Robert Vernon Estes was my first cousin, my father’s brother’s son. I’m named after him, but I never knew him. He died years before I was born.

Robert, known as Bobby, was born on March 27, 1931 in White County, Indiana. He, along with his unit, were captured near Kunu-ri in North Korea on November 30, 1950, and he died as a prisoner-of-war around January 31, 1951 – at least that’s the date officially assigned to his death.

Truth be told, his death date is an estimate based on the recollections of men who survived the horrific deprivation, freezing temperatures, and starvation endured by the captured soldiers. He was likely buried in a mass grave outside the compound where Bobby, along with most of the other US soldiers who were held there, died.

Bobby was posthumously awarded the rank of Corporal. 

The Korean conflict active combat operations ended on July 27, 1953, when an Armistice agreement was signed between the US, North Korea, and China. A demilitarized zone (DMZ) was established, but a peace treaty was never signed, so technically, the US and North Korea are still at war. The two countries do not maintain diplomatic relations, and their relationship could be described as “frosty” at best.

While some military personnel from both the US and our ally, South Korea, have been repatriated, a long history of hostility and other challenges, including the remains of US soldiers being used as bargaining chips, have prevented the return of more than 5300 service members whose remains are still essentially being held hostage in Korea. If I sound bitter, that’s because I am.

Beginning in 1954, some remains have been brought home, but identification from the beginning was difficult, often due to comingled remains resulting from mass burials. Those remains were identified when possible, using techniques available at the time, and all remains were honorably buried.

Recently, due to advances in processing forensic remains and autosomal DNA matching, another 100 people have been identified from 55 boxes of mixed remains turned over following the 2018 Singapore Summit. Those boxes are believed to hold bones from roughly 250 distinct individuals, so the majority have yet to be identified.

Unidentified remains are buried at the Punchbowl, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 800 graves are marked as “Unknown” from the Korean War and await exhumation for advanced DNA testing.

While there is no burial, missing service members are honored in the Honolulu Memorial within the cemetery. 

The names of the missing are etched on the walls of the Courts of the Missing.

Bobby’s name was also engraved on the Wall of Remembrance at the National Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington DC when they included the names of the missing in 2022.  

Here’s a closeup.

Because Bobby was held above the DMZ, in North Korea proper, in a deserted mining camp called the Pukchin Camp, nicknamed Death Valley, and because the North Koreans were uncooperative, Bobby’s remains were classified as “nonrecoverable” in January 1956.

Hope Rekindled

Unrecoverable in 1956 based on political circumstances and lack of information about which soldiers had been captured, where they were held, when they died, and where burials for that facility occurred, doesn’t necessarily mean unrecoverable forever.

Today, Bobby’s status has been updated to “deferred” which isn’t quite as final and hopeless as “nonrecoverable.”

In 1956, they had no way of knowing about DNA and technology that would become available decades in the future.

Unfortunately, the political environment has remained essentially unchanged now for 70 years, but 70 years isn’t forever.

Yes, I know that identifying Bobby’s remains and bringing him home are both extremely unlikely, but a very low probability is not zero.

As genetic genealogists, we understand that with the passage of generations, the amount of shared autosomal DNA decreases with each generational recombination, so it was important for me to work with AFDIL to preserve my DNA in the hope of one day identifying Bobby – even after I’m gone from this mortal realm.

I might not be able to stand in Arlington, honoring Bobby as he is buried, but maybe my daughter will. Hope springs eternal!

DNA Analysis

The military began collecting DNA samples using bloodstain cards in 1992. For soldiers who served before that and whose remains needed to be identified, various types of forensic analysis were performed.

In the 1990s, when DNA first began to be used for service member identification, DNA matching was performed using mitochondrial DNA because there are hundreds of copies of mitochondria in the cytoplasm of each cell, which means mitochondrial DNA is easier to recover in degraded remains.

This also meant that a sample was needed from the soldier’s mother, sibling, or a relative in the soldier’s direct matrilineal line, not interrupted by a male. Women contribute their mitochondrial DNA to children of both sexes, not intermixed with any DNA from the father, but males do not pass it on to their children.

Around 2010, Y-DNA, passed from father to son, began to be used by AFDIL as well.

At that time, the remains were not processed to extract DNA for autosomal matching, as ancient or forensic DNA extraction technology did not yet exist – and has only been refined for widespread utilization in the past few years. Initially, autosomal matches for repatriation were only used to match immediate family members, so DNA testing was unavailable to cousins of soldiers.

Men who died in WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam may not have immediate family members left – and that number dwindles daily.

• Bobby had no children.
• Bobby’s mother, Lucille Latta, was born in 1906 and died in 1952. She had only one sibling, a brother who died in 1966, and their mother was adopted, so there was no source to obtain Bobby’s mitochondrial DNA for matching.
• Bobby’s only sibling, a brother who had no sons, died in 1986, and their father, Joseph Estes, died in 1994, eliminating the possibility of Y-DNA matching.

This means that there were no immediate or appropriately related family members available for either mitochondrial or Y-DNA testing – effectively slamming the door on the possibility of identification.

The DNA results of soldiers’ remains, and their family members, are held separately from any commercial or law-enforcement databases, so without an appropriately descended family member’s DNA test submitted for this specific purpose, there is no opportunity to identify the soldier.

Until recently, more distant family members were precluded from participating.

The AFDIL Team

In 2023 and 2024, I was privileged to work with the AFDIL team on the Washington Family Project. This was a proof-of-concept project, of sorts. AFDIL undertook this project in the process of refining their methodologies for working with badly degraded remains. The Washington Project was perfect because we knew who was supposed to be buried in each location. The team authored an exciting paper detailing the results.

It gives me cold chills to realize that I was a small part of the effort to open the door for more distant family members to submit autosomal results to identify their missing service members. When we started working together, they had no idea that I’m a Gold Star family member, representing Bobby, and I had no idea the doors this project would open.

Today, those efforts have borne fruit. AFDIL has expanded its family participation policies and guidelines.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled.

Swabbing for Bobby

I requested my swab kit as soon as possible.

I was so excited the day the package arrived.

In addition to swabs, the package included a letter plus several pages of information and instructions.

For notification, be sure that someone living and reliable is listed as the primary contact for your soldier. We discovered that no one was listed for Bobby, but now I’m his official contact and I’m also his closest living next-of-kin.

Oh good, now we’re getting to the DNA swabbing part! Not that I’m anxious or anything!

I had to sit down and really study this chart, which was difficult given my level of excitement. I needed to make sure I really qualified. I mean, I knew I was supposed to – but this was the hard line do-not-pass-go paper right here. A tiny part of me was terrified that something had gone wrong and I wouldn’t be accepted.

The missing soldier is the blue center. I labeled “Me” four images to the right.

AFDIL invested a lot of time in creating this chart that includes autosomal candidates in yellow, mitochondrial candidates with red borders, and Y-DNA candidates with thick dark blue borders.

They had put an oval around “me” on the chart based on their understanding of our relationship from previously submitted documentation. In the paperwork, they asked me to confirm the relationship again.

Next came the swab kit and the labels.

Now I’ve swabbed and labeled everything, following the instructions.

Popping them into the included FedEx envelope.

All I had to do was find a FedEx shipping location and drop the envelope off. I cried as I did the handoff – praying that someday these little vials will provide the key to identifying Bobby.

A week or so later, I received an email stating that my sample had been received and was being processed.

They would be in touch if anything else was needed from me, or, if anything was found.

Now…we wait. Perhaps forever.

But maybe not.

I’ve now preserved the possibility of identifying Bobby’s remains if they are ever returned. And a tiny part of me has my fingers crossed that some of his bones were in that mixed sample, simply waiting for the technology to catch up.

This Memorial Day Weekend

This Memorial Day weekend, in addition to writing this article, I’m working on a wall-hanging to honor Bobby and his ultimate sacrifice.

I’ve been working on this for a while, but it’s so emotionally intense for me that I have to put it away and give myself a break from time to time.

Obviously, I’m working on the layout and I’ve laid these blocks alongside the panel to illustrate. When finished, there will be two rows of stars that function as borders surrounding the center panel.

I’m debating whether I should put a gold star in the center of both sides, or a smaller gold star in the center of a star block, or maybe gold stars of some sort in all four corners. I’m also considering having Bobby’s name, along with his birth and death dates, embroidered near the boots.

After my death and my daughter’s, I’ve left instructions for this quilt to be donated to the Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, if they want it, where the brick honoring Bobby’s service was laid in the summer of 2021.

You can read more about Bobby in these articles:

• Robert Vernon Estes (1931-1951), Nightmare: Prisoner of War
• Robert Vernon Estes (1931-1951): MIA, POW, Military Records
• Robert Vernon Estes: Still Missing, But Not Forgotten

Honoring Bobby and Other Unrecovered Soldiers

For years, it has been my dream to attend Bobby’s military burial at Arlington National Cemetery. He has earned that, and it seems that’s the least, the very least, we could do for him. Of course, part of warfare is psychological, not just physical, and refusing to return the remains of those killed is part of that. Even worse is knowing how he was tortured and died.

My heart still bleeds for him and his mother.

We don’t know if Bobby’s remains will ever be “discovered” and brought home. I’d say it’s extremely unlikely.

We don’t know if, by some miracle, Bobby’s remains are among those unidentified mixed samples already buried in Hawaii. That too is unlikely because Bobby was held in a remote location and his remains, wherever they actually lie, are not easily accessible.

As each generation dies, and as Bobby’s bones age, the chance of obtaining a quality DNA match decreases.

While I can’t do anything about the passage of time, nor about Bobby’s bones deteriorating, I can make sure my own DNA is preserved in AFDIL’s Family Reference Database, maintained by the Family Reference Sample Laboratory, a division of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System’s DNA Identification Laboratory (AFMES-AFDIL). You can read more here and here.

You can search for a POW/MIA service member, here.

If you qualify to submit a sample for a deceased service member whose remains have yet to be identified, you can’t order a DNA sample kit directly like we do from testing companies. You need to request a DNA sample kit after providing information about how you and the soldier are related. You’ll be assigned a case number and a case worker.

Click on this link for more information, including websites, or call the appropriate number below to determine if you qualify and to request a DNA kit.

• United States Army: (800) 892-2490
• United States Marine Corps: (800) 847-1597
• United States Navy: (800) 443-9298
• United States Air Force: (800) 531-5501
• Department of State: (202) 485-6106

This Memorial Day, please remember the sacrifices of our fallen heroes, those veterans who never came home, and their families who never stopped waiting.