Soldier Mysteriously Killed in Afghanistan, Family Kept in the Dark, Sound Familiar?

[kpete]

Soldier Mysteriously Killed in Afghanistan, Family Kept in the Dark, Sound Familiar?
Posted by Philip Barron on October 3, 2007 at 7:06 AM.

Mystery surrounds death of soldier
Quincy woman is called a noncombat casualty

The Massachusetts National Guard soldier from Quincy who died in Afghanistan Friday was found with a single bullet in her head lying near her church on a secure military base, her family said yesterday after a briefing from Army officials.

The Department of Defense said in a statement yesterday that Ciara Durkin's injuries came from a "non-combat related incident" that is under investigation. The statement contradicts a Sunday statement from the Massachusetts Army National Guard that said Durkin, an Army specialist, was killed in action. A guard spokesman said the term was meant to imply that Durkin was deployed in Afghanistan at the time of her death.

"We're completely in the dark," said Pierce Durkin, the soldier's 28-year-old brother. "Patience is probably dissipating."

more at:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/10/02/mystery_surrounds_death_of_soldier/
via:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/#64267

[RandomKoolzip]

1. Wow. Seems like there's been more than a few of these.

[Horse with no Name]

2. Would be curious to know her political, sexual or religious leanings?

Or if she was raped. I don't think it would take too long to figure out considering what has happened in the past.

[rox63]

3. She had told her family if anything happened to her, make sure to investigate

An update on this story from today's Globe. Apparently, she had seen things that weren't right, and was starting to make some noise about it. She was part of a finance unit, so she would not have been likely to see combat. But she may have had evidence about the immense amount of corruption going on in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kin say soldier hinted at concerns
Senators, Delahunt ask for Defense Department probe

By Michael Levenson and Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | October 3, 2007

The Massachusetts National Guard soldier from Quincy who died Friday in Afghanistan asked her relatives to press for answers if anything happened to her while she was deployed, according to her family.

"She did say to us that she had concerns about things she was seeing when she was over there," Ciara Durkin's sister, Fiona Canavan, said in an interview with WGBH-TV. "She told us if anything happened to her, that we were to investigate it."

Questions surrounding Durkin's death prompted US Senators John F. Kerry and Edward M. Kennedy and US Representative William D. Delahunt yesterday to call for the Defense Department to thoroughly investigate the death of Durkin, a Quincy resident.

In a letter, Kerry urged Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates "to deploy your staff on this matter immediately, so that the answers and circumstances around Specialist Durkin's death are uncovered, expeditiously and thoroughly."

Read the rest here: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/03/kin_say_soldier_hinted_at_concerns/