Joe Biden has been telling a story recently about his Uncle Bosey, which we covered last night. The way Biden tells it is that his uncle’s plane was shot down over Papa New Guinea while doing a reconnaissance flight for the US Army and his body was never recovered. Biden also mentioned how cannibalism was prevalent in New Guinea, suggesting he thinks his uncle was eaten by cannibals.

Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich went back to the Pentagon to get the real story and here’s what she found:

Heinrich said: “According to the Pentagon, Biden’s uncle was a passenger on a plane that was forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean for unknown reasons with both engines failing at low altitude. Three men failed to emerge from the wreck and Finnegan is still missing. But the U.S. government’s service record does not attribute his death to hostile action or to cannibals.”

Heinrich adds that there was in fact documented cannibalism in that region in the mid 20th century. She also notes that White House spokesman Andrew Bates did not acknowledge this discrepancy. Of course.

So basically his uncle wasn’t shot down nor eaten by cannibals. But he was on a plane that crashed in the Pacific Ocean.