Lost WWII aviator buried in Minnesota

BRAINERD, Minn., March 25 (UPI) -- Sixty-three years after his airplane crashed in the California mountains, aviation cadet Leo Mustonen was buried next to his parents Minnesota.

Mustonen's military plane crashed on Nov. 18, 1942 in the Sierra Nevada -- but the 22-year-old's body was never found.

That is until October when a hiker came across a body preserved in ice, Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Forensic experts in Hawaii identified the body's DNA as Mustonen.

On Friday, Mustonen was buried in Brainerd, Minn., while family members who never even knew him accepted his military honors and heard stories from those who did.