Senator John Kerry is calling on the Department of Defense to investigate the US Navy’s actions following the murder of a 20-year-old sailor from Massachusetts who was killed by her ex-boyfriend.
Kerry sent a letter on Thursday to Secretary of Defense Robert Dates requesting a “thorough, objective investigation” into the Navy’s handling of the death of Caitlin Trask, of Bradford, who was killed in February 2009 by Darren Mackie, who is also a sailor.
Mackie received a 10 year prison sentence for Trask’s after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter, but he wasn’t even dishonorably discharged by the Navy.
"I want justice for the Trask family. The notion that an active duty sailor could shoot and kill another sailor but avoid a dishonorable discharge is beyond comprehension,” Kerry said. “No family deserves to go through this — first burying their daughter, then being forced to live with the nightmare of knowing that her killer will walk free in 10 short years without even a dishonorable discharge..”
Mackie received an “other than honorable” discharge, but Kerry said that “doesn’t cut it, and it certainly doesn’t live up to the Navy’s high standards.”
Kerry is a Navy veteran of the Vietnam War.
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