North Texas family's DNA could be key to solving mystery of soldier's 80-year disappearance – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth

Speed ​​is not a timeline for everything. A Fort Worth family may hold the key to solving an 80-year-old mystery.

90-year-old Agnes Stamps' home is filled with family photos, but someone is missing from the photos; 1st Lt. Tommy Taylor.

“He was my mother’s grandmother’s sister’s son,” said Laura Thomas, Stamps’ daughter. “That was the first time we heard about him, that’s when the genealogist contacted me.”

A genealogist hired by the military to find Taylor's living parents.

“I’m the last (oldest) living relative,” Stamps said. “So it’s nice to find out.”

Stamps swabbed his checks to send back a DNA sample to confirm Taylor's identity and bring him home…80 years after he was shot down in World War II.

“They're going to confirm whether or not you're this Tommy's oldest living relative,” Thomas said as he helped his mother take the DNA test. “It says you're the maternal first cousin once removed. That's why they're checking this DNA.”

“He was a kid,” Thomas said. “And his plane crashed,” said Thomas’ husband, Robert Thomas.

According to an Army report sent to the family, Taylor, 22, was on a bombing mission with the Air Force's 449th Fighter Squadron when he was shot down over southern China on October 31, 1943. He was reported missing. then Killed in Action, which remains unrecoverable.

Thomas, as a mother, sent DNA samples to confirm Taylor's identity and family so they could bring him home. Taylor was born in Johnson County, then moved to Falfurrias, Texas, before entering the service.

“It was shocking at first,” Robert Thomas said. “You realize how important it is that his remains are found.”

According to accounting agency Defense POW MIA, last year they recovered the remains of 88 service members from World War II.

“If we can help do our part to identify this soldier and bring him home, I think that's really awesome,” Laura Thomas said. “It’s an honor to know that I’m related to someone who died for our country.”

The Thomases hope to find other family connections, fellow soldiers or friends of Taylor's family.

“He was a Texan,” Robert Thomas said. “He needs a hero’s welcome.”

The family is now waiting for DNA results. If they're related, they'll put Taylor to rest.