Nov. 21 (UPI) — Military investigators found the additional remains of Sgt. La David Johnson at the site where he was killed in Niger last month, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Department of Defense spokeswoman Dana White issued a statement saying a joint U.S. Africa Command investigation team found the human remains Nov. 12.
“Today, we can confirm that the Armed Forces Medical Examiner has positively identified these remains as those of Sgt. Johnson,” she said.
Johnson and three other members of the U.S. Army Special Forces died Oct. 4 when a joint patrol with the Nigerien military near Niger’s border with Mali came under attack. Two others were injured.
Johnson initially went missing after the attack, but Nigerien troops found his body two days later nearly a mile away from the ambush site.
The Department of Defense identified the other three soldiers killed as Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, 35, of Puyallup, Wash.; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio; and Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, 29, of Lyons, Ga. The soldiers were assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) in Fort Bragg, N.C.
White said the Department of Defense “continues to conduct a detailed and thorough investigation” in the attack.