Bringing Back Honor When Ensign Andrew Lee Muns suddenly vanished nearly 34 years ago, the U.S. Navy branded him a deserter and a thief. 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 refueling ship based at Subic Bay in the Philippines. When he dissapeared, the Navy discovered that $8,600 was missing from the ship's safe; since Muns had access to safe, officials decided that he had taken the money and run. Case closed. But Muns' sister, Mary Lou Taylor, couldn't accept the official version of her brother's disappearance. She vowed to uncover the truth and restore her family's honor. "It broke my father's heart … He literally had a heart attack three years later," said Taylor." I'm not blaming the Navy for his heart attack, but it was harder than just losing a son." 討回榮譽 當Ensign Andrew Lece Muns在34年前突然失蹤時，美國海軍譴責他是逃兵和小偷。那還是在1968年，美國正進行一場日漸不得人心的戰爭，不斷有船員失蹤。Muns是一位新上任的軍需官，正在基地設在菲律賓Subic灣的美國Cacapon號加油艦上服役。當他失蹤時，海軍發現該船保險櫃中的8600美元也不翼而飛了，因爲Muns可以打開此櫃，所以，軍方認定他偷了錢後開溜了。如此就結了案。 但是，Muns的姐姐Mary Lou Taylor不能接受官方對她弟弟的譴責。她發誓要弄清真相，恢復全家人的榮譽。Taylor說，"這結論傷透了我父親的心，事實上，三年後，父親真的因此事而心臟病發作。我並不是指責海軍造成我父親的心臟病，但這結論對他來說，比僅僅失去兒子更難過。" 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 refused . Eventually, Taylor decided to change that. She turned to the Internet, posting a message on a Vietnam veterans' 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, 'Yes, and I may have been one of the last people to see him." "I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't have stolen the money," said Rosaire, who supplied Taylor with names and some photographs of other crew members. 在70年代中期，在多年等待Muns回來無望之後，Muns家人決定宣佈他法律上的死亡。但是，當他們要求海軍提供一面國旗，作爲家人紀念Muns的禮物時，竟遭到海軍拒絕。 最後，Taylor決定改變這些。她求助因特網，在越戰老兵信息版上發出消息，尋找當年與她弟弟一起在cacapon艦上服役的船員。 她走運得令人吃驚，曾在艦上工作過的Tim Rosaire正好第一次瀏覽此留言版。 他說，"我立刻知道怎麼回事了，我發了回貼說，'我可能是最後看到他的人之一。'"Rosaire說："我敢肯定他沒有偷錢。"他向Taylor提供了其它船員的姓名和一些照片。 Taylor tracked down the ship's captain, only to learn that he had recently died. But his widow told Taylor her husband had been haunted by Muns' disappearance, suspecting that Muns may have been the victim of foul play. Taylor combed through the Navy's original reports of the investigation, and found things that didn't add up. "There were people on the ship who were deliberately lying to create a motive for why Andy would have left," she concluded. And while $8,600 was missing, there was $51,000 left 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. 但當Taylor找到該艦艦長家時，艦長卻在不久前去世了。但他的遺孀告訴Taylor，她丈夫一直被Muns的失蹤所困擾，懷疑他可能成爲罪惡勾當的犧牲品。 Taylor仔細檢查了當初海軍調查的原始報告，發現這些疑問都沒有寫在上面。她由此得出結論，這艦上有人故意說謊，編造出她弟弟不辭而別的動機。況且，當8600美元不翼而飛時，保險櫃裏卻留下了51000美元。如果她弟弟偷了錢，爲什麼不全部偷走呢？ Muns的家人要求重新審理此案，但海軍說這樣做需要有新的充分證據。 到了90年代中期，Taylor找到了曾在海軍調查處工作和最初調查這件案子的Ray McGady。McGady使Taylor得到海軍犯罪調查處新成立的"冷案"組組長PeteHughes的關注。 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 theft 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's defenses 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's huge oil tanks. Muns' 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. Hughes不久就認爲此案的確存在許多疑點。在30年後，此案的焦點第一次從偷竊轉到了兇殺。Hughes召集了一幫調查兇殺案的專家，包括罪犯肖像畫家。他們研究了1968年的材料，着手重新詢問當時的船員。 疑點集中在幾位前船員身上，其中一人叫Michael LeBorun，他曾接觸過保險櫃，他也是最先推測Muns可能做逃兵的人之一。 最後，LeBorun防線崩潰了，他坦白了是他扼死Muns的細節。他說，他正在偷錢時，正好被Muns發現。LeBorun說他恐慌之中殺了Muns。LeBorun解釋說，他把屍體扔進艦上巨大的油箱中，所以一直沒有人發現Muns的屍體。 LeBorun的這次坦白被拍了錄相，他被指控謀殺。 但是他辯護自己無罪，並獲准保釋在外候審。 A federal judge has agreed, in part, ruling that prosecutors cannot use the videotaped confession because LeBrun's 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 EWS 一位聯邦法官作出裁定：原告不能以坦白時錄相爲證，因爲這侵犯了LeBorun的合法權力。沒有合法和可靠的證據，政府不能對這個案子做處理。 但是Taylor說她終於達到了她苦苦追尋的目的。在Muns從cacapon號艦上失蹤33年後，人們在阿靈頓國家公墓，爲Muns安葬了覆蓋着國旗的紀念棺。來自全國的親朋好友和海軍犯罪調查人員目睹了Muns因服務於國家和海軍而被恢復榮譽的這一時刻。
