From the agency's mission statement: "Provide the fullest possible accounting for our missing personnel to their families and the nation." 

Press Release. (2024, November 13). "Airman Accounted For From World War II (Calvi, B.)." DPAA. https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements/Article/3961138/airman-accounted-for-from-world-war-ii-calvi-b/

From the Press Release: "WASHINGTON  –  The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced today that U.S. Army Air Forces Pvt. 1st Class Bernard J. Calvi, 23, of North Adams, Massachusetts, who was captured and died as a prisoner of war during World War II, was accounted for September 16, 2024."

"To identify Calvi’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and Y-chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis."

Learn more. Visit: https://www.dpaa.mil/  Announcements by year: https://www.dpaa.mil/News-Stories/ID-Announcements

But for a tooth, an old skeleton, found in a well outside of a Norwegian castle, may have remained the stuff of legends.

Anderson, S. (2024, October 29). "Scientists Think a Skeleton Found in a Well Is the Same Man Described in an 800-Year-Old Norse Text: The remains were discovered during excavations in 1938. Now, researchers have learned new information about his identity by analyzing DNA from his tooth." Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-think-a-skeleton-found-in-a-well-is-the-same-man-described-in-an-800-year-old-norse-text-180985343/

Quotation from the original research: "A specific passage in Sverris Saga6 describes in detail how in 1197 CE, while King Sverre wintered in Bergen, the Baglers launched a sneak attack against the Birkebeiner stronghold at Sverresborg Castle built by Sverre around 1180 CE (63° 25′ 10.1922″, 10° 21′ 25.4298″) just west of Nidaros (now the present-day city of Trondheim, Norway). The Bagler army entered the castle through a secret door while the residents were dining. They plundered and raided the castle, burning every house inside, sparing the residents only the clothes they were wearing. Crucially for this study, they threw a dead man’s body down the local drinking well inside the castle, subsequently filling it with boulders."

Open Access Reference: Ellegaard et al., iScience, 111076, 2024 ª 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.isci.2024.111076

Columbia University Irving Medical Center. (2024, August 22). Mitochondria are flinging their DNA into our brain cells. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 1, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/08/240822142624.htm

Stunning finding: "Mitochondria in our brain cells frequently fling their DNA into the nucleus, the study found, where the DNA becomes integrated into the cells' chromosomes. And these insertions may be causing harm: Among the study's nearly 1,200 participants, those with more mitochondrial DNA insertions in their brain cells were more likely to die earlier than those with fewer insertions."

Quote from the article: "Mitochondria are cellular processors and a mighty signaling platform," Picard says. "We knew they can control which genes are turned on or off. Now we know mitochondria can even change the nuclear DNA sequence itself."

Open Access Article Source: Somatic nuclear mitochondrial DNA insertions are prevalent in the human brain and accumulate over time in fibroblasts
Zhou W, Karan KR, Gu W, Klein HU, Sturm G, et al. (2024) Somatic nuclear mitochondrial DNA insertions are prevalent in the human brain and accumulate over time in fibroblasts. PLOS Biology 22(8): e3002723. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002723