Two US Navy SEALs and two Marines have been charged in the 2017 strangulation death of an Army Green Beret while they were stationed in the African country of Mali.
Staff Sgt Logan Melgar, 34, died from asphyxiation on June 4 after two members of SEAL Team Six allegedly broke into his room while he was sleeping, bound him with duct tape and ‘choked him out’, according to charging documents.
Melgar was pronounced dead at a French clinic in Bamako, Mali, where the SEALs told investigators he’d been involved in a drunken accident during combat training – though an autopsy revealed he had no drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death.
The names were redacted on charging documents released Thursday, but a 2017 Army Criminal Investigation Command report identified the SEALs involved in the incident as Petty Officer Antony DeDolph and Chief Petty Officer Adam Cranston Matthews.
The Navy said in a statement that the service members face charges that include murder, hazing and obstruction of justice.
Two US Navy SEALs and two Marines have been charged in the 2017 death of Army Green Beret Logan Melgar (pictured) while they were stationed in the African country of Mali
The service members are also accused of lying to Navy commanders and investigators about what happened.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for December 10 at a base in Norfolk.
US Special Operations Command spokesman Navy Capt Jason Salata told USNI News on Thursday: ‘If these allegations of misconduct are substantiated, they represent a violation of the trust and standards required of all service members.
‘We trust our service members to safeguard our nation’s most sensitive interests and to do so with honor.’
Sources close to the investigation told The Daily Beast that shortly before his death Melgar told his wife, Michelle, that he had a bad feeling about the two SEAL team six members on the operation with him.
A 2017 Army Criminal Investigation Command report identified the SEALs as Petty Officer Antony DeDolph (above) and Chief Petty Officer Adam Cranston Matthews
SEAL Team Six is the special operations force famed for killing Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Melgar didn’t give Michelle any other details over email, instead telling her that he’d give her the full story once he was home.
Part of the intelligence gathering operation in Mali involved a fund used to pay informants.
Two Special Operation sources told the Daily Beast that Melgar discovered the pair of SEALs were skimming off of the top of the dirty military money to keep for themselves.
When he confronted them about it, sources say the pair told Melgar they could get him a cut of the money in return for his silence. He allegedly refused.
It isn’t clear what happened that sparked an altercation between Melgar and the two SEALs at around 5am on June 4. But the sources allege that things escalated to the point that Melgar ended up losing consciousness and eventually stopped breathing, suggesting that he was suffocated.
In a panic the SEALs attempted to open an airway in Melgar’s throat, officials claimed.
When that failed to revive him, the two SEALs told another Green Beret on the operation that Melgar was unconscious, and the three of them took him to a French clinic for help.
But Melgar was dead on arrival. It’s not clear exactly when he died, but he died of asphyxiation.
His body was found in a US Embassy Housing Room, the New York Times reported.
Two Special Operation sources alleged that Melgar was targeted because he’d discovered the pair of SEALs were skimming off of the top of the dirty military money to keep for themselves
Meglar’s superiors suspected foul play and dispatched an investigating officer to the scene within 24 hours.
The SEAL pair then tried to cover their involvement by telling superiors that Melgar was drunk during combat training – or hand-to-hand fighting exercises – and that is how he got himself knocked out and killed.
But it was a bad excuse because the autopsy report eventually came back, proving that there were no traces of drugs or alcohol in the Green Beret’s system. One source even claims he didn’t drink in the first place.
Brig. Gen Donald Bolduc, who is the Commander of the Special Ops Command-Africa, was allegedly skeptical of the SEALs stories and the initial reports about Melgar’s death, and told commanders in Mali to preserve any evidence.
Michelle was apparently also suspicious, three sources told the Daily Beast.
She approached commanders about her concerns regarding his cause of death and allegation that he had been drinking. She also gave investigators the emails her husband sent her about the problems he was having with the two SEALs.
Melgar, who was from Lubbock, Texas, served two tours in Afghanistan.
He graduated from Texas Tech in 2006, and enlisted in the Army in 2012 as an off-the-street Special Forces recruit. He graduated from Special Forces Qualification in 2016.