A Texas soldier who went missing for 11 days earlier this year, and was found a day after his wife’s death was announced, is not a person of interest in the case, military officials said.
In a press release, the Army Criminal Investigation Division cleared Spc. Craig Chamberlain, 23, in Cam Chamberlain’s death in May and said his cause and manner of death will be released after the autopsy is complete.
The statement, which was released on Friday, added that because the investigation is active, no further details will be released.
In a text message Monday, Craig Chamberlain’s mother disputed the Army’s May 25 date of death for Cam Chamberlain, saying the Criminal Investigation Division had previously told his family it was May 23. of May.
An army spokeswoman could not immediately clarify the discrepancy. Fort Cavazos officials announced the death on May 25.
“I’m glad the truth is out and I know there will be more truth to follow,” Virginia Chamberlain said in the text. “We don’t know why it has taken so long to come to light.”
She asked the Killeen Police Department to release details about her daughter-in-law’s death so that “Cam’s loved ones and friends can have some closure.”
Previously, the department referred questions to the lead agency investigating her death, the Criminal Investigation Division.
The Army’s announcement came a day after NBC News reported that close friends of Cam Chamberlain have been frustrated in the weeks since his death that few details have been released by authorities about it.
“I can’t even grieve her death like family should, because now it’s like she never existed,” said a friend, Shandy Eubank.
Efforts to contact Cam Chamberlain’s family have been unsuccessful. Friends of hers previously said that she was separated from her relatives.
Craig Chamberlain, of the 704th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company out of Fort Cavazos, disappeared May 15 in what the Army described as an “intentional” disappearance. The base has said that he was found on May 26.
Army officials have refused to provide any further details about her condition or her disappearance, which was the subject of an internal investigation. A base spokeswoman said the Army does not comment on administrative actions.
Craig Chamberlain’s mother said earlier that a civilian search party found him in the Killeen area, near where Fort Cavazos is located, in “difficult condition.” She declined to provide additional details, citing his privacy, but described her path forward as a “difficult journey” with “a lot of healing.”
Craig Chamberlain and Cam Chamberlain got married in October 2020.
He was assigned to a new posting in South Korea last December, army officials said, but for “unknown reasons” he never traveled to the country.
In a Facebook message to a friend after Craig Chamberlain’s disappearance, Cam Chamberlain said her husband had lied to her about the allowance and in an interview with a local newspaper she said military officials told her he stopped showing up for work in March, though she said she never told him about it.
In the days before her death, Cam Chamberlain told friends that her marriage had become “toxic” and that she was divorcing her husband.
Eubank said her friend had had problems with her husband and family in part because of her gender identity. Cam Chamberlain has publicly identified as a transgender woman.
Virginia Chamberlain previously rejected that claim, calling it “very, very inaccurate.”
