Utah woman hopes DNA testing will finally bring home relative killed in World War II

SALT LAKE CITY — In a quiet corner of Salt Lake City's Memory Grove, rows of memorial headstones are engraved with the names of Utah servicemen who died during World War II.

Their names are etched in stone, but for many families, the story of what happened to their loved ones remains unfinished.

Camille Noel knows that feeling.

Her grandfather's cousin, Courtney Draper, was a Salt Lake City man who survived a Japanese prisoner of war camp, forced labor, and a little-known death march in the Philippines.

"I have a relative who died in World War II and who is still missing," said Noel. "It's very personal for me."

Draper's name is among those memorialized at Memory Grove's Meditation Chapel. His remains have never been identified, leaving his family without a final resting place to visit.

More than eight decades after his death, Noel is hoping that could finally change.

A Utah soldier's forgotten story

Draper grew up in Salt Lake City and practiced law with his father before serving in World War II. He also attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he earned his law degree.

After his death, the university named its first veterans dormitory in his honor. That connection helped spark Noel's interest in researching his life.

"I also have a connection to Courtney because we both attended George Washington University in Washington, D.C.," she said.

Although she never met Draper, Noel said she grew up knowing her grandfather was proud of him.

In 2019, Noel had an opportunity to meet Draper's sister, giving her a chance to learn more about the relative whose story would eventually become an important part of her own life.

Her research led her to stories about his time in the Philippines, where Draper was captured by Japanese forces in 1942. He was among a small group of American prisoners forced to participate in what became known as the Mindanao Death March.

Unlike the more widely known Bataan Death March, the ordeal on Mindanao remains an obscure chapter of World War II history.

"It's a relatively unknown death march," said Noel. "There were only about 42 to 45 Americans on it."

Draper survived, but his ordeal was far from over. He spent years in Japanese prisoner of war camps, where men endured brutal conditions, malnutrition, and forced labor.

Near the end of the war, Japanese forces began transporting prisoners to Japan aboard cargo ships that became known as "hell ships" because of the horrific conditions in which prisoners were held.

"It was a very grim life for all those men. They lost a lot of weight. Most of them were under 100 pounds. It just ... was a nightmare," Noel said.

Draper was aboard the Oryoku Maru when American aircraft attacked the vessel in December of 1944. The ship was not marked as carrying prisoners of war, and the American pilots were unaware that Allied servicemen were aboard.

Draper survived that attack.

He was then transferred to another Japanese ship, the Enoura Maru. On Jan. 9, 1945, American aircraft attacked that ship while it was anchored at Takao Harbor in what is now Taiwan.

Draper was among the prisoners killed.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, approximately 300 prisoners died in the attack.

"Where Courtney was killed, that was the upper forward hold when the U.S. bombed it. That's where he was," said Noel. "Those bodies were the ones that were taken out of the ship and then buried by the Japanese."

New technology offers hope

After the war, American recovery teams located remains associated with the Enoura Maru and its casualties. However, many could not be identified. Hundreds of unidentified remains were eventually buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Now, advances in forensic science and DNA testing are giving military investigators another opportunity to identify the missing.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency launched a multiyear project to examine remains associated with the Enoura Maru and other ships involved in the prisoners' final journey.

Between 2022 and 2023, the agency disinterred 430 unidentified remains associated with the project from cemeteries in Hawaii and the Philippines. Those remains are undergoing forensic analysis, including DNA comparisons with biological relatives of missing servicemen. Some identifications have already been made, providing long-awaited answers for families.

For Noel, the possibility that Draper could someday be identified is deeply meaningful.

"For me to get Courtney back, it would almost feel — not like justice, but just a sense of completion that he's finally back after everything he went through," she said.

She knows there is no guarantee that Draper's remains will be identified, but for the first time in generations, scientific advances are offering renewed hope.

Helping bring other soldiers home

Noel's research into Draper's life has also connected her with a nonprofit organization working to find other American servicemen who remain missing overseas.

The Asymmetric MIA Accounting Group conducts research and works with local partners on investigations and recovery efforts involving missing military personnel. Its work includes searching for American servicemen who disappeared in the Philippines during World War II. Some of those searches involve remote locations where difficult terrain, safety concerns, and limited funding create significant obstacles.

Noel said the organization's work is especially important because some missing servicemen might otherwise never be located.

"These men that they're searching for would not be searched for if it wasn't for this group," she said.

While the nonprofit's current recovery work in the Philippines is separate from the government's effort to identify Draper, Noel hopes her involvement can help bring attention to other missing servicemen and their families. She also hopes to travel to the Philippines with the organization during a future recovery effort.

For her, the mission is about more than recovering remains; it's about returning names, identities and stories to men who have been missing for generations.

More than a name on a headstone

At Memory Grove, Draper's name remains a reminder of the sacrifice he made more than 80 years ago. For Noel, it also represents unfinished business. She believes that as the generations who personally knew these servicemen pass away, preserving their stories becomes even more important.

"Most of these men are forgotten because nobody really knows them," she said.

Noel's research involves more than historical records. She also works to locate relatives of missing servicemen, learn their family histories and share information about their loved ones.

Sometimes, she said, simply letting a family know that someone still remembers can make a difference.

"It's been over 80 years now since World War II occurred, and as time goes on, these men are more forgotten. Bringing them home, even though their families aren't there, it still means something," she said.

There is already a headstone with Draper's name on it. Noel now hopes for the chance to finally bring him home.

"I genuinely just don't think it's fair that they're forgotten just because they died," she said. "The cruelest thing we can do is to forget them."

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