He Survived Combat in Iraq. Did a Fellow Soldier Kill Him at Home?

On Friday, Aug. 2, U.S. Army Specialist Jacob Ashton left Fort Drum in upstate New York for the five-and-a-half-hour drive to his hometown in Ohio, where he spent the weekend with his girlfriend.

He had made the trip regularly since returning from a nine-month deployment to Iraq earlier this year, his mother, Michelle Ustupski, said. As usual, he texted his girlfriend when he returned to Fort Drum around 8:30 p.m. that Sunday to say he had arrived safely.

It was the last time his family or friends heard from him.

Specialist Ashton, 21, was found dead at the base the next day, according to a Fort Drum news release. Two soldiers came to Ms. Ustupski’s home in Ohio to deliver the grim news.

On Monday, the Army charged another soldier, Specialist Riley Birbilas, 22, with premeditated murder in Specialist Ashton’s death and obstruction of justice. Officials from Fort Drum and the Army’s 10th Mountain Division, citing the continuing investigation, did not offer a motive or the cause of death. The Fort Drum news release included details about Specialist Ashton’s Army service but not about how he had died.

Ms. Ustupski said the medical examiner told her the cause of death was blunt force trauma and that her son, who trained as a bodybuilder, did not appear to have “put up too much of a fight.”

“He was caught off guard,” she said.

The authorities, she added, also told her that her son had sustained the fatal wound in his room and had then been brought to his car. She said his body had been found in the car in a parking lot near the barracks.