EL PASO COUNTY — The remains of a Pueblo veteran were laid to rest in southern Colorado Thursday afternoon.
It's been five months since the Pugh family in Pueblo discovered their brother Alvin died.
They stopped hearing from him in January 2022 and worked to contact people who may have any kind of answers.
The discovery came from Patti Pugh, one of Alvin's sisters who had spent the past couple of years searching for any sort of answer on the internet.
"I decided, oh, I've got a little bit of time, you know, so let me do one of my Alvin searches, it was a Saturday. So I thought, well, I'll start with Google because I was done paying for those subscriptions. [The] first thing that popped up was "find a grave". And I was like, well, that's different," Pugh said.
The website listed her brother's death as February 21st 2023, he was buried at Calverton National Cemetery in New York. It prompted her to call the National Cemetery Administration. Pugh was an Air Force veteran.
That call led her to a funeral home where she started getting at least some answers to what may have happened.
"I'm like, well, who ordered his burial? And she [the funeral home] said, the Department of Veterans Affairs and said that he was indigent, no family, no funds," Pugh said.
No contact was made with the Pugh family, they believe there was no effort made to contact them, at all.
"They could have found us if they looked. They could have found us with just a tap of a button," Pugh said.
Her brother Kennedy agrees.
"You can't tell me that anybody did anything. You know, you could have done a Google search because, like, even in Pueblo, there are. As far as I know, there's only two families with the name of Pugh. You know, I mean, it's a very unique name," Kennedy Pugh said.
Eventually, the Pugh family learned through the New York Medical Examiner's office their brother died from a bilateral pulmonary embolism in 2022. The Pugh family believes his body was it a morgue for a year.
"This situation has made me question everything now,” Kennedy Pugh said.
"To put on his death certificate. Father: Unknown. Mother: Unknown. Place of birth: unknown. But they have his name, date of birth and social security number on there. So how do how do you not know? You know, did he just merely exist?" Patti Pugh said, "to say my mother was known. His mother, you know really? Even Jesus had a mother."
The Pugh's had a funeral for Alvin in April this year, but they worked to get his remains back home to Colorado, at no cost to the family.
During News5's reporting, the VA announced it would cover the cost of disinterring Alvin's remains and giving him a burial at Pikes Peak National Cemetery.
In July, Pugh's remains returned to Colorado. On Thursday, the family has a burial service scheduled for Alvin Pugh.
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