“They need all the help they can get,” Wubben said.

The government can benefit from working with universities because they have such a wide range of expertise — from forensic anthropology to history — that prove useful for search and recovery efforts, Wubben said.

What started out as a small group of people doing work in their spare time is poised to evolve into a larger effort.

Members are waiting for their next assignment from the Department of Defense, Konsitzke said, adding that he’d like to someday focus on finding missing Wisconsin military members.

“This isn’t our day job. This is what we do during lunchtime or in our down time,” Konsitzke said. “We’re hoping the project develops into more.”

The group currently has three core members, but in the Fazekas case, more than a dozen forensics experts, anthropologists, UW-Madison students and other academics from across the U.S. helped out.

Wubben, who studied anthropology as an undergraduate, said he hopes the group can evolve into something more sustainable, growing to include full-time staff. He said he likes the work because it’s a way to honor soldiers who are still missing.

“This gives me an outlet by which I can maybe give something back,” Wubben said. “It’s an interesting mystery but at the end of the day it boils down to the families and giving something back. They made the ultimate sacrifice and were never recovered.”