Northwest Indiana Marine sergeant finds final resting place in time for Veterans Day

Wednesday is Veterans Day, a day to honor those who served our country, with some paying the ultimate sacrifice.

This holiday, a Northwest Indiana Marine, who died more than 20 years ago, just now found a home with other soldiers.

Erica Rios-Corbin is back inside Griffith Junior Senior High School, where she fell head over heels for her classmate, Duane Rios, in the 1990s. Her athletic boyfriend headed to U.S. Marine Corps boot camp after graduation. Before enlisting, the high school sweethearts tied the knot in Las Vegas.

Fast forward a few years to September 11, 2001. The couple learned about terrorist attacks on the East Coast from their California home at Camp Pendleton. 

"I will never forget us driving to the gas station for something and going down the hill and him kind of turning and looking to me and saying, 'This is the beginning of something really, really bad," Erica said.

Soon after, Duane deployed to Okinawa in Japan.

"He was gone December '01 to December '02. He was home seven weeks, and then he left."

Deployed again. This time, his unit joined thousands of other Marines — all headed to the Middle East.

The combat engineer reached his wife via satellite phone a few weeks in.

"He called to tell me happy birthday, and you know, he loved me, missed me. Things were gonna be fine. It wasn't going to be what everybody said it was going to be. A lot of reassurance on the end of the line ... that was the last time I heard his voice."

On April 4, 2003, a sniper shot and killed Sgt. Rios in Iraq. Erica's world was shattered.

The young husband and wife had discussed what would happen if he didn't come home.

"He said, 'I wanna be where you are, so cremate me and take me with you. I mean, I never thought I'd have to come back to that conversation and do it."

Duane, now in his urn, left camp pendelton in California and returned to Northwest Indiana with his widow.

Erica eventually remarried and started a family, but the fog of grief wouldn't lift.  

"I decided to go see a therapist because I just wasn't connecting with anything around me. I just felt sad all the time."

Getting help is what inspired Erica's next phase of life at the Griffith Police Department.

After going back to school, the military wife also became a public servant. She's the first full-time social worker to be embedded with law enforcement in Northwest Indiana.

"It could be food, it could be electric bills," she said. "Getting folks to the services they need is so important because it's bigger than just the crime." 

She says she thinks Duane would've been proud of the work. It's been 23 years since he passed.

Recently, something dawned on Erica — what happens to him when she's gone? 

Her current husband suggested a permanent home at Arlington National Cemetery.

Approval to bury Sgt. Rios at the nation's largest military graveyard came just in time for Veterans Day.

"I'm proud of him, and I think that's where he would want to be. And laying him to rest with other people who sacrificed their lives, is ... it feels very appropriate."

Duane's best friend from the Marines, Sgt. Anthony Stabolito flew in from Phoenix. He and Erica escorted Duane's ashes to his gravesite as several fellow service members watched.

"Every year I get a phone call or a message or text, 'We love you, we're thinking of you. You're our family. If you ever need anything,' and they mean it, they show up." 

A packed celebration for a hometown hero, complete with a specially-made coin to note his final resting place.

"It's going to end a chapter that's kind of been open for 23 years."

Erica hasn't forgotten the promise to always be with her sweetheart. A part of his remains still with her in Indiana.