Lariam news 15

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - An Army team has completed its work on post
to investigate reasons for a six-week cluster of killings involving Fort
Bragg soldiers and their wives.

The Army's Office of the Surgeon General said Friday the 16-member
epidemiological consultation team has finished gathering information
after arriving at Fort Bragg on Aug. 25.

The team didn't announce any findings. The team's report, which will
first be presented to the Army's surgeon general, is expected to be
completed in the coming weeks.

The team came to Fort Bragg after four soldiers are believed by
authorities to have killed their wives in June and July. Two of the
soldiers also committed suicide. Three of the soldiers accused of
killing their wives served in Afghanistan.

The team looked for patterns in the killings, consulted with Fort
Bragg's leadership about possible contributing factors and interviewed
soldiers and family members.

"The main thing we want to do is to make sure this doesn't happen
again," said Virginia Stephanakis, a spokeswoman for the surgeon
general.

Speculation to the causes of the killing have included the stresses of combat to psychotic side-effects from the anti-malaria drug Lariam, which is given to soldiers in Afghanistan.

Not all of the soldiers involved in the killings saw combat, and thousands of other soldiers from other bases have taken Lariam haven't behaved violently back home.

The team included a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a social worker, an epidemiologist, a physician and a chaplain.

"It's always great when you can get subject-matter experts in who can look at you from a different angle," said Col. Tad Davis, Fort Bragg's garrison commander.

Fort Bragg's killings began June 11, when a Special Forces soldier fatally shot his wife and then himself two days after returning from Afghanistan. Later that month, police allege, another Special Forces soldier killed his wife and weeks later led authorities to her body.

On July 19, Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Floyd, reportedly a member of Delta Force, shot his wife and then himself. A fourth soldier, a member of the 18th Airborne Corps who had not been to Afghanistan, has been charged with fatally stabbing his wife in July.

Police have said each of the post cases involved some kind of marital strife.