DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine — The remains of U.S. Army Pvt. Willard Merrill, who died as a prisoner of war during World War II, have finally returned home to Maine.

On Saturday, Merrill was escorted home by Dover-Foxcroft's Police Department, assisted by Maine State Police and state troopers in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The escort began at Logan Airport in Boston and continued up Interstate 95 to Newport, then north along Route 7 to Dover-Foxcroft, arriving at Lary Funeral Home around 7 p.m.

Merrill, 21, of Dover-Foxcroft, was among thousands of American and Filipino troops captured after the U.S. surrendered the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor Island to Japanese forces in 1942, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. He reportedly died on Aug. 28, 1942, while being held a

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