Delmont gave Stephen Fatur the homecoming his family had been waiting for since 1945. Veterans, residents and relatives lined the streets Monday as the remains of the 19-year-old Slickville airman were escorted to Twin Valley Memorial Park for full military honors, 81 years after he was killed overseas.
According to WTAE's report, Fatur served as the tail gunner aboard a B-17G Flying Fortress during World War II. German fighter planes shot down the bomber near Glinica, Poland, on March 22, 1945, and Fatur was among the crew members who died.
DNA And Excavations Finally Identified The Slickville Airman
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Fatur was officially accounted for on July 9, 2025, after recovery teams conducted multiple excavations at the crash site. Scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, circumstantial evidence, and mitochondrial, Y-chromosome, and autosomal DNA testing to identify the remains.
The agency said the recovery effort involved Alta Archaeological Consulting and California State University, Chico, with work taking place between 2019 and 2025. The case had been difficult to resolve because the crash site was in an area where postwar investigations were severely limited during the Soviet occupation of Poland.
The identification was publicly announced in February after Fatur's family received a full briefing, CBS Pittsburgh reported. His name had remained on the Walls of the Missing at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium, where a rosette will now mark that he has been accounted for.
Fatur's nieces, Cherly Lutz and Kristen Barnett, learned about the uncle they never knew through stories passed down by their mother and grandmother. In comments shared by WTAE, Barnett said there had always been something missing in the family and emphasized the military promise that “no soldier gets left behind.”
Delmont had held a parade when World War II ended in 1945, but Fatur's family could not take part while grieving his loss. This week's procession offered a very different ending: a hometown welcome, a formal salute and the long-delayed return of “Johnny,” the family name used for Stephen Fatur.
Fatur's burial at Twin Valley Memorial Park brings closure to his relatives, even as the broader search for missing American service members continues. The DPAA service profile records the mission plainly, but in Delmont, his return was anything but just another line in a military file.
