WASHINGTON - U.S. Army 2nd Lt. William B. Bucey, a Cleveland native who died as a Japanese prisoner of war during World War II, will be buried in Mayfield Heights in August 2025, more than 80 years after his death.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced Tuesday that Bucey, 29, was accounted for on March 3, 2025. His family recently received a full briefing on his identification.

Bucey was a member of the 121st Infantry Regiment, Philippine Army, conducting guerrilla operations on the island of Luzon after the Japanese invasion in 1942. After the surrender of Bataan and Corregidor, Bucey's unit continued to resist before he was captured and sent to Cabanatuan POW Camp #1, where more than 2,500 prisoners perished.

Records indicate Bucey died Oct. 31, 1944, of malaria and was buried in Common Grave 836 at the Cabanatuan Camp Cemetery.

Following the war, American Graves Registration Service (AGRS) personnel exhumed remains from Cabanatuan. While two sets of remains from Common Grave 836 were identified, four others, including one designated X-559, were declared unidentifiable and interred as Unknowns at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial (MACM).

As part of the Cabanatuan Project, DPAA exhumed the remains associated with Common Grave 836 in December 2020. Scientists used dental, anthropological, and radioisotope analysis, as well as mitochondrial DNA and mitochondrial genome sequencing, to identify Bucey's remains.

Bucey was memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.