The yellow ribbons will be taken down in Batavia, Ohio. After four years, missing Batavia soldier Matt Maupin will be coming home. Sadly, it will be in a flag draped coffin, but he’s coming home.  Yesterday an Army general told Keith and Carolyn Maupin that troops had recovered a body in Iraq and that DNA tests confirmed the body was their son’s.

You probably have forgotten, it has been four years since Matt Maupin was all over the news. He was the soldier captured by insurgents in Baghdad.  Al-Jazeera broadcast video of him sitting on the floor held at gunpoint by five masked men. Later a grainy video of an American soldier executed by firing squad was also released, but officials said it was impossible to identify the soldier who was shot.

The news media went on to other stories since 2004, but the Maupins and the entire town of Batavia waited for Matt to come home.  There were yellow ribbons on every parking meter on Main Street and most of the houses. Week after week the Maupin family was on every church’s prayer list.  Through the years, the ribbons became bedraggled and shabby looking, and have been replaced a few times since then. But the prayers never stopped.

This is not the way anyone wanted this to end. But at least the Maupins have some certainty now. They can stop the vigil they’ve been holding for the last four years and begin the greiving . And maybe they’ll find a little peace at last.