The body of a teacher from Anchorage missing since a tsunami washed over the town where he taught in Japan has been found, his family said Tuesday.
Monty Dickson, 26, taught English at schools around Rikuzentakata -- one of the towns hardest hit after the March 11 earthquake -- as part of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program.
Dickson is a 2002 graduate of Service High School. He graduated from the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2009.
According to his family, reached Tuesday by phone, Dickson's girlfriend and two other teachers from the program identified his body Monday.
Dickson's sister, Shelley Fredrickson, passed the phone Tuesday to her mother-in-law, Gloria Shriver.
"It's really sad, but the torture of not knowing was just unbearable," Shriver said. "It's hard, it's better to know than to live in the world of not knowing."
Shriver said the family is working on getting to Japan this week to bring home Dickson's body.
"It's been difficult, to say the least," she said.
Reach Casey Grove at casey.grove@adn.com or 257-4589.
By CASEY GROVE
casey.grove@adn.com