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American Morning

Fort Bragg Shaken by Murders of Wives of Army Soldiers

Aired July 26, 2002 - 09:57   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: Now to a story our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has been watching this morning, Fort Bragg, North Carolina has been shaken by the recent murders of wives of Army soldiers.

Barbara, can you give us the latest?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Arthel, yes. The Army is reacting to the story this morning with an awful lot of caution. They are telling us that yes, there have been the murders of four in the last six weeks of the wives of four Fort Bragg soldiers, three of them having been special operations soldiers who served in Afghanistan. But what they're looking at is whether or not there is any common thread in these cases. So far, they really don't think so. These men had come back from Afghanistan and these tragedies have now occurred.

The Garrison commander at Fort Bragg is looking at whether or not there is any way the Army could have known, whether there is enough stress management, enough counseling available to these soldiers when they come back from deployment.

Of the four cases, two of the men, after murdering their wives, then committed suicide. We are told the other two men are in local law enforcement custody. The crimes were indeed brutal, two of the women were shot, one strangled, one stabbed. They are looking in to this at the moment, but at the moment, one official said to us, they believe it's an anomaly; they really don't know what has happened here to cause this recent spate of murders -- Arthel.

NEVILLE: Barbara Starr, a troubling story, thanks for that report.

STARR: Thank you.

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