More details on the Gardner brother lost 70 years ago

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Karen Johnson said it will be a few months, possibly, until Ted Gardner and Sarah Shaw can give their half-brother a final resting place. She and her organization have to meet with the families of the other men identified in the set of remains. Ultimately, only six DNA profiles were matched. “Out of the eight men we know that were on the plane when it crashed, we could only get seven independent DNA sequences,” Johnson said. “Six of the seven had specific identifications, and one did not match at all. So that’s still a bit of a mystery for who we thought was on the plane.” But Johnson is sure Charles Arthur Gardner is one of the eight. “Beyond a shadow of a doubt, he is part of this group,” Johnson said. “While it’s always hard to tell a family that their loved one has died, we know that we are helping them have some closure with this matter.” Johnson said she will be in touch with the other families, and that Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Radebaugh of Fort Jackson Casualty Affairs in Columbia will be taking care of the Gardner and Shaw families to plan final arrangements. “Once all the families are notified, we will eventually have a burial with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.,” Radebaugh said. Ted said he’s looking forward to the day that he and his sister can lay their brother to rest on American soil. “It’s a piece of our family that has been missing for a long time, and now it feels like it’s whole again,” he said. “I wish that our daddy had been here to see it.”