State Treasurer Michael Frerichs has returned a Purple Heart medal to the family of Marine killed during the Vietnam War.
Frerichs returned the medal to two of Marine Andrew Richard’s nieces during a ceremony at the Illinois Statehouse on Tuesday. Richard was killed in June 1968.
Richard’s original medal was destroyed in a house fire during the 1970s. His brother later requested and received a replacement medal that was put in a bank safe deposit box.
The Purple Heart and other medals were turned over to the state treasurer’s office about a year ago as unclaimed property.
