linkBy NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean (news - web sites) said Tuesday that the search for the long-lost remains of his younger brother may be over with the discovery of bones and other items buried in a Laotian rice field.
Charles Dean has been missing since 1974, when the 24-year-old University of North Carolina graduate was traveling through Southeast Asia with a companion, Neil Sharman of Australia.
A joint U.S.-Laotian team discovered remains earlier this month in Bolikhamxai Province in central Laos, said Larry Greer, spokesman for the Pentagon (news - web sites) office in charge of POW and MIA issues. The remains have not been positively identified, but Dean said his family is confident they belong to his brother because of personal items found at the site.
As governor of Vermont, Howard Dean had visited the location last year to push for excavation. He said the discovery would be painful not only for him, his mother and his two surviving brothers, but families of every POW and MIA.