Soldier Who Died While Skype Chatting Was Not Shot, Army Says - East Idaho News
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Soldier Who Died While Skype Chatting Was Not Shot, Army Says

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Getty 050412 SoldierMemorial?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1336407166485iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — A soldier who died in Afghanistan while Skype chatting with his wife in America did not have a bullet wound, military officials said Monday despite the wife’s claim that he had been shot.

The Army’s Army Criminal Investigative Command came to its conclusion following an autopsy of Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark.

“Agents conducting the investigation, found no trauma to the body beyond minor abrasions and a possible broken nose most likely caused from Captain Clark striking his face on his desk when he collapsed,” the command’s spokesman Chris Grey said in a statement Monday morning.

“We do not suspect foul play in the death of Captain Clark at this point in our ongoing investigation,” Grey said.

Clark’s wife, Susan Orellana-Clark, previously described chatting with her husband on April 30 when the soldier suddenly fell forward and she saw a bullet hole in a closet behind him.

“During the Skype conversation on April 30, 2012, there was no sign that CPT Clark was in any discomfort, nor did he indicate any alarm. Then CPT Clark was suddenly knocked forward. The closet behind him had a bullet hole in it,” Orellana-Clark’s statement read.

The Skype video link continued for about two hours as Clark’s family tried to get help, according to the statement.

“After two hours and many frantic phone calls by Mrs. Clark, two military personnel arrived in the room and appeared to check his pulse, but provided no details about his condition to his wife,” she wrote.

The Army’s statement Monday insisted that Clark had not been shot, and that the Army believed that there was no foul play in Clark’s death.

In an earlier statement, the family said Clark was a “model father, husband, family member, U.S. Army Chief Nurse, and American citizen.”

He is survived by his wife and two daughters, ages 3 and 9.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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