An investigative reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine, Seth Harp, has been looking into this medical anomaly. But he scared me.. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Ruth was born July 22, 1931, to Ray and Esther . Most immediately, though, the discovery of Lavignes body represented a problem for the leadership at Fort Bragg. On several occasions, various people at Fort Bragg have offered to sell him tabs, Romero says, including the soldier from the camping trip. When they found my brothers remains, he didnt have eyes. Samuel Sigoloff, Peter Chambers and Theresa Long. The 9mm round, fired from a Taurus Millennium G2, missed the boy by about 18 inches. Words his sister uses to describe him include gentle, spiritual, and feminist. He was a hippie, a believer in crystals, she says. He saw people die. Mendocino County Sheriff's Office Captain Greg Captain Van Patten confirmed that MCSO detectives are considering the death a homicide "because of a gunshot wound." Thats when he made the statement that if I wanted my husband gone, he could take care of it, she says. They say get a lawyer., I just dont know whats going on with our military right now, says Mabey. Out of the 83 sudden and unexpected fatalities, eleven of them were determined to be from natural causes. Shipping Policy Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, and three other senators are demanding answers from Defense Sec. They have a different society, Lavigne would respond, in Nicoles recollection, and while I dont agree with it, we shouldnt be doing what were doing over there. . A total of 21 deaths in the two years ending December 2021 can likely to attributed to drug overdoses, according to Rolling Stone. Nobody would listen., My son was the most honest, loyal, patriotic person, she continues. . The military continues to be assaulted by mandates that harm soldiers physically and mentally. He was never booked, photographed, or taken before a magistrate for a bond hearing. Had it been properly looked into, she says, all the bodies and drugs that have come in the last two and a half years might have been avoided.. A small boy about waist high is dancing next to a laundry hamper to music from the television. Ruth Sparks, a native of San Jose, California, and resident of Fort Bragg, California, passed away on December 1, 2022, surrounded by her family. A A. According to the data, the five-year average for medical issues in the military was 1.7 million codes. The same is true in the case of a young Ohioan, a Green Beret candidate, who in March was found unresponsive in his barracks. Disney was found dead along with fellow radarman Joshua Diamond in the Fort Bragg barracks. He stands in front of a parking lot at night, a middle-aged, broad-chested black man with a shaved head, dressed in whiskered jeans and a shirt with vertical stripes. What role do these bioweapon shots have on the number of unexpected and undetermined deaths? Ballard, the only full-time detective in Vass, didnt know Billy Lavigne. In 2018, Lavigne shot and killed his best friend, a Green Beret named Mark Leshikar, in an inexplicable, drug-fueled altercation that no one witnessed but two little girls. On February 9, 2022, Seth reported the death of 83 soldiers at Fort Bragg in the 18 months ending in June 2021. JANET BARON OBITUARY. Absolutely. Just a while ago the FBI went and dived in the area, and didnt find anything. Aside from suicide, overdose and complications from drug abuse including steroids was the leading cause of death. Congress has finally taken notice of an unprecedented wave of fatalities at Fort Bragg, some 17 months after Rolling Stone first brought attention to an apparent drug crisis at the base. Only his severed head had been found. He had a strong personality. The Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense(DoD) and the highest-ranking commanders are culpable for unlicensed medical malpractice and mass murder, and must be held responsible for their unethical actions of coercion and discrimination, which were used to force dangerous experiments on soldiers that injured, sickened, disabled and killed many. He had served 19 years in the Army, including time in the 7th Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, but as a property book officer, a glorified supply sergeant. . Updated: Mar 26, 2022 / 11:17 PM EDT. Proudly powered by WordPress Her son, Spc. He was the rock in my life. He doesnt believe the story told by the other six campers that Roman-Martinez simply wandered off at night, leaving his phone, wallet, and glasses behind in the tent. Lavignes death., Pentagon Finally Stops Hiding Military Overdose Epidemic, Senators Press Pentagon for Answers on Rash of Overdose Deaths, These Kids Are Dying Inside the Overdose Crisis Sweeping Fort Bragg. In light of this disturbing trend, the letter reads, we write seeking a full understanding of the pattern of overdoses., Sen. Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts who has sponsored a number of bills to combat the opioid epidemic, is spearheading the oversight effort. We hope you dont mind as its expensive to pay for bandwidth and time to do this. Its known from postmortem toxicology that Leshikar was taking Valium, tramadol, MDMA, and cocaine. Everybody seemed to know the same people. Some of the tough questions he and the other four senators posed to Secretary Austin included: Fort Bragg is the Armys largest and most important facility, the home of the 82nd Airborne Division, the Special Forces, and the Joint Special Operations Command, including the covert Delta Force. From outward appearances, the two men simply lost their minds. (Video), COVER UP: DOJ Decided Against Having FBI Agents Monitor Search by Bidens Personal Lawyers For Classified Documents, Atty. Related Ari McGuire, died of a fentanyl overdose at Fort Bragg in August 2019, after he was allegedly introduced to drugs by his platoon sergeant in Afghanistan. Receive Daily Banned News StoriesTHEY Don't Want You to Know! This data emerged amid increasing awareness of rising rates of drug use notably of cocaine and steroids in the Special Operations Forces. Those two would always pull some shit, she says. He was in an IED blast. The next day around 7 p.m., one of the campers called 911. No one could tell me who the escapee was, or what they had escaped from, but Cumberland County dropped all charges against Lavigne. The Military Health System began administering the spike protein mRNA vaccine to military service members on December 14, 2020. She hung up on him, but later had second thoughts. Other operators that were there. We were trying to find the park ranger or their offices, or anything.. Even if Leshikar had come at him with a screwdriver, Billy wouldnt just forget how to disarm somebody, Nicole says. One of the largest military installations in the world, Fort Bragg is home to approximately 54,000 military personnel and includes the Special Forces, the Airborne Corps, and the Joint Special Operations Command. In just18 months, Fort Bragg lost over 80 soldiers from sudden and unexplained causes. For the Vaccinated: NANO SOMA* We lost our friend, he told the dispatcher. Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, he says, pretty much anywhere the U.S. had anything going on between 2006 and 2018, he was there. By 2012, he had made the ultra-selective cut for Delta Force, which rejects the overwhelming majority of Rangers and Green Berets invited to try out. His use of alcohol was of even greater concern. At no time during that interaction did they mention a missing person, a spokesman for the National Park Service told ABC11. Theme: Newsup by Themeansar. To date, the House Armed Services Committee seems not to have noticed the similar pattern at Fort Bragg. A warrant for his arrest was issued, and this time, for whatever reason, the charge was not dropped. His injuries were not done by a shark or boat propeller. By Minyvonne Burke. This morning, a group of five senators led by Sen. Edward Markey demanded answers from the military on the subject of overdose deaths in the armed forces, in a letter sent to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The U.S. Army and Fort Bragg refuse to investigate or report on the surge in deaths, disrespecting the soldiers and their families. One of the military doctors testified:It is my professional opinion that the major increases incidences of the above discussed instances of miscarriages, cancers, and disease were due to COVID-19 vaccinations.. This is a previous edition of the Homicide Tracker. Why is Fort Bragg less safe than it was before the mask, testing and vaccine mandates? Five senators are calling on the Department of Defense to investigate overdose deaths at Fort Bragg, reports Rolling Stone. On February 9, 2022, Seth reported the death of 83 soldiers at Fort Bragg in the 18 months ending in June 2021. Weve been looking for him all day. She also retrieved her Glock from the bedroom and stuck it under a couch cushion. The Navy SEALs have been seared by repeated scandals in recent years, but until Lavignes mysterious death in December, Delta Force had been spared accusations of drug use in its ranks. Fort Bragg stops reporting soldier deaths after dozens found dead in their bunks. Read our Pledge HERE. But when she called her husband on FaceTime, he seemed perfectly normal, leading her to conclude that they were playing a joke on her. Nice, normal people. Others, she says, are narcissistic, or have some other character defect that produces a sense of entitlement, like they can get away with anything. At least 36 of the victims were children. He was trying to get into Buddhism. . As Sarah pounded on the neighbors door, he opened fire on her. We look to the Greatest Commandment as our Powering force. They are a very hush-hush community, says Diane Ballard, a police detective in the tiny town of Vass, where numerous Delta Force operators, current and retired, own houses. It was out of control, says his best friends wife, Laura Leshikar. Me and my mom being Catholic, it was difficult to understand., Fort Bragg was on quarantine and soldiers forbidden from traveling far from base, but seven paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division snuck off for a Memorial Day weekend camping trip at Cape Lookout National Seashore, a barrier island on the gray coast of the Carolinas. No one at Fort Bragg will talk to me at all. All Rights reserved. Roman-Martinez had done multiple parachute jumps in the course of his training, but he was an HR specialist, a guy whose job it was to maintain personnel records. Drugs are only a small part of the problem. Elite soldiers have access to whatever they want to get into: whores, guns, drugs, you name it, he writes. We were always poor growing up, his sister Griselda says. This May will be that investigations one-year mark, and no suspects have been identified. Out of the 83 "sudden and unexpected" fatalities, eleven of them were determined to be from natural causes. The Army is failing to keep soldiers combat-ready, and this is evidenced by the militarys own medical surveillance system. When a friend or babysitter could be found to look after the kids, the group of five parents, all in their mid-thirties, went out on the town in Fayetteville. On a cold evening in late January, when I visit the approximate spot where he was found, the woods are perfectly still and quiet, with not even a bird chirping. The Idol: How HBOs Next Euphoria Became Twisted Torture Porn Did he have demons? Send us a message on Facebook. Lavigne was entitled to a variety of due process protections. Lavigne was transported downtown, but did not remain long in the police station. There was never no mention of this Dumas. Nicole and Laura say the same. A spokesman, Chris Grey, writes in an email that Cumberland County had investigative jurisdiction over the case but that CID thoroughly reviewed all the evidence and interviewed witnesses. He was deployed to Saudi Arabia when he read on Facebook that Roman-Martinez, whom hed known since middle school, had gone missing. Fort Bragg, CA Fort Bragg High School Chapel By The Sea Thursday, January 12, 2023 Add Photos 1 Memory David Laurence Gross David Laurence Gross 1941-2022 The Mendocino Coast community. He was deadly serious., She pretended to laugh it off, and when Dumas left to get a part from the hardware store, she called her neighbors to come over and sit with her. In late May, a 21-year-old enlisted man from California was killed beheaded, in fact while on a camping trip with six of his fellow paratroopers; once again, no arrests have been made in the case. CID rejects any notion that anything but a complete and unbiased investigation was conducted, Grey says. His father didnt always know where he was in those days. She sent him a text message and agreed to hear him out on condition they meet at Leshikars grave site. In this one, he is sitting in what looks to be a restaurant booth, dressed in a gray vest and a purple dress shirt. The U.S. Army and Fort Bragg refuse to investigate or report on the surge in deaths, disrespecting the soldiers and their families. According to officials, 33 of the fatalities are of undetermined causes. Estella called the Fayetteville police, who filed an incident report. This means soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg are twenty-seven times more likely to die unexpectedly on their home base than in overseas combat! Over the next year, Leshikar moved on to benzodiazepines, then MDMA, then cocaine. Out of the 83 sudden and unexpected fatalities, eleven of them were determined to be from natural causes. Just because it was dismissed doesnt mean it didnt happen, says Ballard, who believes that military personnel are given special treatment within the criminal-justice system in the counties around Fort Bragg. Have a nice day. , I go to the location listed on the incident report to learn more, and find four people, two men and two women, living in a one-bedroom apartment in a drab complex near Cross Creek. Appropriate adverse action, which was previously initiated in response to substantiated misconduct, was being finalized at the time of Master Sgt. William Edward Lemos June 2, 2022 (72 years old) I kill people for a living., After his dozen-plus deployments, Lavigne was no less haunted by moral injury. The island is small, with few trees and a thick crowd of people that weekend. Matthew Disney, 20, were found dead in their barracks room on Friday in a suspected illegal drugs overdose. Though the offense was a felony, he was not charged. Multiple people who knew Lavigne tell me that he regularly snorted cocaine, took MDMA, popped pills, and drank heavily. Vandoliers Play Tennessee Concert in Dresses to Protest State's New Drag Bill But in each case, the charges were dismissed. Now no one can look away.. In January of 2021, Army captain Robert Latham died suddenly of an apparent heart attack. The 32-year-old was previously in top physical condition. Him and my brother had similar features., Leshikar, bearded and scowling in most photos, was six-foot-four, with a square jaw, a head of light-brown hair, and tattooed shoulders. An orange sun is setting behind row upon row of monotonous pines. Lewis followed her outside, holding their three-year-old daughter on one hip and a gun in the other hand. The report, released in early 2020, was mostly a whitewash, full of vague language about improving leadership and accountability. Army vet Timothy Dumas, 44, was found shot and killed alongside Lavigne. Personnel numbers are also kept secret, but two years ago, a retired Delta Force colonel, a veteran of the Iraq War, told me that the unit is made up of about 250 operators, plus another 2,000 support troops. hree weeks before Christmas, in the piney woods outside of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, a deer hunter came across the fallout from a firefight that, to date, no one has been able to explain. He was just a boy, she quotes him as saying. Who Receive obituaries John Michael December 9, 2022 (31 years old) View obituary James Talbot CSM Jr. November 14, 2022 (79 years old) View obituary Malinda Banks Let's Break the Censorship Together, Opt in and Spread the Word! At least 252 men and 63 women were killed. Fort Bragg lost over 80 soldiers from sudden and unexplained causes, and stopped reporting on the deaths after June 2021 by: Lance D Johnsonfor Natural News. As soon as the rockets began to burst, We had to get out of there. She shows me the brief clip on her phone. Since then, the military has administered more than 6.4 million doses, fully inoculating 90.1percent of active-duty service members with the two-dose protocol. The letter, sent to Defense Secretary . He didnt respond, she says. I dont know any soldier who has done the tours he had done that doesnt., That was certainly the case with Lavigne. And he fell down on the ground and Uncle Billy kept shooting him. Appropriate adverse action, which was previously initiated in response to substantiated misconduct, was being finalized at the time of Master Sgt. FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WNCN) - A U.S. Army Special Operations Command soldier was found unresponsive inside a parked vehicle on Friday in Fayetteville, Fort Bragg officials announced Saturday. Could there be a serious drug problem going on at Fort Bragg? Soldiers were dying there at a rate of 1 every 3 days in August. The only known common denominator between them was Fort Bragg. One evening in October 2013, Dumas came over to fix an electrical outlet, and Ballard had the distinct impression that he was hitting on her: He was trying to pry about where my husband was. She told him they were separated at the moment. He was planning on coming home and building a log cabin on our property, says his dad. They were joined by Lavigne, the girls godfather, whom she called Uncle Billy, and his daughter, who was like a younger cousin to her. Five days ago, an early morning shooting along Highway 20 resulted in the death of 52-year-old Fort Bragg man Daniel Martin Shealor. Even though its a closed case, Laura says, they told us the investigation doesnt see the public eye.. The Army is failing to keep soldiers combat-ready, and this is evidenced by the militarys own medical surveillance system. Fentanyl Involvement as a Proportion of Deaths Across Substance Groups, 2017-2021. 'These Kids Are Dying' Inside the Overdose Crisis Sweeping Fort Bragg They are ghosts. Hed read an article about hallucinogenic mushrooms, she says. Indeed, you would have to pore over the news archives long and hard to find a single negative story on the unit, whose official name is the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta, also known as the Combat Applications Group. Early Saturday afternoon, park rangers had approached the group from Fort Bragg to ask them to move their vehicles, which were encroaching on protected sand dunes. The Armys Criminal Investigative Command, or CID, also concluded that the homicide was justified, likewise for reasons that it refuses to make public. That was the only drug he was for; everything else he was against. A soulless expression would come over him, like he was looking through you, when he got to drinking, Nicole says. The DMED is the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branchs web-based tool to remotely query de-identified active component personnel and medical event data contained within the Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS).. Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Medium, WordPress, Google, Gmail (literally), Blogspot, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, PayPal, LiveJournal, Soundcloud, Dailymotion, Vimeo, Tumblr, Flickr & Youtube and probably several others I forgot about. Sens. She has photos of a tub of used syringes found in Lewis closet, including vials of drostanalone propionate and trenbolone acetate, both of which are illicit anabolic steroids that can cause severe mood disturbances. Walder, Nancy ~ 27 . The onslaught totaled the neighbors car, which Sarah tried to hide behind. The two were found dead on the same day in June 2021, just two weeks after airborne master sergeant Martin Acevedo III was caught trafficking cocaine. Fort Bragg stops reporting soldier deaths after dozens found dead in their bunks An investigative reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine, Seth Harp, has been looking into this medical anomaly. Also, this website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. I did not get the impression that he was joking. Read About All Possible Detoxing Options HERE. Through the intercom she says that she is just as clueless as anyone else and that she and Dumas led separate lives.. We have a lot of Delta Force members in our community, says Ballard, the police detective in Vass. Its just wonderful, she said. At bars like ODonnells Pub in Southern Pines, they are easily identified by their signature off-duty style, which incorporates elements of biker culture, and is characterized by beards, tattoos, muscles, sun-faded baseball caps with tattered brims, and concealed handguns. Ultimately, he concluded in his March 11th, 2019, report, I determined that [Lavigne] was NOT credible.. He finally put the gun down. In the aftermath, Lynda says, There were no real repercussions.. Sometimes when I would walk into Billys house, it was just everywhere., She personally observed, on two or three occasions, the same four guys cutting up and snorting lines of white powder. Its just like taking an antidepressant, he would say. The last time his father spoke to him was Thanksgiving. The DAs office did not respond to multiple requests for more information. Its real strange, says Bill Lavigne Sr., father of the slain Delta Force soldier, that something like this can go on at Fort Bragg, and nobody seems to know nothing. In early 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic descended on the United States, his run-ins with the law became more frequent. He was from a suburb of Los Angeles called Chino. The autopsy showed that he had been shot from multiple angles, including from behind. According to the medical examiner, Roman-Martinez had been decapitated. Sept. 26, 2022. Browse Fort Bragg local obituaries on Legacy.com. Roman-Martinezs partial remains had washed up on Shackleford Banks a few days later, but in the six months since then, few details had been forthcoming. She and her husband, a Navy submariner, were moving to North Carolina, and stayed for a time at Leshikars apartment. In addition to Rolling Stones investigation of Fort Bragg, the senators letter to Secretary Austin cited a number of other alarming reports, including: evidence of rising overdose deaths among veterans and in military hospitals; an incident in March of this year in which five West Point cadets nearly died from taking fentanyl-laced cocaine; and the June 2021 death of Pfc. Out of view of the girls, Leshikar and Lavigne continued to drink and use drugs. The young soldier who called 911 also told the dispatcher, unprompted, that Roman-Martinez had suicidal tendencies, which his sister strenuously disputes. Enrique Roman-Martinez of Fort Braggs 82nd Airborne Division was beheaded during a camping trip with six other soldiers. Taking part in and witnessing violence, being away from home for long periods of time, and disillusionment with the mission can put special operators at heightened risk, Donati says, of divorce, alcoholism, substance abuse, and anger issues. Leshikar was a native of rural Idaho and had lived in Washington state, near the Canadian border. By Seth Harp September 29, 2022 Logan Mock-Bunting/Getty Images Congress has finally taken notice of an unprecedented wave of fatalities at Fort Bragg, some 17 months after Rolling Stone. The vaccine mandates damage combat readiness, while banishing the strongest, healthiest freedom fighters from the ranks. This time he was charged with three felonies: breaking and entering, communicating threats, and impersonating a law-enforcement officer, but all of the charges were dismissed. We love helping others and believe thats one of the reasons we are chosen as Ambassadors of the Kingdom, to serve Gods children. More like brothers, says Leshikars 31-year-old sister, Nicole, who spent three weeks hanging out with them in February 2018. Both men had young daughters. Figure 2. Drugs were in involved in the deaths of Joshua Diamon and Matthew Disney. Sparks, Ruth Fort Bragg, CA . Some of them are really great. April 29, 2022, 6:09 AM PDT. For the latest update on stopping the mandates in the military, read Liberty Councils updates on the Navy SEAL 1 v. Austin case. Keiths mom, Lynda Lewis, tells me that her son should have been expelled from the Army back in 2016, when he assaulted Sarah and got into an armed standoff with the Fayetteville police. In his LinkedIn photo, Dumas looks fairly nondescript. Col. Tage Rainsford, a spokesman for USASOC, did not respond to written questions regarding allegations of cocaine and MDMA use among members of Delta Force, and would not say whether operators are tested for drugs. A pair of skimpy running shorts known in the Army as ranger panties were all that he was wearing. They do what they want.. He didnt spend a single night in jail. A particular area of concern is U.S. Army Alaska, USA TODAY has found.