About three weeks after the death of a university student, army officials have opened a formal investigation into her mother's allegations that she was a victim of marriage fraud.
Katherine Morris, a senior family sciences major, was found dead in her car near Arundel Mills Mall May 6 in what police reported as a suicide. Col. Mark Murray at Fort Bragg, N.C. opened a commander?s inquiry Tuesday to investigate the nature of allegations against Morris?s husband, Spc. Isaac Goodwin, that he scammed her into a false marriage to obtain military benefits. Goodwin could not be reached for comment.
"She was a loving, trusting person," her mother, Marguerite Morris, said. ?The emotional abuse that she endured robbed her of so much of life ... she discovered it was just a sham to get money.?
Capt. Christopher Foreman, deputy public affairs officer for the 82nd Airborne Division, said Murray assigned an officer to the case after Marguerite Morris spoke with several military officials. The inquiry is a higher level than an internal investigation by a commanding officer, he said, and can last weeks or months.
?The investigation and allegations are being taken seriously by the military and the 82nd. Obviously our condolences go out to the family and this soldier," Foreman said, adding, "There?s a lot of unanswered questions.?
Foreman said he did not have specific information about the case but confirmed that if Goodwin brought his marriage license to Fort Bragg, he could have filed paperwork to receive additional pay meant for his spouse and the right to live off-base.
According to a WRAL.com report from Fort Bragg, Goodwin was stationed in Afghanistan but was granted emergency leave after Morris?s death.
Last August, Katherine Morris married Goodwin in a courthouse in Fairfax, Va., according to her mother. Sam Cojolo, Katherine?s friend, said Morris did not tell him about the marriage until he heard about it second-hand and confronted her in church later that week.
?I think she just wanted to wait to tell everybody that she was married,? said Cojolo, who said he previously dated Morris. ?I?m not even sure if she told anybody else afterwards.?
Marguerite Morris met Goodwin once in August but did not know about her daughter?s marriage until late December. When she didn?t hear from her daughter for several days, Marguerite Morris sent her an email demanding a response, she said.
When Katherine answered her mother around Dec. 22, she also admitted that she was thinking about suicide, Marguerite Morris said.
?That scared me to death but showed me her mental state. It was one of the worst days of my life,? Marguerite Morris said. ?I couldn?t drive there, I was an hour and a half away, so I dialed 911.?
At the hospital later that day, Katherine Morris told her mother she was married to Goodwin, who she said arrived through the Red Cross a few days later.
But Morris said her daughter seemed to be ?coming out of it? and had been planning for the future by gathering letters of recommendation for her application to the Air Force Officer Training School.
?There were so many tomorrows but yet there was this other piece that was so painful, I can't describe to you the pain she was feeling,? Marguerite Morris said.
lurye@umdbk.com
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