On October 4, 1985, Islamic Jihad announced that it had executed Buckley. The United States National Security Council acknowledged in an unclassified note that Buckley probably died on June 3, 1985, of a heart attack. Buckley's remains were recovered by Major Jens Nielsen (Royal Danish Army) attached to the United Nations Observation Group Beirut on December 27, 1991, after it was dumped on a road near Beirut airport. His body was returned to the United States on December 28, 1991, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.