Army report on Durkin's death reveals suicide motives

A copy of the Army investigation report on the death of Army National Guard Corporal Ciara Durkin reveals a host of evidence substantiating the Army's conclusion earlier this year that Durkin, a Quincy resident and an active member of Boston's LGBT community, committed suicide at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan last September.

Durkin was found dead at Bagram Airbase in Sept. 2007 with one gunshot wound to the head. The report, which Bay Windows received from the Army in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, reveals that Durkin sent a text message to a friend shortly before her death announcing her intentions to kill herself, and an autopsy and forensic evidence strongly suggested that she shot herself.

Durkin's death attracted international media attention after her family made statements to press last year expressing dissatisfaction with the pace of the investigation and suggesting that Durkin may have been murdered.

According to the report Durkin, who had worked for Fenway Community Health Center prior to her enlistment and volunteered on the Boston Pride committee, was found the evening of Sept. 27 behind the Enduring Faith Chapel on the airbase. The chaplain heard a gunshot, and upon investigating found her lying against some shipping containers behind the chapel. Durkin had apparently shot herself in the head while sitting on the ground, leaning back against the containers. A rifle was resting on Durkin's left leg.

Investigators found Durkin's cell phone on the ground next to her body, and they discovered a text-message conversation she had with a first lieutenant, whose name was blacked out in the report, shortly before her death. During the conversation Durkin announced her plan to kill herself, and the lieutenant urged her not to do so.

The report does not offer official conclusions about why Durkin took her own life, but sworn statements included in the report from those on base who knew her suggest that she was dealing with a range of stressful situations relating to her health, relationships, and her career, among other factors.

Statements from several witnesses indicate that there was some sort of romantic tension between Durkin and the first lieutenant to whom she sent the text message shortly before taking her life. In a statement to investigators the lieutenant claims that she and Durkin never had a relationship but that Durkin tried to pursue one with her. Other witnesses close to Durkin said they believed the two of them did have some sort of relationship and that relationship problems may have contributed to Durkin's suicide. Durkin was engaged to a local woman, Haidee Loreto, at the time of her death.

Other witnesses claim that Durkin was under stress about work on the base. Her supervisor told investigators that there were a few instances when Durkin's performance in the finance division slipped and she received official counseling about her performance and extra work duty. Other witnesses said Durkin was visibly upset about the reprimands at work. Yet her supervisor said Durkin was eagerly making plans for her return to civilian life; Durkin had been scheduled to return to Boston last February.

Witnesses also said Durkin was coping with injuries sustained the previous April or May. Durkin spotted a 285-pound telecommunications worker falling off from a ladder, and she grabbed the man to break his fall. The report states that because of her efforts the man only sustained minor injuries, but Durkin herself suffered nerve damage to one of her arms while trying to catch him. According to her supervisor's statement Durkin's doctor recommended she travel home for corrective treatment for her injuries, but she asked for and received permission to put off the treatment to finish out her last four months of duty.

Some witnesses, including one of the soldiers who lived in the same housing unit as Durkin, said she had been abusing prescription drugs and alcohol. The soldier who lived in her housing unit said Durkin became progressively more self-destructive in her use of medication and alcohol.

That same soldier told investigators that two particular incidents had greatly increased Durkin's anxiety. One incident took place in June 2007, when Durkin went to one of the men's housing units to speak with one of her superiors. When she called for him an unidentified private opened the door and aimed a gun at her midsection. According to a statement by Durkin about the incident she asked him why he was pointing the gun at her, and he responded that he was "coming like an American soldier." Then he holstered his gun and left the area. According to the report investigators determined that Durkin did not know the private personally and that he did not appear to target her for any particular reason. In an e-mail to her family about the incident contained in the report Durkin wrote, "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." The private was no longer at the airbase at the time of Durkin's death.

The other incident involved a suicide bomber, but the report gives few details about the incident. The soldier who lived in the same housing unit as Durkin said Durkin visited her for support both after the incident with the private and "after the suicide bomber came."

The report said an autopsy of Durkin's body determined that the cause of death was a suicide. Investigators found gunpowder residue on Durkin's hands, although the report cautioned that that does not necessarily mean she fired a weapon. A psychological review of the evidence by a forensic psychologist also concluded that it was highly likely Durkin's death was a suicide. Investigators were unable to find fingerprints on any of the items obtained from the scene of her death.

In the aftermath of her death Durkin's family members had raised concerns in the press that Durkin may have been murdered. Family members alleged that Durkin may have learned of some illegal activity in the finance unit that could have put her at risk. Her brother, Pierce Durkin, told Bay Windows last October that when his sister was in the Boston area visiting her family in June 2007 she told them "that she had some concerns about her safety and that if anything were to happen we were to investigate it."

One of the witnesses interviewed by investigators, who worked at the post office on the base and chatted regularly with Durkin, said she had heard rumors that Durkin had been killed because she knew information about money stolen from finance several months ago. There were no substantive details about the nature of the alleged theft, but the investigation report provided to Bay Windows was incomplete in sections, and at least one of the missing sections related to the Defense Finance Accounting Service. The Army did not provide the documents relating to the Defense Finance Accounting Service because those documents were under the jurisdiction of the accounting service, not the Army.

Pierce Durkin declined to comment for this story and referred Bay Windows to a statement the family had posted several months ago on a memorial website they had set up to honor Durkin.

"We are very upset and saddened by their conclusion," reads the statement. "We have borne an extraordinary amount of pain over the past nine months, compounded by a protracted and at times ambiguous investigation. We now need time and privacy to grieve, and let our Ciara finally rest in peace."