http://theslamdunktrove.blogspot.com/2011/05/part-iii-crime-victim-sgt-patrick-rust.html
Part III: Crime Victim Sgt. Patrick Rust
Posted by Slamdunk on Monday, May 23, 2011
Labels: crime, criminal justice, police, Sgt. Patrick Rust
Continuing from last Monday...
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Case Summary
On March 16, 2007 at about 1 am, US Army Sergeant Patrick Rust, who had recently returned from a tour in Afghanistan, left a bar called Clueless in Watertown, NY. Rust had been drinking with friends at the establishment for several hours, was apparently intoxicated, and the bartender refused to serve him any more.
After leaving the bar, investigators reported that Rust's phone was used twice to call one of the friends he had talked with that night/morning. Police have been unable to find anyone who saw him alive again.
The sergeant's roommate, also active-duty, told police that he had not seen the missing man since the day before and that Rust did not return home from the bar that morning. Rust did not show-up for work at Fort Drum that next morning and Rust's mother, the roommate, and his supervisor subsequently reported him missing the following Monday.
Six months later, Rust's skeletal remains were found in a field six miles from the bar. An autopsy was inconclusive as to a cause of death.
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Last week, I ended with two aspects of the Rust case that I wanted to discuss further.
The first was:
The "Clueless" bar is known as an alternative lifestyle or gay (evidently not exclusively lesbian/gay though) bar.
Lifestyles
An alternate lifestyle/gay bar in a community that does not feature many similar establishments may be significant in this case.
First, since it was know that Clueless was this type of place, it could attract persons in the general public with violent tendencies--specifically, those that may loiter nearby to victimize customers leaving.
A very intoxicated man leaving a bar in the early morning would make for an appealing crime target.
Second, Don't Ask Don't Tell was the US armed forces policy at the time of Sgt. Rust's disappearance.
Could persons who were violent toward active duty soldiers running in such social circles have been loitering to victimize a comrade leaving Clueless? Certainly.
Finally, Sgt. Rust's presence at the establishment was known by several soldiers. He placed cell phone calls to what investigators described as soldiers outside his circle of friends the evening that he disappeared.
Could someone believing that he was participating in a *advertiser censored*/bisexual lifestyle have intentionally gone to the bar that morning to deceive and then confront Rust?
Certainly again.
In sum, the possibility of a hate crime could be a factor in this case.
I'll save my second point until next time: that investigators were examining allegations that Sgt. Rust was trying to obtain cocaine the night he vanished.
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More information on this case can be found at Patrickrust.com or my other posts on Sgt. Rust are here.
