Updated

The body of a U.S. aviator who disappeared over Germany during World War II will be buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver on Friday.

Army Capt. Franklin B. Tostevin was shot down on March 20, 1945, but his remains were not accounted for until Oct. 30 of this year by matching DNA samples.

Tostevin was born in New Jersey. Veterans Affairs officials say they believe his closest living relative lives in Colorado.

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The Defense Department says he was flying in an F-6P on a reconnaissance mission over Eigen when the plane rolled to the right and crashed. No anti-aircraft fire was reported.

It was his 159th mission as a reconnaissance pilot, said his nephew, Daniel Tostevin, of Erie, Colorado.

He was shot down two days shy of his 23rd birthday, his nephew said.

In 2006, a German citizen led a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command to a crash site near the town of Eigen. The command is the Pentagon unit charged with finding and identifying missing U.S. military personnel from conflicts overseas.

A JPAC recovery team excavated the site in 2008, recovering remains and personnel effects. The remains were identified as Tostevin's in DNA testing at JPAC's laboratory in Hawaii, and his family was notified Oct. 30, Daniel Tostevin said.

"The fact that he has been brought home and will be laid to rest among his comrades at Fort Logan is a wonderful thing," Daniel Tostevin said. "Uncle Franklin was truly a courageous man. He did his duty."