The Navy SEALs being investigated in the strangulation death of Army Sgt. Logan Melgar offered the Green Beret a cut of some dirty military money he’d discovered they were pocketing — but he refused, according to a report.
Sources told the Daily Beast that Melgar discovered their scheme — which involved skimming cash from a fund used to pay informants — and confronted the two men about it.
They tried to get him to go in with them, but he declined, and eventually wound up dead, the sources said.
It’s unclear when the SEALs were approached by Melgar or if his death stemmed from the dispute. All investigators know is that the staff sergeant died of “homicide by asphyxiation” on June 4.
But as more time passes, holes emerge in the SEALs’ story.
According to US officials, Melgar stopped breathing around 5 a.m. and was rushed to a French clinic in Mali — where he was stationed — by another Green Beret and the two SEALs. He was already dead when he arrived at the facility.
Sources told the Daily Beast that the SEALs, who were in Mali on a counterterrorism mission, claimed to have found Melgar. They reportedly tried to open an airway in his throat, though it’s unclear if they were successful.
The SEALs told their superiors that Melgar was drunk while taking part in “combatives” before his death, a military term for hand-to-hand fighting exercises.
But no drugs or alcohol were found during his autopsy, according to a former AFRICOM official who allegedly saw the military’s official report.
Moreover, in the days following his death, several people were reportedly skeptical that Melgar was drunk or that he even drank alcohol at all.
Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, then-commander of Special Operations Command-Africa, alerted the Army Criminal Investigation Command and even asked commanders in Mali to collect and preserve evidence.
Melgar’s wife, Michelle, repeatedly raised concerns about her husband’s cause of death and his alleged drinking, with sources saying she provided emails in which the staff sergeant indicated he was having issues with the SEALs in question, according to the Daily Beast.
Mrs. Melgar refused to speak when reached by the outlet.