Keith Mathhew Maupin Tribute

The U.S. Army managed to identify the remains of a soldier captured by insurgents in Iraq nearly four years ago. 20-year-old Sergeant Keith Matthew Maupin was an Army reservist from Ohio and he had been missing since his convoy was assaulted near Baghdad on April 9, 2004.

The Arab television network Al-Jazeera aired a recording of Maupin sitting on the floor surrounded by masked armed men after a week he was kidnapped. However, his family hoped he was still alive and made trips to the Pentagon and to Cincinnati in order to meet President Bush. It was a great disappointment receiving the news that their son was killed.

“My heart sinks, but I know they can't hurt him anymore,” his father Keith Maupin declared after receiving the tragic news, the Associated Press reports. According to Maupin’s statement, the U.S. Army did not specify in what way or where his son’s remains were found, but he was told that the identification was made using DNA testing. It was also discovered a shirt similar to the one Keith was wearing at the time of his vanishing. The Army is currently continuing the investigation.

“It hurts -- it really hurts. You go through four years of hope. It's like a letdown to me. I'm trying to get through that right now,” Mathew’s mother, Carolyn Maupin, sobbed.

Matthew Maupin graduated from Glen Este High School in 2001 and then attended the University of Cincinnati for a year before joining the Army. A month after he was kidnapped he was promoted to the rank of specialist. In April 2005, he was promoted to sergeant.