Remains of retired American Marine killed in Ukraine being returned to U.S.

The remains of a retired U.S. Marine who died in Ukraine after joining the fight against the Russian invasion will be coming home Friday. 

Marine Capt. Grady Kurpasi (ret.), 50, went missing in April 2022 after taking small-arms fire in the Kherson region. He was located a year later by the global human rights advocacy group, the Weatherman Foundation. 

Kurpasi's remains are being repatriated through a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. His remains are expected to arrive in the U.S. Friday morning. There will be a brief ceremony at the airport before his body is flown by private plane to Wilmington, N.C., to be returned to his family.