US army probes wife-killing spate at Base

On Monday, commanders said the deaths had nothing to do with the line of work — three of the four soldiers were Special Forces recently back from Afghanistan. They also said the men didn’t know one another. But local authorities said all the cases came with warnings.

‘‘Each of these couples were having serious friction,’’ said Lt James E. Black of the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office. ‘‘There were definite signs.’’

The vast Fort Bragg military installation, located in central North Carolina, has three gas stations, nine schools, 308 miles of paved road and a total personnel of 55,000, including civilians. It’s the heart of a larger military community that includes thousands of Army families and retirees, surplus stores, gun shops and fluttering flags just about everywhere.

The incident began on June 11, police said, when Sgt 1st Class Rigoberto Nieves, a solider in the 3rd Special Forces Group, shot his wife in head with a .40 caliber pistol and then shot himself. They had been arguing all night, neighbours said.

Two weeks later, Jennifer Wright vanished. Her husband, William, a wiry master sergeant in the 96th Civil Affairs Battalion, said he had no idea what happened. On July 19, Wright confessed to strangling his wife and burying her on the base near a firing range, police said. The two had been married 14 years, with three children, though Wright had moved out.

That day Sgt 1st Class Brandon Floyd, a member of the elite, top-secret Delt Force shot his wife during an argument. Then he shot himself. Andrea Floyd had asked for a divorce shortly before the killing, said Black, the sheriff’s lieutenant.

The fourth Fort Bragg killing, which did not involve a Special Forces soldier, occurred on July 9. Police said Sgt Cedric Ramon Griffin, of the 37th Engineer Battalion, stabbed his estranged wife 50 times, then set her body on fire. Griffin lived with another woman, who was pregnant, and he and his wife had a long history of marital problems, police said. He confessed after he was arrested, police said. (LATWP)