SAT寫作素材35：Bringing Back Honor.

SAT寫作素材分享35：Bringing Back Honor

When Ensign Andrew Lee Muns suddenly vanished nearly 34 years ago, the U.S. Navy branded him a deserter and a thi. It was 1968; the U.S. was waging an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam and sailors went missing all the time. Muns was the new paymaster aboard the USS Cacapon, a rueling ship based at Subic Bay in the Philippines. When he dissapeared, the Navy discovered that $8,600 was missing from the ship&aposs safe; since Muns had access to safe, officials decided that he had taken the money and run. Case closed.

But Muns&apos sister, Mary Lou Taylor, couldn&apost accept the official version of her brother&aposs disappearance. She vowed to uncover the truth and restore her family&aposs honor. "It broke my father&aposs heart … He literally had a heart attack three years later," said Taylor." I&aposm not blaming the Navy for his heart attack, but it was harder than just losing a son."

In the mid-1970s, after years of holding out hope that Muns might return, his family decided to have him declared legally dead. But when they asked the Navy to supply an American flag to present to his family at the memorial service, the Navy rused .

Eventually, Taylor decided to change that. She turned to the Internet, posting a message on a Vietnam veterans&apos message board looking for sailors who served with her brother on the Cacapon.

In a stroke of luck, a former member of that crew, Tim Rosaire, had just logged on to the bulletin board for the first time.

"I instantly knew what it was," he said. "I wrote her back saying, &aposYes, and I may have been one of the last people to see him." "I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn&apost have stolen the money," said Rosaire, who supplied Taylor with names and some photographs of other crew members.

Taylor tracked down the ship&aposs captain, only to learn that he had recently died. But his widow told Taylor her husband had been haunted by Muns&apos disappearance, suspecting that Muns may have been the victim of foul play.

Taylor combed through the Navy&aposs original reports of the investigation, and found things that didn&apost add up. "There were people on the ship who were deliberately lying to create a motive for why Andy would have lt," she concluded. And while $8,600 was missing, there was $51,000 lt the safe. If her brother had stolen the money, why not all of it?

The Muns family wanted the case reopened, but the Navy said substantial new evidence was needed to do so.

So in the mid-1990s, Taylor set out to find that evidence. She found the agent who had originally investigated the case for the Naval Investigative Service, Ray McGady. McGady helped Taylor get the attention of Pete Hughes, head of the newly created "cold-case" squad at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Hughes soon agreed that there were a number of questions that remained unanswered. Thirty years later, for the first time, the focus now shifted from a tht to a homicide. Hughes assembled a team of homicide investigators, including a criminal profiler. They studied the statements from 1968 and began reinterviewing crew members.

Suspicion began to focus on several former crew members, including Michael LeBrun, He had access to the safe and was one of the first to suggest that Muns might have deserted.

Eventually, LeBrun&aposs denses crumbled, and he described in detail how he had strangled Muns. He said that he had stolen the money and that Muns had caught him. LeBrun said he panicked and killed the ensign. Lebrun explained how he dumped the body in one of the ship&aposs huge oil tanks. Muns&apos body was never found.

The interview was recorded on videotape. Lebrun was charged with murder. But he pleaded not guilty and is out on bail.

A federal judge has agreed, in part, ruling that prosecutors cannot use the videotaped confession because LeBrun&aposs constitutional rights were violated. Without a legal and reliable confession, the government does not have much of a case.

But Taylor said she finally got what she was looking for. 33 years after Muns disappeared aboard the Cacapon, a ceremonial casket covered with an American flag made its way to a gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery. Friends, family and naval criminal investigators came from around the country to watch as Muns was given full honors in recognition of his service to the Navy and his country.

SAT寫作素材分享35：Bringing Back Honor

When Ensign Andrew Lee Muns suddenly vanished nearly 34 years ago, the U.S. Navy branded him a deserter and a thi. It was 1968; the U.S. was waging an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam and sailors went missing all the time. Muns was the new paymaster aboard the USS Cacapon, a rueling ship based at Subic Bay in the Philippines. When he dissapeared, the Navy discovered that $8,600 was missing from the ship&aposs safe; since Muns had access to safe, officials decided that he had taken the money and run. Case closed.

But Muns&apos sister, Mary Lou Taylor, couldn&apost accept the official version of her brother&aposs disappearance. She vowed to uncover the truth and restore her family&aposs honor. "It broke my father&aposs heart … He literally had a heart attack three years later," said Taylor." I&aposm not blaming the Navy for his heart attack, but it was harder than just losing a son."

In the mid-1970s, after years of holding out hope that Muns might return, his family decided to have him declared legally dead. But when they asked the Navy to supply an American flag to present to his family at the memorial service, the Navy rused .

Eventually, Taylor decided to change that. She turned to the Internet, posting a message on a Vietnam veterans&apos message board looking for sailors who served with her brother on the Cacapon.

In a stroke of luck, a former member of that crew, Tim Rosaire, had just logged on to the bulletin board for the first time.

"I instantly knew what it was," he said. "I wrote her back saying, &aposYes, and I may have been one of the last people to see him." "I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn&apost have stolen the money," said Rosaire, who supplied Taylor with names and some photographs of other crew members.

Taylor tracked down the ship&aposs captain, only to learn that he had recently died. But his widow told Taylor her husband had been haunted by Muns&apos disappearance, suspecting that Muns may have been the victim of foul play.

Taylor combed through the Navy&aposs original reports of the investigation, and found things that didn&apost add up. "There were people on the ship who were deliberately lying to create a motive for why Andy would have lt," she concluded. And while $8,600 was missing, there was $51,000 lt the safe. If her brother had stolen the money, why not all of it?

The Muns family wanted the case reopened, but the Navy said substantial new evidence was needed to do so.

So in the mid-1990s, Taylor set out to find that evidence. She found the agent who had originally investigated the case for the Naval Investigative Service, Ray McGady. McGady helped Taylor get the attention of Pete Hughes, head of the newly created "cold-case" squad at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

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