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From an AP report issued a few minutes ago:

Meanwhile, an al-Qaida-linked group said Monday it was holding captive two U.S. privates, one from Texas and the other from Oregon, and taunted the U.S. military for failing to find the soldiers despite a search involving more than 8,000 Iraqi and American troops.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization for a variety of insurgent factions led by al-Qaida in Iraq, offered no video, identification cards or other evidence to prove that they have the Americans. The group had vowed to seek revenge for the June 7 killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, in a U.S. airstrike.
The council also said it was responsible for the June 3 kidnapping of four Russian Embassy workers. The two separate postings could not be authenticated, but they appeared on a Web site known for publishing messages from insurgent groups in Iraq.

It was the Iraqi Defense Ministry that released the information that the soldiers bodies had been found.

It is my belief that the news agencies knew who the men where because of the publicity about their disappearance.

This might be something that the US and Iraq work on: the release of information about US Military personnel by the Iraqi Government.

The media is the US should be sensitive to the release of information. But they might have presumed that the families had been notified...

Sounds like the families may not have been notified...

A forensic team should try to gather evidence that could be turned over to the Iraqi government.

It might be possible to identify the culprits via DNA and fingerprints.

This might mean the culprits would eventually be brought to justice.

Of course, the bleeding hearts at CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, LA Times, WaPo, and NY Slimes will probably claim such a forensic team gathering evidence would be an improper invasion into the rights of the insurgents, as media likes to refer to them...

Sounds like the families may not have been notified...

I agree. It's a possibility.

My guess based on experience is that they notified the families officially of the MIA status through whatever Casualty Area Command that was responsible for their area.

They would have maintained contact.

The rules permit them to send notification teams if they even suspect that the media might get something and callously broadcast it.

I'm hoping that the 101st had been given an internal heads up and got on the phone immediately.

There's always the possibility that they kept a notification team close given the likelihood that the deaths would have to be reported.

After all, the islamo-fascists take no POWs. Our guys would gladly have gone to Hotel Gitmo instead of having their lives snuffed out.