Arlington remains identified by photograph in urn

[August 20, 2011]  ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) -- Army officials have uncovered the identity of remains from an urn interred at Arlington National Cemetery that had been wrongly placed in a mass grave.

The urn was among eight cremated remains found last year at the cemetery amid reports of misplaced graves and faulty record keeping at the cemetery. The identity of one urn had a tantalizing clue: a photo of a young ice skater.

Army investigators tried for months to track down the skater's identity. On Friday The Washington Post ran a front-page story about the search.

Within hours the skater was identified as Rachel Stecher of Ashburn, Va., who is now enrolled at the Air Force Academy. The remains belonged to her grandmother, Gwyn Stecher, who died in 2001.

Cemetery officials say they will re-inter the remains.

[Associated Press]

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