Fort Bragg Domestic Homicide Review

Marital "discord" and the misperception that seeking marital or behavioral counseling would harm military careers may have contributed to a series of domestic homicides at Fort Bragg, according to a new report released by the U.S. Army. Over the course of six weeks in June and July, there were five domestic homicides at Fort Bragg, an army base in North Carolina. Some involved soldiers who had recently returned from Afghanistan. In response to the murders, the Army conducted multiple investigations in August and September. Fort Bragg Epidemiological Consultation Report (EPICON Report) outlines the findings and includes recommendations on how to improve the Army's response to domestic violence at Fort Bragg and elsewhere.

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To examine the homicides and military responses to domestic violence, the Army interviewed military leaders, health professionals, military and civil law enforcement authorities and others. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked with military behavioral health and prevent program experts and Army chaplains for three weeks at Fort Bragg to explore the homicides and identify potential causal factors. The Army also conducted anonymous focus groups with soldiers, their spouses, military leaders, and health care and social service providers. The EPICON Report, chartered by the Army Surgeon General, compiles the results of these investigations.

Fort Bragg Domestic Homicides

The string of domestic homicides at Fort Bragg began on June 11 when Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves shot and killed his wife Nancy, and then killed himself. Sgt. Nieves had been serving in Afghanistan, but returned home before the murder to "resolve family problems," reports the Washington Times.

On June 29, Master Sgt. William Wright allegedly strangled his wife Jennifer. He reported her missing two days later. Master Sgt. Wright was charged with murder in July after leading investigators to his wife's body. Master Sgt. Wright had been back from Afghanistan for approximately a month before he allegedly murdered his wife. He had recently moved out of the family's home and was living in the Army barracks.

On July 9, Sgt. Cedric Ramon allegedly stabbed his estranged wife, Marilyn, at least 50 times and then set her house on fire. Sgt. Ramon, a member of the 37th Engineer Battalion, has been charged with the murder.

The fourth murder occurred on July 19, when Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Floyd shot and killed his wife and then killed himself in the couple's home. Sgt. Floyd was a member of the Delta Force, an anti-terrorism unit stationed at Fort Bragg, and he had returned from Afghanistan in January.

The final domestic homicide took place on July 23. Joan Shannon allegedly shot her husband, Major David Shannon, while he slept. Joan Shannon was charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder - she originally told police than an intruder had shot Major Shannon. The couple's four children were in the house when the murder took place.

Criminal proceedings in the Wright, Ramon and Shannon cases are pending.

EPICON Report Findings

While the overall homicide rate among soldiers at the Fort over the last 12 months "is not significantly different that the national rate," the "clustering" of domestic violence homicides over the course of two months "is highly unusual, and analyses indicate that these represent statistically significant findings," states the EPICON Report.

Investigators examined the domestic homicides at the Fort, exploring common links between each case. Martial discord was found to be a "major factor" in each incident. The report also states that "martial discord at Fort Bragg was a prevalent theme among all focus groups." And, continues the EPICON Report, certain aspects of the military lifestyle contribute to martial discord. High personnel tempo (PERSTEMPO) - military operations that require soldiers to spend significant amounts of time away from home - combined with "inadequate time for family re-integration, unpredictable work schedules, and problems with leave management" can harm military marriages and may have been contributing factors in the homicides, according to the report.

The EPICON Report also finds that the Army's "flawed model for behavioral health services" contributed to the homicides. Although there was "known marital distress" in all cases, there is no record of the soldiers accessing the military's counseling services, states the report. Interviews and focus groups revealed that soldiers, their spouses and others believe that seeking services "is detrimental and often terminal, either directly of indirectly, to a soldier's career." The report says the Army's current model of delivering services for domestic violence is "counterproductive" because current attitudes discourage "early identification and therapeutic engagement."

Finally, the report concludes that Mefloquine (Lariam), an anti-malaria drug taken by soldiers in Afghanistan, was not a contributing factor in the homicides. In the period directly after the murders, the military investigated what role the drug may have played, but the EPICON Report finds that use of the drug "does not explain the clustering" of domestic homicides. Two of the four active duty soldiers who committed homicides were not taking the drug, and there were no reported history of "unusual behavioral symptoms" in the soldiers taking the drug.

Recommendations

The EPICON Report calls on the Department of Defense to commission "a more formal study" to address its findings. It stresses the need to further examine the impact of PERSTEMPO and other aspects of the military lifestyle that may contribute to marital discord. Additional investigations are necessary to explore the affect of frequent and long-term deployment on the "health and welfare of soldiers and their families," concludes the report. "An analysis is needed regarding the health outcomes, divorce rates, domestic violence, premature attrition, and other health risk behaviors associated with frequent peacekeeping and/or combat deployments," it states.

The report also urges the military to "reengineer" its existing system to provide domestic violence services and other counseling to soldiers and their families. "Soldiers and families need earlier, more accessible, and career-safe behavioral health (BH) care," states the EPICON Report, which outlines the current failures of the existing programs. As currently configured, the BH programs "do not practice basic public health or preventive medicine principles," according to the report. In addition to making BH programs more accessible to soldiers and their families, the EPICON Report recommends implementing "effective primary prevention" programs such as screening for domestic violence and other BH problems, developing a system for systemic and integrated BH data collection and analysis, creating integrated services that address a range of BH issues and providing BH care for soldiers' spouses and children on the base.

Reaction

The report was met with cautious optimism in some quarters, and criticism in others. "What's missing in the brass' public response to the report, though, is a resolve to apply the standards of military discipline to domestic violence," wrote the Raleigh News & Observer in an editorial. "Commanders ought to make it clear up front that abuse of spouses and children will be considered violations of military discipline. How to control anger at home ought to be included in training for those who protect the country ... Encouraging folks to get help with their domestic problems is about all a democratic society can do. But like any military organization, the Army is no democracy. Leaders give orders. And it's way past time that the leaders of all the services added real family values to their disciplinary code."

The Connecticut-based Miles Foundation criticized the investigation as "fundamentally flawed" for looking exclusively at service members and not addressing the needs of and services available to family members.

Fort Bragg Epidemiological Consultation Report is available on Fort Bragg's web site.