Mother Dies After Seeing Iraq War Victim’s Body
A 45-year-old Tucson woman collapsed and died days after learning her son had been killed in Iraq, and just hours after seeing his body.
Autopsy results were not immediately released, but friends of Karen Unruh-Wahrer said she couldn’t stop crying over her son, Army Spc. Robert Oliver Unruh, 25, who was killed by enemy fire near Baghdad on Sept. 25 after less than a month in Iraq.
“Her grief was so intense.... Her husband described it as a broken heart,” said Cheryl Hamilton, manager of respiratory care services at University Medical Center, where Unruh-Wahrer was a respiratory therapist.
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