DULUTH — A Duluth mother who received a returned letter mailed to her soldier son mistakenly stamped “deceased” finally has the apology she sought for more than six years.

Joan Najbar received the returned letter sent to her son in Iraq in 2006. Najbar said the letter made her angry because she knew her son wasn’t dead. She had just talked to him.

An investigation by a postal inspector’s office failed to track down who might have stamped the letter or why. Najbar said the Postal Service never apologized after the investigation was dropped. Najbar filed a lawsuit in 2009 against the United States, but it was later dismissed.

Najbar last month decided to contact U.S. Sen. Al Franken’s office. Najbar finally got a letter of apology from a Postal Service district manager in Minneapolis.