Found in a dump, lost Purple Heart medal heading to family

The family of Wiljo Matalamaki clung to his Purple Heart, a tribute to a young man sent to World War II who never returned, whose body was never found.

Then, the medal was lost too.

For decades, the family wondered where it went. It took a random discovery at a dump, an offhand remark from a neighbor and a chance visitor, but nearly half a century after it was lost, the medal will be returned to his relatives this weekend.

Randy Heikkila never met his uncle Wiljo, but his mother told him why her youngest brother didn't return from the war: His bomber plane was shot down during a mission over Germany in 1944. The plane never found and he was presumed dead.

The family received a Purple Heart medal with Wiljo's name engraved on the back, and they cherished it until it was lost after Wiljo's mother died in 1966.

Heikkila, who has a hint of the Finnish accent of his ancestors, said his mother didn't live to find an answer to the question that escaped their family for decades. Relatives will be reunited with the medal at Fort Snelling in St. Paul on Sunday, days after the anniversary of the creation of the Purple Heart medal for those killed or wounded in combat.

"I think she'd be really happy about that. She always wondered where it was," he said.