Des Plaines soldier killed during Korean War to have remains buried in Belvidere, Illinois
CHICAGO (CBS) – The remains of a Soldier killed during the Korean War will be buried in Illinois Thursday.
Services for Army Corporal William M. Zoellick will be held at the Belvidere Cemetery.
Zoellick, a Des Plaines native, served as a member of Company B, 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.
He was reported missing in action in 1950, at the age of 18, and died in 1951 at a POW camp, according to a Cost Performance Visibility Framework (CPVF) report provided to the United Nations Command.
During Operation Glory, North Korea returned remains reportedly recovered from Pyoktong - also known as Prisoner of War Camp #5 - to the United Nations Command in 1954.
One set of unknown remains could not be identified and was buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific - also known as the Punchbowl - in Honolulu.
In 2019, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency revisited the remains as part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Plan. The remains were sent to the DPAA laboratory at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, for analysis.
Zoellick was accounted for by the DPAA on Feb. 22 after his remains were identified using circumstantial evidence as well as dental, anthropological, and mitochondrial DNA analysis.
His name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War.
A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
More than 7,500 Americans remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.