I smell a fish, but may be quite wrong

Wow, Helmut, you are one handsome puddy-tat!

Maybe it's the uniform.
Welcome - it's always good to have another spunk to drool over.

Here's an old article on Fox News -

Sources: Justice Department Probing Air Force Major's Disappearance in Kyrgyzstan
Friday, October 06, 2006

WASHINGTON ?- The Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the disappearance of U.S. Air Force Maj. Jill Metzger, who went missing for three days last month in Kyrgyzstan, FOX News has learned.

Federal law enforcement officials told FOX News that Metzger's disappearance is being investigated by the FBI, and the center of the investigation appears to be the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. At the time of her disappearance, Metzer was newly married and on temporary assignment at a U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan.

Metzger claims that while shopping at the TSUM department store for souvenirs in Bishkek before a scheduled departure from Kyrgyzstan, someone stuffed an object in her jeans pocket with a note saying it was bomb and to go to a site in Bishkek, the capital of the former Soviet state. Kyrgyz authorities said Metzger reported feeling as if she were in a trance as she followed the instructions in the note.

No trace of Metzger was found until three days later, when she knocked on the door of a house in Kant, a town about 22 miles from Bishkek, and told its residents she had been abducted, according to Kyrgyz authorities. She was exhausted, had her hair cut and dyed, was dressed in different clothes and barefoot. She told local police she had escaped from kidnappers.

She apparently told Kyrgyz police she had been abducted by three young men and a woman in a minibus and held in a rural area about 30 miles from the capital.

"This doesn't add up," said one federal law enforcement source who confirmed that the investigation was taking place.

If Metzger had simply gone absent without leave (AWOL), it is presumed she would be prosecuted by the military under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If she was kidnapped in Bishkek, the investigation likely would be centered there.

The Air Force has been conducting its own investigation into what happened and whether Metzger may have had a hand in her disappearance. Defense officials last month also said her story does not add up.

FOX News' Ian McCaleb and Nick Simeone contributed to this report.




and another on ABC News


Vanishing Major: Runaway Bride or Kidnap Victim?

September 11, 2006 8:12 PM
Luis Martinez Reports:

U.S. defense officials tell ABC News that serious inconsistencies have emerged in the investigation of the strange disappearance of Air Force Major Jill Metzger. Maj. Metzger vanished without a trace while shopping at a store in Kyrgyzstan on Sept. 5 until she just as mysteriously reappeared three days later.

Sources tell ABC News that surveillance video taken in the store contradict the Major's story that she was abducted after someone put a hard object in her back pocket along with a note saying that it was an explosive. The video indicates that she left the store of her own free will, and alone, according to sources who have seen the video.

As investigators gather all the facts surrounding the case, they are exploring the possibility that she was attempting to flee a recent marriage, according to one source close to the investigation. When she was found, her hair had been cropped short and dyed.

If Maj. Metzger was abducted, investigators will continue to work with local police in a criminal case. However, if she left on her own and she was not DUSTWUN -- Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown -- she will be reclassified as AWOL -- Absent Without Leave-- and open to punishment by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. A lower ranking enlisted person might just get a reprimand, but officers are held to a higher standard.

Maj. Metzger is currently at Landstuhl Air Force Base undergoing medical treatment and debriefing. She will return to the U.S. within the next three to four days to undergo further care and debriefing at Walter Reed Medical Center. Despite the fact that she is a two-time winner, Metzger will not be running in this weekend's Air Force Marathon as planned.



I had earlier read some article that people were not supposed to leave their group when shopping, but haven't tried to find where I read that rule.

I've no interest in berating her - just thought the story was fishy. I wasn't alone in that, apparently.

Osso - a strange story indeed.

I can almost imagine her waking up one morning, being struck by the thought that her marriage was nothing like she dreamed it would be and, in a blind funk, just going "off" into another reality to escape. Really odd.

I had read that in the news when it first came out, and haven't really followed it. I guess I figure she had some sort of "break", and it's surely not my business.

As far as following orders, she wasn't supposed to be shopping alone according to whichever of the pieces I saw when I was looking at different articles on google when I first posted.

Whatever, I wish her well.

I wish her well, too. If it's true, it's crazy. If it's not, it's sad. Probably stress-related.

Are people getting weirder or have we always been this strange?

It's an anomaly, but you see it happen. I don't know if it's the US media is all over stories like this or if it doesn't happen as much in other countries, but in the states you'll see this from time to time. Scott Peterson, the run-a-way bride in Atlanta... you have to wonder what their thinking. I mean, how much more complicated is getting a divorce vs killing your wife or running away and joining the circus?

That's assuming she wasn't really abducted.

That's not really me. Gawd.

If you followed your military history you'd realize that that's a picture of Lt. Gen Bonkers.

Hello?

He declared the war on string un-winnable?