray, a 21-year-old airman from Lowell, Mass., who was missing in action for 68 years, and returned them to his family. Murray is scheduled for burial with full military honors on Saturday in Marshfield, Mass. He was one of 11 airmen lost on Oct. 27, 1943, when their B-24D bomber disappeared over Papua New Guinea during a reconnaissance mission. DOD investigators excavated the crash site in Papua New Guinea in 2007 after a local citizen alerted an earlier DOD forensic team to it several years earlier. Mitochondrial DNA helped in the identification of Murray’s remains. Two of Murray’s recovered crewmates, SSgt. Claude A. Ray and SSgt. Claude G. Tyler, were laid to rest last October.
Airman Charged in M18 Shooting Death Found Dead
Oct. 27, 2025
The Airman arrested in connection with the M18 pistol discharge that killed a fellow member of Air Force security forces on July 20 in Wyoming was found dead earlier this month, an Air Force spokesperson confirmed.
