( CNN ) -- The remains of a Massachusetts airman missing in action from World War II have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial , the Department of Defense said Wednesday . Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Martin P. Murray , 21 , of Lowell , Massachusetts , took off on October 27 , 1943 , from an airfield near Port Moresby , New Guinea , with 11 other crew members aboard a B-24D Liberator . At the time , plans were being formulated to mount an attack on the Japanese fortification at Rabaul in Papua New Guinea 's New Britain Province , the Defense Department 's POW/Missing Personnel Office said in a statement . The crew was assigned to conduct reconnaissance on nearby shipping lanes in the Bismarck Sea . During the mission , however , the crew was told to land at a friendly air strip nearby due to poor weather , officials said . `` The last radio transmission from the crew did not indicate their location . Multiple search missions in the following weeks did not locate the aircraft . '' After World War II , the Army Graves Registration Service searched for missing airmen , including Murray , in the area , but concluded in June 1949 all of them were unrecoverable , the department said . In August 2003 , a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command received information on a crash site from a citizen in Papua New Guinea while investigating another case , according to the statement . The citizen gave the team an identification card from one of the crew members and said there were possible human remains at the site . Other teams attempted to visit the site twice in 2004 , but were unable to because of poor weather and hazardous conditions at the helicopter landing site , authorities said . `` Another team was able to successfully excavate the site from January to March 2007 where they found several identification tags from the B-24D crew as well as human remains . '' Scientists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory used forensic identification tools , circumstantial evidence , dental comparisons and mitochondrial DNA to identify Murray 's remains , the statement said . Murray 's remains will be buried Saturday in Marshfield , Massachusetts , the Defense Department said . At the end of World War II , the U.S. government was unable to recover and identify 79,000 Americans , the statement said . Now , that number has decreased to 74,000 .
Army Air Forces 2nd Lt. Martin P. Murray will be buried Saturday . The remains were found at a crash site in Papua New Guinea .