SAN DIEGO — The remains of a soldier killed during World War II will be buried in San Diego later this month.

According to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command Public Affairs Office, graveside services will be held on May 23 at Miramar National Cemetery for Army Tech Sgt. Matthew L. McKeon, who they say was a native of California.

McKeon was assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division. Army officials say his unit was engaged in battle with German forces near Germany’s Hürtgen Forest when he was reported killed in action Nov. 9, 1944. He was 25-years-old at the time of his death.

According to Army officials, McKeon’s remains could not be recovered during the battle. When the end of the war came, the American Graves Registration Command conducted several investigations in the Hürtgen area between 1946 and 1950, but were unable to identify his remains.

It wasn’t until years later on Jan. 12, 2023 that McKeon’s remains were identified using dental, anthropological, mitochondrial DNA, Y chromosome (Y-STR) and autosomal DNA analysis, Army officials said.

This came after a historian with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency determined that his remains, which had been buried in Ardennes American Cemetery in 1950, possibly belonged to a service member missing from combat in November 1944.

Army officials say the remains were disinterred in June 2021 and then sent to the DPAA laboratory at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. where they were finally identified.

According to the Army, McKeon’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery, which is an American Battle Monuments Commission site located in Margraten, Netherlands. Officials say a rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been now been accounted for.