Nebraska soldier’s remains ID’d 82 years after he died in WWII POW camp

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — The body of a Nebraska solider who died in a prisoner of war camp during World War II has finally been identified.

On Wednesday, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency said it had identified the remains of Army Pvt. Erwin Schopp of Plymouth.

In late 1941, Schopp was serving in the Philippines when Japanese forces invaded, sparking months of intense battle.

Schopp was captured on May 6, 1942, when the U.S. surrendered the island of Corregidor, and taken to the Cabanatuan POW camp.

He died on Jan. 1, 1943, and was buried in Common Grave 822.

More than 2,500 prisoners died at that camp during the war.

After the war, the bodies were exhumed from the camp’s cemetery, including four sets of remains from Common Grave 822.

But Schopp’s remains could not be identified. He was buried as an unknown soldier at an American cemetery in the Philippines.

In 2018, his remains — and the others that came from Common Grave 822 — were exhumed and sent to the accounting agency’s lab.

Scientists used DNA, dental and anthropological analysis to ID Schopp’s remains earlier this year.

He will be buried in Plymouth, about 50 miles southwest of Lincoln, at a later date.