Matt Maupin's Alleged Murderer Captured

Matt and his mother

Friends, I served on the Matt Maupin Task Force (MMTF) in Abu Ghraib, Iraq so the news that Matt’s murderer has been captured is welcome news for me and the other men and women who worked on the task force trying to find Matt and his killers. We must have interviewed or interrogated hundreds of Iraqis looking for Matt and his murderers.

I recall one instance when we captured an insurgent who almost perfectly matched a color photograph of an insurgent on the scene where matt was captured by the insurgents. I would have bet $100.00 dollars he was the man in the photo. When we put the man up against the picture the only difference between the two men was a space in his front two teeth. It was extremely disappointing for all of us at the time.

I also want to commend my team members because we told our commander we would walk to certain areas to find Matt but our commander refused to let us do that. I think I can speak for some of the MMTF members, it was the most rewarding and saddest work without fruitful results that we did in Iraq. It was hard to go back to our compound each night knowing Matt was out there somewhere and probably real close to us.

I also want to commend a few of Tim Bell's brave co-workers who spoke to me despite threats from their employer.

Finally, I want to commend my good friend Bill Engeman and Matt's fellow rowers who built the Matt Maupin Memorial at East Fork Lake, east of Cincinnati. Bill worked countless hours on the project. Bill, also went against my advice, and went to Iraq to help found the national Iraq rowing team. Bill exemplifies the U.S. "can do" attitude. 

Finally, I want to thank God for helping us to find Matt's murderer.  

By the way, at least 200 non-military Americans, including Timothy Bell, who was in Matt Maupin’s convoy, are still missing in Iraq. I would guess a lot of these men were truck drivers who went to Iraq to support their families. Some of them were U.S. military veterans. Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge no one is looking for them. It seems to me these missing men and their families are in a worse predicament than our dead military men left behind in Vietnam.  

Another interesting irony for me is that Matt and I arrived at almost the same time in Iraq in Feb 2004 and we were both from Cincinnati.

Another irony was that I was able to authenticate some intelligence documents we had because Matt used a Cincinnati term “please”. For example, something like “please” give me some water etc. In Cincinnati some people use “please” to ask for something. I think it may come from Cincinnati’s German heritage of using the German word “bitte”.

If anyone reading my blog is related to any of these non-military men or knew any of these men please contact me via this blog. The article about Matt’s alleged killer is below.

A man in Iraqi custody has confessed to killing a U.S. soldier whose remains were found in 2008, four years after he was kidnapped by insurgents. A video showed him surrounded by armed captors, an Army spokeswoman said Friday.

A hearing in the case is set for Tuesday in an Iraqi court, though it's unclear if the man who confessed to killing Sgt. Matt Maupin will attend. Maupin, of Batavia, Ohio near Cincinnati, Ohio, was captured when insurgents with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms ambushed his fuel convoy near Baghdad on April 9, 2004.

Shortly after, a video of the 20-year-old soldier was released showing him sitting on the floor surrounded by masked gunmen.

Matt and the insurgents

Maupin's family held out hope that he was still alive, but the U.S. military found Maupin's skeletal remains in March 2008 in a shallow grave near Baghdad.

Lt. Col. Alayne Conway, an Army spokeswoman said a man in custody in Iraq confessed to killing Maupin. Conway was unable to provide further details, including the man's identity or nationality.

She referred questions to Rodney Ford, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. He did not immediately respond to a request for more details Friday.

An Iraqi judge who spoke on condition of anonymity said the man who confessed is Iraqi and is jailed in Baghdad.

The judge said the man initially confessed to Maupin's killing in 2009, and was tried and sentenced to death. He is being retried, because there was something wrong in the paperwork about the initial investigation, the judge said. (Watchman comment: I suspect the Iraqis screwed up and ignored the paperwork that was probably properly submitted by Americans. I suspect the Iraqis probably got caught trying to ignore the case and the evidence. It will be interesting to see if this guy is Sunni or a Shi’a. )

The judge said the defendant was an al-Qaeda leader involved in the killing of Iraqi soldiers. The judge refused to name the suspect or give more information about him and said no date had been set for the new trial.

If the man confessed in 2009, Maupin's father, Keith Maupin, didn't know about it.

Keith Maupin said that an official with the Army's Office of the Judge Advocate called him six weeks ago to tell him about the confession.

Matt's funeral service at Great American Ball Park

"It was truly a surprise. I figured it was going to go away," he said. "It won't change what happened, but this guy will have to be held accountable soon. ... If that means he's put to death then so be it."

Matt's funeral procession

Maupin, who had fought for years to find out what happened to his son, said seeing his killer meet justice isn't about revenge. "They can't hurt him no more and that's what's important to me," he said.