A Department of Homeland Security report has indicated that a mission to bring home the remains of Marysville natives Capt. John “Blackie” Porter and Sgt. Harold Neibler, as well the other U.S. airmen believed to have died with Porter when his plane crashed, Dec. 10, 1943, has recovered no human remains. (Journal-Tribune archive image)
Officials are confirming that the mission to India to recover the remains of a pair of local servicemen has failed.
“What he brought back were artifacts from the wreckage, but there were no remains,” Barbara Taylor, from Congressman Jim Jordan’s office, said this morning.
The “he” is Clayton Kuhles, a self-described professional adventurer, hired to bring back the remains of Capt. John “Blackie” Porter and Sgt. Harold Neibler, both of Marysville.
Taylor said a recent report from Department of Homeland Security revealed that Kuhles brought home a bag of metal and pieces from a plane wreckage, but no human remains of Porter, Neibler or any of the other U.S. airmen believed to have died with Porter when his plane crashed, Dec. 10, 1943, during World War II.
“We were all very disappointed,” said Taylor. “We are working on trying to continue the search somehow.”
Last year, former Marysville Mayor J.R. Rausch and community members raised more than $70,000 for Kuhles and a team of experts to go to a crash site near the India/Myanmar border and recover the remains. In May 2019, Kuhles said he would to go to the site and bring Porter’s remains home at a cost between $20,000 and $25,000.
Over the next months, interest in the recovery effort increased, as did the price tag.
By August, Kuhles said the effort would cost at least $70,000 so he could take a forensic anthropologist and an archaeologist along with a cadaver dog, a handler, a medic and others with him.
Ellen Vinson, who is the daughter of Porter’s widow, and the Marysville community raised $73,000 to send Kuhles and the team. All of the money was raised from private individuals or organizations. No city money was used as part of the project.
Kuhles left Nov. 4. After he left, other team members learned there were no plane tickets, reservations or travel instructions made for them.
Even so, Kuhles used the entire $70,000. Kuhles wrote that he arrived in India and hired several local porters and purchased tools, equipment, bulk foodstuffs and other supplies needed for the recovery work.
Vinson, donors, team members and others questioned why he didn’t take the others. He said they were not able to meet his timeline, which he laid out ahead of the trip.
Kuhles said he never promised that anyone, other than himself, would go on the trip.
He said he would have, “promptly declined and returned any funding donation that had any conditions or stipulations attached, regardless of who the donor was or the amount of their donation.”
Before leaving on his recovery effort, Kuhles said any remains would be given to the Indian government for review, then turned over to the U.S. Embassy in India.
That didn’t happen. Kuhles loaded the artifacts, including what he said at the time were the recovered remains, into his backpack.
When Kuhles arrived at the Los Angeles airport, he was met by variety of federal agents and a warrant to seize the bag of remains.
Taylor said at this point, the federal government is “not pursuing charges against Clayton.”
On Jan. 20, Kuhles told organizers that if they, or anyone wanted their money back, they had until the end of the month to notify him in writing.
Vinson said she hasn’t heard from Clayton for months, since he returned to the United States in January.
“I know what he said then, but I haven’t heard anything since then,” Vinson said.
When asked about the report that Kuhles has found no remains, Vinson said she hadn’t heard that.
“I don’t know anything,” Vinson said.
She said she has spoken with Taylor, who asked her to come to Columbus later this month.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security have not responded to a request for information.
Taylor said she is working to have the Department of Defense’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency begin an official search for the remains.