Carson soldier kills wife, himself

FORT COLLINS - A Fort Carson soldier who returned from combat duty in Iraq last week killed his wife Wednesday and then fatally shot himself, Army officials said.

Nine days after Pfc. Stephen S. Sherwood, 35, came home to cheering crowds at a welcoming ceremony at the post near Colorado Springs, neighbors reported hearing gunshots at the Fort Collins home he shared with his wife of seven years, Sara E. Sherwood, 30.

An autopsy Thursday evening found Sherwood shot his wife five times in the head and neck with a pistol before killing himself with a shotgun blast to the head, an official with the Larimer County Coroner’s Office said.

Sherwood, called an “outstanding soldier” by Fort Carson officials, was among the thousands of 2nd Brigade Combat Team soldiers who recently arrived at Fort Carson after being sent into combat in Iraq for a year from bases in South Korea.

Investigators say they don’t know what led to the bloodshed.

“So far, we do not have that,” Larimer County sheriff’s spokeswoman Eloise Campanella said. “It is a laborious task; people are grieving.”

The couple’s daughter, a toddler, was at a neighbor’s home during the violence and wasn’t harmed. She is now in the care of family members, law enforcement officials said.

Larimer County law enforcement officials acted cautiously after the 911 call, evacuating the neighborhood and using a robot to investigate the house.

Campanella said deputies knew Stephen Sherwood had recently returned from war and “we didn’t know if he was berserk.”

After several hours, a SWAT team stormed the home and found the bodies.

At Fort Carson, officers reacted with shock and sadness to the apparent murder-suicide.

“He was a hero,” post spokesman Lt. Col. David Johnson said of the soldier. “And today is a sad day.”

Johnson said Stephen Sherwood’s commanders said he fought bravely in Ramadi, Iraq.

“He performed valiantly and heroically in Iraq,” Johnson said.

Sherwood joined the Army in January 2004. Neighbors said he signed up because he wanted health benefits because his wife was expecting a baby.

He went through basic training and then got instruction to become an artillery crewman. He went to South Korea, where the 2nd Brigade Combat Team was stationed, in May 2004 and within weeks was ordered to Iraq with the rest of his unit.

In Iraq, the brigade was assigned to control the town of Ramadi, where it saw some of the worst fighting of the war. The 3,700-soldier brigade suffered 68 soldiers killed and more than 400 wounded.

In a gymnasium on the post, more than 200 2nd Brigade soldiers were reunited with their families Thursday evening after a flight from Kuwait.

The brigade’s executive officer, Maj. Rob Cunniff, said his soldiers are returning to a new post after a hard year.

“It was a tough business in Iraq,” he said. “It was combat and it was combat for 365 days. That takes its toll.”

Cunniff said that because the unit went to Iraq from bases in South Korea, long family separations were the norm.

Johnson said Stephen Sherwood was screened for mentalhealth trouble first in Kuwait and again at Fort Carson. He said the Army is investigating what was revealed in the screenings.

The colonel said Fort Carson is also awaiting details from that investigation to determine whether changes need to be made to find and treat soldiers with mental health or family trouble.

The post has seen more than 17,000 soldiers return from war with only one other incident of serious family violence. On March 17, 2004, Green Beret Chief Warrant Officer William Howell, 36, of the 10th Special Forces Group shot himself with a pistol when confronted by police who were called to his Monument home to break up a domestic dispute.

The Sherwood deaths shocked neighbors in the rural subdivision roughly 10 miles north of Fort Collins. Sara Sherwood was often seen walking the neighborhood’s dirt streets as she pushed her daughter in a jogging stroller.

Thursday, that stroller was folded up next to the couple’s gray house. A white Suburban, with a yellow blanket covering the driver’s-side window, was parked in the driveway, and a U.S. flag hung from the fence as drizzle fell from dark skies.

“She was just like a younger sister to me,” said Steve Johnson, 60, the couple’s nextdoor neighbor and an occasional companion during Sara Sherwood’s walks. “I didn’t sense there was anything really going on in her life that she was upset about. She was just a mild, meek little girl.”

Sara Sherwood had told Johnson that the couple had recently bought a home in Colorado Springs, where her husband was to be stationed at Fort Carson and work as an Army recruiter after his tour in Iraq.

Johnson, who has lived next to Sherwood since he bought the house in December 1997, said he spoke with the veteran once since his return.

“Tuesday, just this Tuesday, I stood out in my driveway and talked with him,” Johnson said. “He was looking forward to becoming a recruiter because it would mean he wouldn’t have to be sent back to Iraq, and it would mean a bump up in pay.

“He also told me they were having a hard time. I thought he was talking about renting the house, but was talking about (his marriage).”

Sherwood moved into the neighborhood in 1997. He built a soundproof studio in his home’s garage so his band could practice and asked neighbors for permission before throwing a party with loud music in his backyard.

“When he first moved in here, he was an acid rocker,” said Jake Kuhlman, 61, whose property backs up to Sherwood’s. “But he was a good guy, cool, one of those over-thefence kind of guys.”

Johnson said the Army is doing its best to help the Sherwood family, and is also working to ensure no other family reunions end in gunfire.

ARMY MENTAL HEALTH PROGRAM

The Army has a program in place to detect and treat soldiers with mental health problems from service in Iraq.

Soldiers are screened in Iraq or Kuwait using a checklist. Soldiers are asked to assess their own mental health, and commanders are quizzed over any problems they might have observed.

Risk factors, including alcohol use, family conflicts and combat stress and depression are assessed.

Soldiers who are deemed to have problems are referred for treatment.

When soldiers arrive at Fort Carson, they get a more thorough health check, which usually takes place within a week of their homecoming. Soldiers are not allowed to take a vacation until the check has been passed. Soldiers with mental health trouble can be kept in the barracks if serious mental health or family troubles are suspected.

All soldiers remain assigned to their units at Fort Carson for 120 days after their homecoming. This allows for follow-up checks and lets soldiers rely on wartime comrades to decompress.