Found Deceased TX - Sgt. Elder Fernandes, 23, Fort Hood, 17 August 2020

[allyoucantleavebehind]

I am questioning that myself. From where he was dropped off to where his body was discovered tonight is roughly 30 miles apart. And while this area does have Uber and Lyft, they aren’t very common.

He wouldn’t have a way to use Lyft or Uber without his phone. this is so awful. Just awful. His family. Heartbreaking.

 

[PatLaurel]

...

Que Deus te acolha em Seus braços. Descansa em Paz Elder.

 

[Backstroke10]

The foul play happened on that base when he was abused/assaulted by his superior. He had to have felt that his career was ruined as well as any sense that he could be free from the fear of sexual assault in that environment. I had posted earlier that having to be separated from his unit and join another may not have been a private personnel matter because people in communities talk. To feel degraded and assaulted, to feel your career is over, and to believe that you are not safe is a recipe for suicide. And to boot, he did not have his cell phone and could not privately speak with his family at behavioral health. This was a recipe for disaster for him. Again, there is a serious failure of leadership on this base and it needs to be fixed.

"Even though the family now knows circumstances took a dark turn for the young soldier on the gigantic Army base halfway between Austin and Waco, they insisted he would not harm himself. They believed their loved one was scared and hiding.

If Elder Fernandes did hurt himself, it is the Army’s fault, his mother said.

“If the Army drove Elder that crazy to make Elder do something like that, then shame on them, because that is not the Elder I know,” she said, her voice quaking with emotion. Brockton soldier missing from Fort Hood found dead, family says - The Boston Globe
(An attorney representing the family said Fernandes was sexually assaulted in April inside a supply room at the base, after a superior officer groped him.

The Army confirms that it has been investigating a case of abusive sexual contact in which Fernandes is the victim. Have questions about the DNC and RNC? We’ve got answers)

RIP Elder. Condolences to his family and friends. I hope for justice for him in the form of charges against his abusers.

BBM. Kaen, do you know if it’s normal/typical that he wouldn’t have his cell phone while in the behavioral health facility? Is it a standard procedure to take away a cell phone?
ETA I wonder where his cell phone was and why he didn’t have it after he was released from the hospital.

 

[evilwise]

Another one? <modsnip>. I am beginning to notice a pattern in these victims of being very much the antithesis of "gung ho" soldier types. Fort Hood really needs to get a handle on this before it starts reflecting poorly even higher up the ladder than base command.

 

[Beltonian]

I sure hoped for better outcome...RIP Elder...
Still lots of questions...Foul play is not suspected but weapon is not found near him...and yes - who gave him a lift to Temple - it is like 40 min drive...So sad.

 

[ChitBrick]

They found him hanging in a tree!?!?!?! What??? How did he get rope? No wallet no cell phone no nothing. Got dropped off somewhere and hung himself?? Nah not buying it. Whoever picked him up from the hospital needs to be beat!!
U.S. News Article

 

[Falcon500]

They found him hanging in a tree!?!?!?! What??? How did he get rope? No wallet no cell phone no nothing. Got dropped off somewhere and hung himself?? Nah not buying it. Whoever picked him up from the hospital needs to be beat!!
U.S. News Article

So you are saying that people don’t hang themselves from trees?

 

[kelsie]

It is very difficult to accept that anyone may attempt and even complete suicide.

We hear a lot about the so-called stress diathesis model. The stress diathesis model is a “multi-hit” model and stresses that there has to be more than one trigger to commit suicide. There is a baseline risk like depression or other mental illness interacting with usually some other event (loss that provokes desperation etc.) and some fundamental genetic vulnerability to lead to suicide.

I recently read a fascinating book by Malcolm Gladwell that I couldn't put down called Talking to Strangers. There's a section in it where he goes into "coupling".
Malcolm Gladwell tackles the peril in encounters between strangers

In my writing I keep coming back to how important context is in understanding behaviour. I am baffled as to why this is hard for people to understand in regards to suicide. The incidence of suicide is a product of intention in combination with a context. In 1962 when Sylvia Plath killed herself, like 44 per cent of the other suicides in England and Wales that year she used the lethal gas in her oven. By the time that gas was fully changed over to natural gas in 1977, the number of suicides—not just suicide by gas—had plummeted. Richard Seiden’s follow-up of 515 people who had been stopped from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge between 1937 and 1978 found only 25 had gone on to kill themselves by other means. And if suicide is coupled in that way, what else is?

So, from above, "The incidence of suicide is a product of intention in combination with a context."

What confuses me here is the trip 30 miles away when he didn't have a car and was supposedly dropped off at his old address.

I am not 100% convinced this was a suicide.

 

[evilwise]

So you are saying that people don’t hang themselves from trees?

I think what he's saying is that in this case it seems pretty obvious that a person or most likely persons facilitated Fernandes' self destruction. I think this is done to wash out "undesirable" soldiers who somehow made it through boot.

 

[kelsie]

Justice for Elder Fernandes

 

[JuLiEjOnEs]

[QUOTE=What confuses me here is the trip 30 miles away when he didn't have a car and was supposedly dropped off at his old address.[/QUOTE]

^^this^^
He had a new apartment, but no key. He had a car full of possessions on base, but he was driven off-base. He was dropped at his last known address, where he no longer lived, by an unnamed person not made available to his family to speak with. No one saw him walk to the door and no one at that address has seen him. He was found dead 30ish miles away from where he was supposedly dropped off. Despite national attention: no one has come forward to report seeing this young man walking 30 miles; no one has come forward to report assisting this young man with telephone, money, rides; no one has come forward to report seeing this young man buy a rope.

The family deserves far more information than what has been provided to them.

 

[AmandaReckonwith]

Expected but so tragic. Ft Hood may or may not be the problem, but something needs to be looked at.

Military and veteran suicide is a real problem.

 

[kaen]

BBM. Kaen, do you know if it’s normal/typical that he wouldn’t have his cell phone while in the behavioral health facility? Is it a standard procedure to take away a cell phone?
ETA I wonder where his cell phone was and why he didn’t have it after he was released from the hospital.

In my experience, in behavioral management settings clients don't have access to their cell phones. Limited external access means that the clinic/hospital has a fuller picture of the client as it is easier to monitor calls--who is getting called and when (not the content of the call in my experience) or calling to get someone to take you away from the facility, etc.

In this case, not having access to his family at a time of crisis may have been an added stressor.

I thought I read that his phone was with his car and other belongings.

 

[kaen]

[QUOTE=What confuses me here is the trip 30 miles away when he didn't have a car and was supposedly dropped off at his old address.

^^this^^
He had a new apartment, but no key. He had a car full of possessions on base, but he was driven off-base. He was dropped at his last known address, where he no longer lived, by an unnamed person not made available to his family to speak with. No one saw him walk to the door and no one at that address has seen him. He was found dead 30ish miles away from where he was supposedly dropped off. Despite national attention: no one has come forward to report seeing this young man walking 30 miles; no one has come forward to report assisting this young man with telephone, money, rides; no one has come forward to report seeing this young man buy a rope.

The family deserves far more information than what has been provided to them.[/QUOTE]

I am not sure if his death was as a result of nefarious circumstances. But, we have seen people who committed suicide after encouragement or conversations that led them to be more hopeless. This man gets out of treatment, doesn't have his car or possessions, left at a place that is not his home, etc. It may not have been someone who was encouraging him toward this path (early reports was that it was his staff sgt who dropped him off) but it certainly takes a vulnerable man and gives him a stark jolt that he is forever changed and alone in the world. Or, could have been that he was encouraged. As he is an adult, no one can corral him or insert themselves into his decision-making so, we won't ever know.

That said, this is one more example of unclear circumstances from a base and military actors that seems off and tone deaf to the needs of their workers/soldiers. Too many things happen at this base for their not to be some issues with support, legal vs illegal behaviors, and oversight.

The moms are right--- the lack of transparency in these legal/moral/physical crisis gives rise to the idea that the whole place can be a danger to their children. The base has reporting systems that don't seem to be connected to keeping these people safe.

 

[Moonbeam456]

The articles are saying it appears he had been deceased for a while. I just Googled the spot where his body was found and I’m finding it very hard to believe that a body could be there for a long period of time without being seen, this is not a wooded area.

 

[bettyboop]

This breaks my heart. Thank you for your service Sgt. Fernandes.
My sympathies to his family.

 

[bombardier]

rest in peace EF ❤ im hoping the SA investigation and case will still carry on, and if possible, charges will be raised im not familiar with cases such as this, can you be charged with contributing to a suicide or something of the like?

 

[kelsie]

In this case, not having access to his family at a time of crisis may have been an added stressor.

He was in contact with his mother throughout his hospitalization.

 

[Backstroke10]

In my experience, in behavioral management settings clients don't have access to their cell phones. Limited external access means that the clinic/hospital has a fuller picture of the client as it is easier to monitor calls--who is getting called and when (not the content of the call in my experience) or calling to get someone to take you away from the facility, etc.

In this case, not having access to his family at a time of crisis may have been an added stressor.

I thought I read that his phone was with his car and other belongings.

Thank you for this information. I guess it makes sense about the phone but I wish he could have talked to his mom during his hospital stay.
MOO I haven’t teared up on a case in a long time but I cried yesterday. I believe the Mom when she says he wouldn’t have done this. Of course I could be wrong and we may never know the truth but I’m having a problem with how he got 30 miles away. What did he use to hang himself? Where is the location exactly and could he have been there so many days without being seen? MOO

 

[Tracey4AU]

So freaking sad and simultaneously disturbing. I am so sorry for his family and I’m glad they are demanding answers, no matter what they may be. Godspeed, Elder.