Military Murders

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Series of Slayings Shakes Fort Bragg Community
The Associated Press

F O R T B R A G G, N.C., July 26 ? A string of slayings involving the wives of Fort Bragg soldiers has raised concerns in this military community about the stress wartime deployments may be adding to already shaky marriages.

In the past six weeks, the wives of four Fort Bragg soldiers have been slain. In all four cases, investigators said, their husbands were the killers.

In three of the cases, the men were special operations soldiers who had been deployed to Afghanistan.

Fort Bragg officials say they are looking closely at all of the cases, trying to determine whether the hardships of military life contributed.

"One case of child abuse or spouse abuse or one homicide is one too many, and it's a continuous effort on all our parts to do as much as we can to prevent it from happening again," said Col. Tad Davis, Fort Bragg's garrison commander.

The string of family deaths started June 11. Fayetteville police said that was when Sgt. 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves ? a soldier in the 3rd Special Forces Group who had been back from Afghanistan just two days ? shot his wife, Teresa, and then himself in their bedroom.

Officials say Nieves had requested leave to resolve personal problems.

Sheriff's investigators said Jennifer Wright was strangled June 29. Her husband, Master Sgt. William Wright of the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, reported her missing two days later. Then on July 19, he led investigators to her body in Hoke County and was charged with murder.

Wright, who had been back from Afghanistan for about a month, had moved out of his house and was living in the barracks.

?Very Much a Tragedy?

On the same day that Wright was arrested, Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Floyd shot his wife, Andrea, then killed himself in their Stedman home.

The Fayetteville Observer reported that Floyd was a member of Delta Force, the secretive anti-terrorism unit based at Fort Bragg. He returned from Afghanistan in January, officials said. The couple's three children were in Ohio visiting relatives at the time of the deaths.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/u...tner=earthlink