After 80 years, DNA analysis helps identify remains of 19-year-old sailor killed at Pearl Harbor

(CNN) — DNA analysis has identified the remains of a 19-year-old Virginia sailor killed more than 80 years ago in an attack during World War II, the Department of Defense’s Prisoner of War and Missing Action Agency reported.

David Walker of Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.S. Served as Mess Mate Third Class on the battleship California. The ship was docked at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when Japan launched a surprise attack on the Hawaiian naval base. Multiple torpedoes and bombs hit the ship, causing it to burn and slowly flood, killing 103 crew members, including Walker, according to an agency news release.

Navy personnel later recovered the remains of the dead crew, which were buried in a cemetery in Hawaii. Walker’s body was exhumed in 2018 along with 24 others who were buried as “unidentified,” according to the agency.

According to the statement, his remains were identified through anthropometric, dental and mitochondrial DNA analysis by the Armed Forces’ Forensic Medical System.

Walker, a former student at IC Norcom High School in Portsmouth, Virginia, left school early to enlist in the U.S. Navy about a year before his death, according to a newspaper clipping provided by the agency.

Shortly after his death, Walker’s mother, identified as Edna Lee Ward, asked a local reporter to place Walker’s photo in a newspaper to announce his death at Pearl Harbor, according to another clipping provided by the agency.

A rosette will be placed next to Walker’s name on the Wall of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. The sailor will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in September, according to the agency.