Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
String of Military Family Murders Stuns Ft. Bragg
Aired July 27, 2002 - 08:14 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.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: From Missouri to North Carolina now. Fort Bragg is the home to the Army's special operations command. And now it's the scene of a string of military family murders. Four wives killed, four military husbands suspected in their deaths.
Sources say they've really found no common thread among the cases and say it may simply be an anomaly.
CNN's Mark Potter joins us now from Fayetville, North Carolina with more -- Mark, good morning.
MARK POTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Thomas.
Officials here say they've never seen anything like this. Four soldiers accused of killing their wives in a six week time span. And now, as you can imagine, there are lots of questions about why this occurred and whether it could have been prevented.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POTTER (voice over): Three of the four soldiers accused of murdering their wives were assigned to special operations and had served in Afghanistan. On June 11, police say one of them, after just returning home from his deployment, shot and killed his wife, then turned the gun on himself. On June 29, investigators say Master Sergeant William Wright, home six weeks from Afghanistan, strangled his wife to death, buried her in a forest, then finally confessed to police.
SHERIFF EARL BUTLER, CUMBERLAND COUNTY: Sergeant Wright led detectives to his wife's body, which he had buried on June 29 in a remote wooded area off Plank Road on the Fort Bragg Military Reservation.
POTTER: On July 9, Sergeant Cedric Griffin allegedly stabbed his wife 50 times then set fire to their home with his two children still inside. The children escaped and their father was arrested. And on July 19, Sergeant First Class Brandon Floyd, who left Afghanistan seven months ago, allegedly shot and killed his wife, then killed himself.
Cumberland County Sheriff Earl Butler wonders whether the stresses of deployment and military life played a role in these tragedies. BUTLER: Well, I think this could very easily bring about the homicides that we've seen. Now I'm not saying it did, but I think it very easily could have precipitated this type of behavior among these people.
POTTER: Three of the cases occurred in Cumberland County, where another theory is the murders had little to do with military life, but instead were the sad results of longstanding domestic problems.
LT. SAM PENNICA, HOMICIDE COMMANDER: All of them were having a lot of difficulty in their marriage and some of them have had difficulty for a long time or a number of years.
POTTER: Military authorities say they were shocked by the series of murders. While Fort Bragg already offers family counseling programs, the recent tragedies are causing officials to rethink their procedures.
COL. TAD DAVIS, GARRISON COMMANDER: I think that this will provide a renewed emphasis on the part of all of us as leaders who care genuinely and very deeply for each of our soldiers, you know, and their families to make sure that we're doing everything we can.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
POTTER: Now, much of the counseling here at Fort Bragg is voluntary and there are questions about whether that should change now that there are four dead wives, two dead soldiers, two more in jail facing first degree murder charges and nine children here without their parents -- Thomas.
ROBERTS: And, Mark, they're saying there really is no connection between their service in Afghanistan to these incidents. But have they released whether or not these men knew one another during their service time or there back at Fort Bragg?
POTTER: They have not released that and we don't know it. But the one link they are talking about in all of the cases is a history of domestic problems. They're looking at that more than the military link, although, again, they don't know why this occurred. But their suspicion is that the domestic problems leading to the domestic violence is really at the core of what happened here.
ROBERTS: Mark Potter live for us in Fayetville, North Carolina.
Mark, thanks very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
