Case Details: -

 

Sgt. Billy Ray Hargrove ("Billy") was a soldier who served in the Gulf War.  His platoon was despatched from Germany to Saudi Arabia and had been active in Operation Desert Storm. However, they did not participate in the combat, as the conflict ended shortly after their deployment.  Despite this, Billy recommended his platoon for a medal, which was rejected by his superiors; determining that the non-combat failed to merit the medal-award.  Undeterred, Billy forged his superiors' signatures and his platoon was awarded the medals. This was, however, discovered and Billy was charged with forgery in June 1991 when he arrived in South Korea for a tour-of-duty.

In January 1992, Billy called his father and told him that he was planning to leave the military.   At around the same time, his marriage to his Korean wife, Kim, began to fall apart and he planned to divorce her.

 

On 20 Feb 1992, Billy missed a summons to report to duty.  At 9:20 am, One of his fellow sergeants informed him that he was late, but Billy never reported. Instead, he took his dog for a walk.   Although Billy seemed receptive to this admonishment, Kim said that Billy immediately afterward seemed oblivious to the fact he was needed on duty.  Twenty minutes later, Billy's wife heard the dog barking. When she went to see what was going on, she found Billy hanging from a tree by an elastic parachute string.

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An alleged suicide note was found in his pants pocket. It read, in part:

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"My life is really screwed up now. I just don't know how to fix it. I've been thinking a lot about taking my life for a long time now. Goodbye."

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The Army concluded that he had committed suicide, motivated by his upcoming court-martial and divorce. However, the Hargrove family and Mike Carmichael, a fellow soldier and Billy's friend, believe he was murdered.

 

Looking at the suicide note, Billy's mother did not believe that the writing was his. Despite ruling the death a suicide, the Army acknowledged that the note might not have been written in his handwriting.  The medical examiner found scars and cuts on his face and hands and knuckles which could mean that he was involved in a fight before he died.  

 

Billy was laid to rest on 04 Mar 1992; Mike was one of the mourners. He told Billy's family that he would commence his own investigations and his Uncle Oscar that there was a large conspiracy involved in Billy's death.   “There had been three other Army personnel there in Korea that had supposedly committed suicide, and my nephew told his birth mother, he said, ‘Don’t be surprised if I’m next.’”

 

On 22 Mar 1992, Mike returned to South Korea and began his investigation.

• He and his wife Sun Hui visited Billy's widow Kim and collected his belongings. Mike learned that Billy had written a letter to his father, but it had never been mailed.  His father believed that the letter would have helped them determine what really happened to Billy. 

• Mike took Billy's papers and stored them with his papers in a metal box. He told his Uncle Oscar that if anything would happen to him, he should try to get a hold of the box as soon as possible.

On 03 Apr 1992, Mike, his wife, and friends celebrated his 38th birthday. At 10 pm, he received an unexpected phone call, ordering him back to the base. By the next morning, he had still not returned home. She contacted the base but they had not seen or heard from Mike. An hour later, his body was found in his barracks office. He was hanging from a locker and had been dead for several hours. Within a few days, the Army concluded their investigation. They ruled that Mike had taken his own life because he was despondent over financial matters and Billy's death.

Mike's wife has accepted the ruling; his mother and Uncle Oscar have not. Oscar believed that Mike was too happy to commit suicide, as he and his wife had just gotten married. Oscar and Billy's family have joined forces in searching for the truth behind the two deaths. They started a letter-writing campaign, asking for the official reports from the military.

The similarities between the two deaths were strikingly similar; both of them: -

• Had been summoned to the Army barracks before they died. 

• Were found hanging just inches from the ground.

• Had been tied with parachute cord, which is highly elastic. 

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Worth mentioning, Mike's death seemed especially bizarre, as he was sitting on the floor against the locker. It seemed to be a very odd and difficult way to commit suicide.  Additionally, in a drawing of the crime scene, the metal box with Billy and Mike's papers is sitting on a desk. The box of letters later disappeared and no one knew what happened to it. Mike's family also learned that he had welts on his face and a gash on his forehead, similar to Billy.  Both families now believe that both men were murdered and that their deaths were covered up.

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Till date, this case remained unsolved ---

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