{"id":45485,"date":"2018-03-28T22:28:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T22:28:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/03\/28\/the-army-marked-this-soldier-as-a-deserter-but-he-had-actually-died-in-a-car-crash-on-post\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:37:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:37:21","slug":"the-army-marked-this-soldier-as-a-deserter-but-he-had-actually-died-in-a-car-crash-on-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2018\/03\/28\/the-army-marked-this-soldier-as-a-deserter-but-he-had-actually-died-in-a-car-crash-on-post\/","title":{"rendered":"The Army marked this soldier as a deserter. But he had actually died in a car crash on post."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Pvt. Dakota Stump<\/a> had been assigned to a cavalry troop at Fort Hood, Texas, for about three months when, on Oct. 10, 2016, he went missing during a break from a field training exercise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His cellphone had pinged a tower in his hometown of Indianapolis, Fort Hood military police told his mother, and he was declared absent-without-leave<\/a> two days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on Nov. 3, some soldiers setting up an ad hoc land navigation course found a destroyed Ford Mustang in the woods on post, about 100 meters from the nearest road, with a body wearing a uniform<\/a> resting several feet away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soldier\u2019s name tape read \u201cStump.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe whole time he was laying in the woods, and nobody would go look,\u201d Stump\u2019s mother, Patrice Wise, told Army Times after he was found. \u201cHe knew going into this that he could be giving his life for all of us, and they couldn\u2019t even go look for him. We were told that we were taking time away from their training.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesman for Fort Hood said that the soldier\u2019s unit had conducted an exhaustive search.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLeaders from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, began a unit level search for Pfc. Stump as soon as he failed to report to formation on Oct. 10, 2016,\u201d spokesman Christopher Haug told Army Times. \u201cOn Oct. 13, 2016, the scope of the search expanded, reaching outside of Texas as a result of additional civilian efforts. The search for Pfc. Stump continued until the day his remains were found on Nov. 3, 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haug could not elaborate on the specifics of the installation-wide search, such as whether units had searched near roads that led from Stump\u2019s barracks to his unit\u2019s motor pool, where he was expected the night he disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wise is not convinced that her son\u2019s chain of command did everything they could to find him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shows me Fort Hood had no real plan of action to take when dealing with a crisis such as a missing soldier, from what I see in this report, and living through the unorganized efforts of many that only hindered them finding Dakota, while they sent his family in the opposite direction for three weeks and three days,\u201d she told Army Times recently. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Pvt. Dakota Stump was killed in an on-post car accident at Fort Hood, Texas, in October 2016. It was three weeks before soldiers discovered his remains. (Photo credit: Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A command 15-6 and subsequent criminal investigation \u2014 recently obtained by Army Times via a Freedom of Information Act request \u2014 found that Stump, who was posthumously promoted to private first class, had died when he missed a turn while speeding on post, flinging his car hundreds of feet into a treeline, killing him as it impacted, flipped and then impacted again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stump, a 19-year-old indirect fire infantryman, had been at the tail end of a four-hour refit during a field exercise with A Troop, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on witness statements and his cell phone records, the soldier had driven with two other soldiers to an on-post shoppette around 6:30 p.m., where he withdrew money for one of the over-21 soldiers to buy a bottle of Pinnacle vodka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They then took the alcohol back to their barracks to drink it. Stump had until 9:50 p.m. to get back to his troop\u2019s motor pool to head back into the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to his text messages, at around 9 p.m., he told his girlfriend he was \u201cdrunk as f—.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am unable to determine whether PVT Stump\u2019s girlfriend believed he had been drinking or not, but there are no indications that she either told him to stop or made any other attempt to contact anyone in the unit and let them know that he had been drinking,\u201d the investigating officer wrote in the command report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stump was already three minutes late when one of his friends heard tires squealing and saw the private\u2019s Mustang tearing out of the barracks parking lot. Witnesses later saw him run a red light, according to the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AWOL<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he hadn\u2019t shown up to his unit or responded to phone calls by the next day, his unit reported him missing to Fort Hood\u2019s military police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early on in the case, theories flew in every direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young soldier, who had been counseled once for missing a formation, was known as a \u201cgood, but average\u201d performer, who spent most of his free time at the gym, with his girlfriend, or with other members of his troop\u2019s mortar section.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, never suicidal thoughts or endangering his life, but he would joke around about harming his feet or legs to get out of the Army,\u201d one soldier said when an investigator asked whether Stump had exhibited any worrisome behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But CID found that there had been some warning signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPV2 Stump made a Facebook post about a month and a half ago that he was going to disappear and nobody was going to find him,\u201d according to their investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the course of the search, Wise expressed concern to MPs that her son might have taken his own life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes I wish I would have went through with what I [was] going to do 5 years ago,\u201d he wrote in a text message to his girlfriend weeks earlier, disclosing that he had attempted suicide before. \u201cI\u2019m tired, mad, pissed off, wanna kill somebody, wanna kill myself, sexually frustrated, in my feelings, all at the same time lol.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also joked about wishing one of his own mortars would blow him up, according to text messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his mother also suspected he had been a victim of foul play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t think Dakota would ever go AWOL or commit suicide or just take off, because he was just going to work,\u201d she told Army Times. \u201cHe was very excited about the Army. A lot of people reached out to me and he told us when he was home in September that he was pretty excited about getting into Ranger school.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after he went missing, she and Stump\u2019s step-brother told a local Texas television station that Stump had been dissatisfied with his experience in the Army so far, thought he was going to see more action, and that he could get out of hand when drinking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AWOL theory took off on Oct. 13, when MPs ran a check to see the last place his phone had hit a cell tower. His phone was in Indianapolis, they said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it turned out, the soldier who ran the number had copied it down wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn administrative error caused the military police to believe PVT Stump was in Indianapolis, and reported that information to PVT Stump\u2019s unit,\u201d according to the investigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But according to his mother, the unit explained it away by saying that the pinging process is imprecise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Wise sprang into action, calling the local police as family and friends searched the city for her son. But the police couldn\u2019t do anything, because Stump was listed as AWOL, putting him in the Army\u2019s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help out, his unit re-listed him as a deserter on Oct. 19. Now the Indianapolis police were able to start a search, but once Stump\u2019s body was found, the unit had to quickly change him back to \u201cpresent for duty\u201d in order for Wise to receive survivor\u2019s benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey said they get wrong pings sometimes, and the lead investigator explained that his wife could be calling from Virginia but it would show up as in Connecticut,\u201d she said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That error prompted an internal review at Fort Hood, the spokesman told Army Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFollowing the Army Regulation 15-6 investigation on the Pfc. Dakota Stump incident, Fort Hood conducted an internal review and changed its procedures for handling cell phone geo-location procedures,\u201d Haug said. \u201cA redundant process has been implemented with confirmation of input by a second individual involved in the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t