CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A local researcher helped close the book on a WWII soldier reported missing in action.

• A historian he knew asked if he would research a WWII soldier named Fed Ashley
• Ashley died in 1945 but was missing in action which means his body hadn't been identified
• Ashley's body was in the wrong grave

Patrick Biddy knows how to find missing people.

“I wouldn't say I'm a historian. I'm just a researcher,” Biddy says.

He's a veteran. Today he's a code enforcement officer for Mecklenburg County.

But five years ago he found himself back in the military world.

A historian he knew asked if he would research a WWII soldier named Fed Ashley. Ashley died in 1945 but was missing in action which means his body hadn't been identified.

The problem was Biddy really didn't know how to go about finding him.

“I did a lot of Google searches,” Biddy says. “[I] did a lot of cold calls.”

He quickly got into a groove. He pulled documents from the archives, pored through maps, and spoke with family members to find his body. But there was a problem.

“We were able to put the puzzles together and see that Fred was mixed up with flight officer Richard Lane,” Biddy says.

Ashley's body was in the wrong grave. The grave he was in belonged to flight officer Richard Lane who died in 1948. It turned out the bodies got mixed up decades ago. Biddy not only discovered Ashley, but found Lane.

“It was a joyous time. It wasn't a sad funeral. It was probably the happiest funeral I'd been to,” said Richard Lane's nephew Wendell Lane.

Wendell lives in Nebraska where he thought his uncle was buried. He says if it wasn't for Biddy, they likely would never have found Richard's actual body.

“We were blessed to have Patrick working so hard and help bringing him home,” Wendell Lane says.

Biddy did all this in his free time.

He admits the hours were long and he spent a lot of money traveling around the world to track down the bodies. But Biddy doesn't complain.

“They're the heroes,” Biddy says. “I'm just some guy doing research.”

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