Four New Englanders were shot down over Papua New Guinea in 1943.

WINTHROP (AP) – Family members are awaiting DNA tests that could determine whether human remains found in the dense jungle of Papua New Guinea are those of four New Englanders shot down during World War II.

Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Glendon Harris, 22, of Monmouth was one of the four crewmen aboard the B-25 bomber that was flying about 500 feet above the South Pacific island on Oct. 24, 1943, when it was downed by a Japanese fighter.

More than 60 years later, a military search unit from Hawaii may have discovered the remains of the four men, said Harris’ niece, Maxine Pray of Winthrop.

Pray’s father, Emory Harris, 90, was notified on Jan. 30 that his brother’s remains “may have been located.”

“When my family members talked about Uncle Glendon, it was always so painful,” said Pray who was born in 1948 and never knew her uncle.

Emory Harris will be in Augusta on Tuesday to give blood at MaineGeneral Medical Center; the DNA in that sample could link him to the bones found in New Guinea. A military laboratory will conduct the tests.

Thousands of World War II airmen, soldiers and sailors killed in Pacific battles have never been found.

The Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii, which is sending two teams to Papua New Guinea next month to search for remains of other servicemen, reports that about 250 aircraft crash sites still may be checked out on the island.

“Since 1978, there have been approximately 113 service members identified by (the laboratory) who were recovered in Papua New Guinea. . . . There are still more than 78,000 American service members unaccounted for from World War II. Since 1973, (the laboratory) has identified and returned to their families more than 1,300 American servicemen formerly listed as unaccounted for from previous wars,” reads the group’s Web site.

Pray hopes the results will close a long chapter of uncertainty in the family.

Glendon Harris, the youngest of nine children, grew up on a farm in Monmouth and was one of 12 graduates of Monmouth Academy’s Class of 1939.

“From what I’ve heard, he was the sweetest, the kindest and the most gentle person. He was someone everyone loved,” Pray said.

If the military conclusively identifies the remains of Glendon Harris, they will be flown to Maine and buried in a family plot in Evergreen Cemetery in Winthrop next to his parents.

If analysts are unable to match the DNA, the remains will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Pray said family members of the three airmen killed with her uncle were notified about the discovery in Papua New Guinea before her father, and they have already submitted blood for DNA tests.

AP-ES-02-16-04 0217EST