BONES FAIL TO END '70 MYSTERY; VALLEY FAMILY DOUBTS REMAINS FROM LAOS ARE MISSING FATHER'S.

Byline: Deborah Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer

The bones lying in a military lab in Hawaii were supposed to provide answers about a San Fernando Valley football star and airman shot down over Laos in 1970. But now brothers William and Albro Lundy III suspect that the remains identified as their father's might not be his at all.

William Lundy traveled last week to Hawaii to view the bones and compare the government's evidence with information he gathered during a four-year fact-finding expedition to Laos.

``I wanted to see the remains because I had serious doubts that they were my dad's,'' William Lundy said.

Albro Lundy Jr., a decorated fighter pilot from Sherman Oaks, disappeared after his plane was shot down over Laos in 1970. At that time the government pronounced him dead, but evidence surfaced 20 years later suggesting he survived. In October, the Laotian government returned identification and bones it proclaimed to be his.

Using forensic evidence and DNA tests, the Army Central Identification Laboratory in Honolulu, Hawaii, is attempting to match those bones to Lundy. But Lundy's sons remain skeptical, even holding out hope that their father may still be alive.

During his tenure in Laos from 1992 to 1996, William Lundy spoke with villagers who saw his father's plane shot down. They affirmed that he dropped by parachute and survived.

A village official offered to sell him his father's ID card and dog tags, but no mention was ever made of bones.

``When I was over there for four years, I actually met with people in the village, and I talked with the brother of the man who was credited with the shoot-down. At no time did they talk about remains,'' William Lundy said.

``If this Laotian official - they view me as one big wallet - if he had my father's remains, don't you think he would have offered it?'' asked his brother, Albro Lundy III, a Palos Verdes attorney. ``(Bones) are obviously a much higher-priced item, in a macabre sense, than an ID card and dog tag.''

Lt. Col. Roger King, a U.S. military public-affairs officer, said a Laotian witness retrieved both the bones and the identification in 1992. The Laotian government returned them last fall, King said.

But it remains unclear what happened to his father after he was shot down, William Lundy said.

He said reports on the incident indicate his father may have slipped out of the parachute while falling, then landed alive but injured. But the breaks in the leg bones held in Hawaii tell a different story, suggesting they may belong to another American, Lundy said.

``The breaks in the legs are inconsistent with the government briefing on the accident,'' he said after talking with the pathologist.

The bones he viewed appeared to have been fractured from the front, while a fall from a parachute would have shattered them from the feet upward, he said.

Retired Lt. Col. Johnie Webb, who is overseeing the case, said the military has not reached any conclusions about the fractured bones.

``This could have been a result of him falling out of the parachute and hitting the ground at pretty rapid speed,'' Webb said. ``We don't know exactly what did happen, so we're not ruling out anything at this point.''

Only DNA tests will tell for certain whether the bones are his. Scientists must first extract DNA samples from the bones, then match them with a sample of DNA known to have come from Albro Lundy Jr. or with a blood sample from a maternal relative. Webb said he expects some answers in early February.

King said the military's Joint Task Force, which investigates the disappearances of servicemen, will continue seeking evidence in Laos on Lundy and other missing Americans. He said 450 American servicemen are still unaccounted for in Laos - among 2,099 servicemen missing throughout Southeast Asia.

``The bottom line is we continue to follow up on any credible lead we can get, and the investigation work isn't over until we have an identification,'' King said.

In the meantime, William Lundy suspects his father may still be alive. He said he plans to return to Laos to search for living prisoners of war.

``There are live POWs left there,'' he said. ``And I'm going to try and help resolve this issue. And if my father walks out I'm blessed, and if another man walks out, I'm still blessed.''

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Photo: Air Force pilot Albro Lundy Jr. was shot down over Laos in 1970.