WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency announced that the remains of LeRoy B. Miller Jr., of Indianapolis, killed during World War II, have been identified. He will be laid to rest in his hometown.

U.S. Army Pvt. LeRoy B. Miller Jr.

In November 1944, Miller was assigned to Company A, 1st Battalion, which captured the town of Kommerscheidt, Germany, in the Hürtgen Forest. A series of heavy German counterattacks eventually forced his battalion to withdraw. Miller was reported killed in action on Nov. 8, while fighting enemy forces at Kommerscheidt. His remains could not be recovered after the attack.

Following the end of the war, the American Graves Registration Command was tasked with investigating and recovering missing American personnel in Europe. During that effort, a recovery team found a mass grave at Kommerscheidt that contained the remains of several American and German soldiers.

The exhumation team found Miller’s identification tag on one set of remains. The remains were sent to the United States Military Cemetery Neuville in Belgium for processing. Based upon the identification tag, AGRC officials identified the remains as Miller and transferred them to his family for final burial.

In 2017, while studying unresolved American losses in the Hürtgen area, a DPAA historian analyzed documentation regarding three sets of unidentified remains, recovered from the same mass grave Miller’s identification tag had been found in April 1946.

The historian determined that the three Unknowns were likely members of the 1st or 3rd Battalions, 112th Infantry Regiment, killed during the bitter fighting of November 1944. DPAA scientists compared physiological data of several unaccounted-for soldiers from those battalions to the Unknowns’ documentation and endorsed the disinterment recommendation.

Because the three Unknowns had been found in a mass grave, DPAA officials considered the possibility that Miller’s remains may have been commingled in the grave or misprocessed and misidentified by the AGRC in the 1940s. They included him as a possible candidate for association to the Unknowns.

The three sets of remains were exhumed from the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, in Aug. 2018 and sent to the DPAA laboratory for identification.

To identify Miller’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used DNA analysis.

Miller’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, along with the others still missing from World War II. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Miller will be buried at 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22 in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis. The funeral will be open to all and will include a flag presentation and rifle salute.