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Buried after 80 years
An Elgin native who was killed in World War II and remained unidentified for eight decades was finally laid to rest Saturday with full military honors.
The remains of First Lt. Woody Owen were buried at Elgin City Cemetery Nov. 22, bringing long-awaited closure to family members who spent years working with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency on his case.
“It was incredible,” said Monica Followell, Owen’s great-grand niece. “We sat down with the Defense POW/ MIA Accounting Agency for a five-hour presentation about how all of this was uncovered and learned about his journey in World War II.”
Owen died on Jan. 9, 1945, at the age of 26 while being held as a prisoner of war in Takao, Formosa, now Taiwan. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in February 1941 and served with the 16th Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group, which deployed to the Philippines that October.
He was captured in April 1942 after U.S. and Filipino forces surrendered on the Bataan Peninsula and was among POWs being transported to Japan. Reports indicate he was in the forward hold of the Japanese freighter Enoura Maru when U.S. bombers struck the harbor at Takao, delivering a direct hit to the ship.
Owen’s remains were buried in a mass grave on the beach and later exhumed after the war, but the remains could not be identified and were buried as “Unknown.”
Advances in forensic technology allowed DPAA and other military agencies to begin reexamining unknown service members. Owen was positively identified June 30 through DNA analysis and additional scientific review.
“It’s been a process for a couple of years since the DPAA reached out to my family seeking DNA samples saying that they might have recovered some of his remains,” Followell said. “In the late summer is when we learned they accounted for him using DNA samples in addition to additional sciences.”
Owen was buried beside his mother, Mary Alice Owen Hayes, who died in 1987.
“His mother kept a metal box of letters and postcards during his time overseas,” Followell said. “It is great to lay him to rest next to his mom.”
