Sgts. Smith Stabbed, Fort Bragg NC

[mysteriew]

Fort Bragg has identified a female soldier who was stabbed to death Tuesday night.

Sgt. Christina E. Smith, 29, was attacked and killed while walking with her husband near their home in north Fayetteville.

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=306283

Husband Sgt. Richard Smith was also taken to the hospital and has since been released. Sgt. C. Smith was a graphics illustrator and was working in the Psychological Operations Group.


Her husband, Sgt. Richard D. Smith told authorities a man jumped out from behind a bush and stabbed his wife while they were walking near their home.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=871d39a2-e180-4ae2-99fd-6d8b9cbf9e4a

[Lucy's mom]

Hmmm....I think I'll leave my thoughts to myself on this one until I get more information. But I will say, my hinky meter is up and running! :waitasec:

[TGIRecovered]

What, mysteriew, no comment about this husband's story? So unlike you!

I saw this one yesterday and I'm glad you posted it. Sgt. Smith didn't put much thought in to his story if you ask me. What say you?

Susan

[mysteriew]

LOL, TGI are you saying that I talk too much?

Oh in my opinion it is very unusual for a man to jump out of the bushes and jump the woman first, leaving the man with only superficial injuries. Also that she was working in the psych ops group also got my attention. But I am like Lucy's Mom, I was waiting for more details, lol.

http://www.wlwt.com/news/17611046/detail.html

This is the third female soldier from the Ohio/Kentucky area to be killed in NC. Two of the three have been determined to slain at the hands of someone close to them. I guess this one we will wait and see.

[TGIRecovered]

N.C. is not a good place to be if you are a woman with a husband, boyfriend, or ex-anything." Less than chivalrous" men all over the state are watching their buddies get away with murder and getting ideas of their own.
JMO
Susan

[TGIRecovered]

LOL, TGI are you saying that I talk too much?



No, I'm saying that I enjoy reading your opinions, silly!:rolleyes:

[mysteriew]

Well, I am expecting to hear that they found the alleged assailant's blood at the scene since the alleged assailant was busy stabbing Sgt. Christine, and Sgt. Richard was a trained soldier. If that is indeed what happened, lol.

I probably do talk too much.

[mollymalone]

I read the story and my eyebrow went up. People running to help and nobody sees an assailant running away?

Both were trained soldiers and why would the assailant target her? Granted she might be closest to the bushes the man leapt out of. It could be said that the husband got his injuries in defending his wife, but minor? While the wife gets stabbed several times.

I'll give the benefit of the doubt at the moment but I'm like Lucy's Mom... hinky meter is in the red.

[kato]

Don't these men get it??? They will be caught eventually. I guess think they are smarter than the men who have been busted.

[fran]

I just have no words. It's case, after case, after case.

:(
fran

http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=306341

Police have released few details about the case.

Neighbors said they heard a woman’s screams for help shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday and then saw Christina Smith lying in a pool of blood on Baxter Street, near the intersection of Southview Circle.

Richard Smith told officers that the two were walking when she was attacked and stabbed in the neck.

He said the attacker fled when he ran toward him.

Richard Smith was taken to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center with minor injuries, police said. The nature of his injuries was not released.

Police also did not release a description of an attacker, and none of the neighbors who spoke with The Fayetteville Observer on Tuesday night said they saw anything before discovering Christina Smith in the street.

Richard Smith and witnesses were questioned Wednesday, police said.

[LaLaw2000]

I just do not know what to think about this one. Does not sound plausible that someone would go after the female first. Now the female is dead and the guy survived and has already been released from the hospital? This sounds personal to me. Either someone has a personal beef with the female, or maybe the husband set it up since he was already released from the hospital. Wonder whose idea it was to go for a walk.

My granddaughter and her husband are living in Fayetteville - she is USAF at Pope AFB, (almost next door to Ft. Bragg) and he is Army at Ft. Bragg. She is pregnant and due to have their first baby on October 11th. She just transferred there. He is out in the field for 8 days right now. I am 58 years old and about to be a great grandmother!

I am just this morning reading about this. I feel like screaming! What is going on? I want to read more about it. I just talked to my granddaughter late yesterday afternoon.

Thanks, Mysteriew, for starting this thread! I am off to see if there is an update this morning!

[LaLaw2000]

fran, you were posting at the same time I was. I just read the article you posted. My granddaughter did not even mention this when she called yesterday afternoon. I am going to ask her about it today when I talk with her. She calls at least every other day as her mother lives with me. She is only 20 years old.

Something has got to give with all of these murders we are hearing about in our military. What is wrong with people? Ft. Bragg, coupled with Pope AFB makes the military a huge military presence in Fayetteville.

For there to have been the third female military member murdered in Fayetteville since June is very disturbing and frightening. I want to know more about Christina's murder. It is odd that there is not more information available. I think my granddaughter did not mention it to us because she knows that we worry as it is.

[SteveHuff]

This link is all I have to say for now. It's the case that came to mind after reading this story.

http://www.courttv.com/trials/greineder/index.html

[SteveHuff]

Chew on this, y'all. There's been two arrests. Richard Smith and another guy, Pfc. Mathew Kvapil. Conspiracy to commit murder and murder charges against both.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2008/10/the_murder_of_sgt_christina_lo.php

[MeoW333]

Looks like the husband enlisted a private new officer to help him and thought it would take the heat off himself. What a dummy; when will they learn?

[LaLaw2000]

Chew on this, y'all. There's been two arrests. Richard Smith and another guy, Pfc. Mathew Kvapil. Conspiracy to commit murder and murder charges against both.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2008/10/the_murder_of_sgt_christina_lo.php

Thank you for the link!

So far, all 3 of the three recent murders have been personal. I am so very glad there have already been arrests made and I hope they get the DP.

[fran]

Chew on this, y'all. There's been two arrests. Richard Smith and another guy, Pfc. Mathew Kvapil. Conspiracy to commit murder and murder charges against both.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2008/10/the_murder_of_sgt_christina_lo.php

Thank you for the link Steve. I'm so glad they caught the POSs.

Seriously, this makes me cry. So many of these women murdered by the one that has promised to love, honor and cherish..............

Why?

fran

[mollymalone]

Chew on this, y'all. There's been two arrests. Richard Smith and another guy, Pfc. Mathew Kvapil. Conspiracy to commit murder and murder charges against both.

http://www.truecrimereport.com/2008/10/the_murder_of_sgt_christina_lo.php

Thanks Steve! I'm glad they caught these two so quickly.

[mysteriew]

fran, you were posting at the same time I was. I just read the article you posted. My granddaughter did not even mention this when she called yesterday afternoon. I am going to ask her about it today when I talk with her. She calls at least every other day as her mother lives with me. She is only 20 years old.

Something has got to give with all of these murders we are hearing about in our military. What is wrong with people? Ft. Bragg, coupled with Pope AFB makes the military a huge military presence in Fayetteville.

For there to have been the third female military member murdered in Fayetteville since June is very disturbing and frightening. I want to know more about Christina's murder. It is odd that there is not more information available. I think my granddaughter did not mention it to us because she knows that we worry as it is.

Congrats on that great grandbaby. I know it won't be spoiled, lol.

You will find that when the military is involved in the investigation that very little info will be released. Just the very bare facts, and that goes clear up to and including the trial.

So many issues here. First the DV issue. The third this year. Second, a conspiracy between Sgt. and a private- so a superior officer. The death of a soldier. By another soldier. The second one for this unit. The parties involved were all soldiers, yet the murder was committed off base. Will this be a military court martial or a trial through the county?


Christina Smith and Kvapil are multimedia graphic illustrators and Smith is an electronics maintenance technician assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, according to a military press release.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=306363

[STEADFAST]

Congrats on that great grandbaby. I know it won't be spoiled, lol.

You will find that when the military is involved in the investigation that very little info will be released. Just the very bare facts, and that goes clear up to and including the trial.

So many issues here. First the DV issue. The third this year. Second, a conspiracy between Sgt. and a private- so a superior officer. The death of a soldier. By another soldier. The second one for this unit. The parties involved were all soldiers, yet the murder was committed off base. Will this be a military court martial or a trial through the county?


Christina Smith and Kvapil are multimedia graphic illustrators and Smith is an electronics maintenance technician assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, according to a military press release.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=306363

The articles said that this is being handled by the civilian authorities, so I don't think it will involve a court martial for murder -- unless they're found innocent, in which case the military can step in and try them. Neither of the suspects are officers, so there's no really serious fraternization charges to be brought, even though one is a few pay grades above the other. I would suppose that the military will proceed to kick them out of the service, so that their pay will stop. They may not do that quickly if either one has children who need to be supported.

[mysteriew]

For the third time in four months, a female soldier based at Fort Bragg is dead, and a husband or lover is charged with murder — leading critics to demand the home base of the Army's elite soldiers exert "control over their troops" and address domestic violence.

snip..."The number of military women being killed in North Carolina in the last eight months is horrific," said retired Army Col. Ann Wright, a former State Department diplomat who once served at Fort Bragg and is now a peace activist. "The Marine Corps and the Army needs to very quickly show leadership and control over their troops."
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i_U6VgurHAbo94NPv9xntHXxSaDwD93J9M2O0

Military is more or less saying not our problem.

This is an article from The New York Times, Feb. 2008. Before the NC murders. It outlines the issues of military DV, the effect of war on the homelife, the military attitude toward DV, and the promises they have made toward correcting it along with the status of those promises. It also discusses child fatalities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/us/15vets.html

Snip...A Call to Action

Within a six-week period in 2002, three Special Forces sergeants returned from Afghanistan and murdered their wives at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. Two immediately turned their guns on themselves; the third hanged himself in a jail cell. A fourth soldier at the same Army base also killed his wife during those six weeks.

At the beginning of this wartime period, the cluster of murder-suicides set off alarms about the possible link between combat tours and domestic violence, a link supported by a study published that year in the journal Military Medicine. The killings also reinvigorated the concerns about military domestic violence that had led to the formation of the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence two years earlier.

National attention to the subject was short-lived. But an examination by The Times found more than 150 cases of fatal domestic violence or child abuse in the United States involving service members and new veterans during the wartime period that began in October 2001 with the invasion of Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/15/us/15vets.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&oref=slogin

[Inch High PI]

This is the third time in recent months a female soldier from my area has been murdered in NC at the hands of her husband/boyfriend. What the heck is going on?

I have been out of town on business and was talking with my mom on the phone on the way home from the airport. She told me another soldier from our area had been murdered in Fayettville. When she told me she was walking with her husband and someone jumped out of the bushes and stabbed her the next words out of my mouth were "her husband did it." Sure enough, he did. I'm glad the arrests were swift.

She was a very intelligent woman with a bright future. Rest in peace Christina.

[LaLaw2000]

Congrats on that great grandbaby. I know it won't be spoiled, lol.

You will find that when the military is involved in the investigation that very little info will be released. Just the very bare facts, and that goes clear up to and including the trial.

So many issues here. First the DV issue. The third this year. Second, a conspiracy between Sgt. and a private- so a superior officer. The death of a soldier. By another soldier. The second one for this unit. The parties involved were all soldiers, yet the murder was committed off base. Will this be a military court martial or a trial through the county?

Christina Smith and Kvapil are multimedia graphic illustrators and Smith is an electronics maintenance technician assigned to the 4th Psychological Operations Group at Fort Bragg, according to a military press release.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=306363


Thanks for the congrats, mysteriew! She is like a daughter to me because she and her Mom lived with me for the first 5 years of her life and then she spent most of every summer with me after that!

I think this would be a trial through the county as this was where the murder occurred. Remember Cesar Laurean? He is being charged with First Degree murder and will be tried in Onslow County. Then yes, this year it has been Megan Touma, then Holly Wimunc. Now Christina Smith. Of course, there was Maria Lauterbach.

I am just absolutely sick about these murders of our military women and all in one state! North Carolina is a beautiful state and has great people in it. North Carolina has the greatest military presence of any state in this country. There is Pope AFB, Ft. Bragg, and Camp Lejuene. If you read about Fayetteville, N. C., it states information about the largest military presence.

All of these women have been killed in a heinous manner. Two of them were pregnant. Holly Wimunc was murdered and burned, and Christina was lying in a pool of blood in the street after being stabbed. How are these murderers passing the physchological testing to even be allowed into our military?

I do not have the answers as to what could/should be done to keep these mentally twisted people out of our military, but something has to be done! I am infuriated!

[mysteriew]

You think you are angry now, read that article from the Times.

[LaLaw2000]

You think you are angry now, read that article from the Times.

:furious:

You are right, mysteriew! I am even more furious. I just do not know what I could say that wouldn't get me banned now!

I do not know what can be done, but something must be done.

[mysteriew]

The value of Sgt. Christina Smith's life was $30k, according to the man hired to kill her.

He says he was asked several times before he agreed to do it.
http://www.700wlw.com/pages/localNews.html?feed=119585&article=4359798