ShareThisIt's a mystery nearly 68 years in the making.
On April 24, 1943, an Army cargo plane en route from China to a base in India crashed while flying the "Hump," the World War II term for the high mountain ranges of the Himalayas. Five servicemen on board, including Army Pfc. Mervyn Earl Sims, vanished.
Search efforts failed to turn up results. The servicemen were declared dead in 1946.
That was two years before Sharon Roloff, Sims' niece, was born.
So when Roloff's phone rang in her Folsom, Calif., home early one February morning, she was surprised to learn the Army had confirmed that her long-lost uncle's remains had been found.
His remains were discovered in the plane wreckage found by an archaeologist trekking in the mountainous region near the border of India and Myanmar in 2003. A DNA sample Roloff's mother had provided four years ago enabled military scientists to confirm the match.
Scientists had contacted her mother, Virginia Rippe Burch, after the remains were found because they were looking for DNA from a female relative.
"My first thought was 'I wish my mom would have been alive for this,' " Roloff said.
Her mother died of cancer last year. Sims, who was Burch's brother by her mother's first husband, was her only sibling.
Now, as Roloff prepares for her uncle's military funeral April 22 in Petaluma, Calif., the mystery surrounding his brief life haunts her.
Roloff, a retired Folsom Police information and crime prevention officer, has turned sleuth, determined to find out whether there are other people who ought to know that the man they lost in World War II is finally coming home.
"Most people looking into genealogies start with the present and work backward," she said. "I know the past and am trying to find the present."
One of the clues driving Roloff's curiosity is Louise, the woman her uncle married in Reno, Nev., in 1938. But the only evidence of their union so far is the faded postcard that Sims sent his mother, Edna Braren. A depiction of Virginia Street in Reno adorns the front. His message is printed in pencil on the other side.
"Dear Mother, Louise and I went to Reno. We were married Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. Your Loving Son, Mervyn."
According to documents, when Sims enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942, however, he said he was single with no dependents, Roloff said.
Mystified by the contradiction, Roloff has been hunting for Louise or her relatives. Two weeks ago, she drove to Petaluma, where Sims grew up, and searched his high school yearbook for a girl by that name. Sims had graduated in June and sent the postcard a few months later. Roloff thinks he may have married a high school sweetheart.
Only one Louise graduated the same year -- Louise Petersen. Whether it's the same Louise remains unknown. Roloff also has been unable to find a marriage certificate.
"What if there was a child?" Roloff said. "Because the service is a full military honor service, I feel like anyone who may have been related should be there, or at least have the option of being there."
Although unsure of some aspects of her uncle's life, Roloff is sure of one thing -- the Army's treatment of his case has been impressive.
An Army official from Fort Knox hand-delivered the report detailing the plane crash in the Himalayas and circumstances surrounding her uncle's death. A casualty officer has handled funeral arrangements. Another officer will fly her uncle's ashes from Hawaii to the Petaluma cemetery where Sims' parents are buried.
"I am really impressed not just with what they have done, but the manner in which they work with families," she said. "They treat you with the same compassion that they'd treat someone who had lost a spouse."
Sims' service will be held at 1 p.m. April 22 at Cypress Hill Memorial Park, 430 Magnolia Ave., Petaluma.
Anyone who may have known Mervyn Sims or be related to him is asked to email Sharon Roloff at sharonsdesk(at)sbcglobal.net.
(Contact Niesha Lofing at nlofing(at)sacbee.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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