Remains ID’d as missing guardsman

[unhappycamper]

Authorities were trying to determine June 4 whether the remains of a soldier found in the woods at Camp Shelby, Miss., are those of Pfc. Ryan K. Longnecker, a Kentucky National Guardsman who went missing before his unit deployed to Iraq in 2007.


Remains ID’d as missing guardsman
By Holbrook Mohr - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jun 14, 2008 6:52:37 EDT

JACKSON, Miss. — The human remains found on a Mississippi National Guard base are a Kentucky guardsman who disappeared in 2007, two days before his unit left for Iraq, the military confirmed Friday.

Spc. Ryan K. Longnecker, 19, was training with his Kentucky National Guard unit at Camp Shelby in south Mississippi when he was reported missing on Aug. 6, 2007.

Lt. Col. Doril Sanders, a base spokesman, said Longnecker’s remains were found June 3 in a secluded area of the 136,000-acre base south of Hattiesburg.

Sanders said Longecker’s two military issued weapons, an assault rifle and a pistol, were also found. The military did not release a cause of death and would not say whether Longnecker had ammunition at the time of his disappearance.

Shirley Ann Longnecker, the soldier’s paternal grandmother, said Friday the military is still trying to determine how her grandson died and that his body has been sent for an autopsy.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/06/ap_longnecker_061308/