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Soldier’s Death in Germany Is Ruled Suicide

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A California National Guard soldier who was found dead last month in Germany and who became the center of an ongoing dispute between the guard and the U.S. Army, killed himself, according to an autopsy report released Thursday.

Meanwhile, a separate document indicated that a National Guard official has filed a complaint with the Department of Defense Inspector General’s office, alleging that three Army officers conspired to wrongly accuse the man of being a deserter.

The mummified and decomposed body of Spec. Mason Karl Jacques O’Neal, who had been missing for 11 months, was discovered in June hanging from a tree less than a mile from the Army base where he had been stationed.

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The autopsy report said that O’Neal hanged himself. But it also noted that an earlier diagnosis by an Army psychiatrist found no evidence that the soldier was suicidal. Still, the report, dated July 13, 1998, said that O’Neal’s mental condition at the time of his death was “unpredictable” and could have caused him to kill himself.

O’Neal’s widow, Fatima O’Neal, challenged the suicide ruling, saying her husband’s demeanor and Muslim beliefs made it unlikely that he would kill himself.

In their last telephone conversation three days before his disappearance, she said, her husband told her he believed “he was in danger and that somebody was out to get him.”

But he also talked about “coming home so he could see his kids,” she said. “In every one of our conversations he talked about how much he missed me and the kids. How can a man who would record himself reading a children’s book and then send the tape to his children kill himself?”

In the meantime, controversy about the case continues.

Lt. Col. Warren Alberts of the California National Guard said in documents obtained by The Times from military sources in Washington that a trio of senior officers conspired to ensure that O’Neal was classified as a deserter “and have unlawfully influenced the resolution of this case.”

O’Neal’s disappearance on July 17, 1997, ignited a bitter disagreement between the Army and the National Guard. Army officials declared O’Neal a deserter 30 days after he disappeared and stopped all pay and benefits to his wife and children--ages 18 months, 2 and 5. That action forced the family, who live in Sunnyvale, to obtain welfare assistance.

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But National Guard officials argued that O’Neal, 32, was beset by psychological problems when he vanished and should have been considered disabled.

The Army reopened its investigation of O’Neal’s disappearance in April, when The Times reported discrepancies in the case. Army officials admitted then and again last week that mistakes were made in the first investigation, and they agreed to reinstate all benefits to Fatima O’Neal and her children after O’Neal’s body was found.

Alberts, in a June 10 memorandum, stated that he might ask for court-martial charges against one of the three officers whom Alberts said “is responsible for hiding factual information” that would have shown that “O’Neal did not voluntarily absent himself.”

Army spokeswoman Shari Lawrence said this week that none of the three Army officers would comment. She would not elaborate except to say that one of the three is on medical leave.

The Army psychiatrist’s diagnosis, based on interviews with O’Neal’s family and fellow soldiers, was written three months after O’Neal disappeared. It stated that O’Neal was delusional and felt persecuted.

Army officials said O’Neal ran away while being escorted to a clinic at Grafenwoehr Army base for observation.

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But the psychiatrist’s report, dated Oct. 20, 1997, also said that “O’Neal was a devoted husband and father . . . and was neither a smoker nor a drinker. . . . He was a happy, upbeat person who was liked by those who knew him.”

“O’Neal’s devotion to his wife and family is seen in a couple of cards and letters” recovered among his belongings in the barracks, according to the report.

In the cards and letters, the psychiatrist wrote, O’Neal “talks of his deep love toward his wife and three children and reassures [them] that he will join them soon.”

Other soldiers from O’Neal’s unit said they too find it hard to believe he killed himself. An officer who asked not to be identified said he knew O’Neal well and considered him to be “a good kid who liked nature and riding his bicycle.

“O’Neal liked his privacy, but he also liked talking to people. He wasn’t one of the soldiers I had to concentrate on because he wasn’t a problem soldier,” the officer said. “I was shocked to hear that he killed himself.”

According to the autopsy report, O’Neal’s body was found dressed in fatigue jacket and pants, and hanging from a pine tree branch about 30 feet above ground.

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O’Neal’s identification tag was around his neck, and his checkbook and a “pocket memo ledger” were found in his clothing. His wrist watch was still keeping time.

According to the report, investigators think O’Neal tied his hands in front of him with a pair of elastic suspenders of the type sold in Army commissaries. The right sleeve of the fatigue jacket was tied around O’Neal’s neck and the left sleeve around the tree branch. The report states that there were no wounds or evidence of “blunt force trauma” on the body.

San Jose attorney Robert Mitchell, who is representing Fatima O’Neal, said he has hired a pathologist to conduct an autopsy.

O’Neal was among 125 soldiers with the 649th Military Police Company of the California National Guard sent to Germany in January 1997 as part of the U.S. peacekeeping force for Bosnia.

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