something strange about 'Female Air Force officer missing in Kyrgyz'

[Iconoclast]

dunno if this has been covered here, i did a quick search which didn't turn up anything.

i don't know how much airplay this story has received in the US, but something about it struck me as odd.

usatoday reports on sept. 6th:

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) - A female U.S. Air Force officer stationed at the air base near Bishkek disappeared while shopping in the Kyrgyz capital, the U.S. military said Wednesday.

Maj. Jill Metzger, of the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing, was separated from a group of servicemen while visiting a department store on Tuesday afternoon and has not been seen since, officials at the Manas air base said in a statement.

It said a group of 22 U.S. military investigators and logistics officers were searching for Metzger together with the U.S. Embassy and Kyrgyz security and law enforcement services.

Bishkek police chief Moldomusa Kongantiyev said that, according to footage from the store's security cameras, Metzger spent only 10 minutes inside the store. She later made two calls from her cellphone to a number in Bishkek, and turned off her phone at 9 p.m., he said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-06-missing-servicewoman_x.htm


on sept. 7th the search goes on

A statement from base officials said group of 22 U.S. military investigators and logistics officers along with Kyrgyz police are involved in the search for Metzger, who was stationed at an air base near Bishkek with the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing.

She was dressed in civilian clothes at the time of the disappearance, according to base officials.

Carpenter said that "there has been a lot of progress" in the investigation but could not discuss details.

The Pentagon on Thursday formally declared Metzger missing, a status officially known as "duty status whereabouts unknown," and disclosed that her normal duty station is Moody Air Force Base, Ga., as a member of the 347th Mission Support Squadron. It said she was on temporary duty in Kyrgyzstan but offered no other details.

"I rule out the theory that the U.S. citizen may have been kidnapped," Interior Minister Murat Sutalinov told reporters.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-07-kyrgyzstan-airwoman_x.htm



then on the 8th this article got posted
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-08-missing-major_x.htm
which was re-posted on the 10th with some more information added. i'll only quote the longer one
(emphasis mine)

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) - A U.S. Air Force officer who went missing for three days says someone stuffed an object in her jeans pocket with a note saying it was bomb and telling her to go to a site in Bishkek, where kidnappers grabbed her, Kyrgyz authorities said Saturday.

They said Maj. Jill Metzger reported feeling as if she were in a trance as she followed the instructions.

U.S. officials said the 33-year-old officer was in "stable condition" after she turned up Friday night and had been moved to another American base in the region.

Metzger disappeared Tuesday in Bishkek, capital of this former Soviet state in Central Asia, while shopping at the TsUM department store for souvenirs before a scheduled departure from the country on Friday.

Her disappearance touched off an extensive search by Kyrgyz police and by U.S. military personnel, including 22 special agents.

But no trace was found until late Friday when Metzger knocked on the door of a house in Kant, a town about 22 miles from Bishkek, and told its residents she had been abducted, Kyrgyz Deputy Interior Minister Omurbek Suvanaliyev said.

Military officials said Metzger was a newlywed and had been scheduled to travel with her husband to Jamaica for a belated 10-day honeymoon in the Caribbean.

Metzger told Kyrgyz police she had been abducted by three young men and a woman in a minibus and held in a rural area about 30 miles from the capital, Suvanaliyev told the Associated Press.

Kemilbek Kiyazov, chief of the Chuysk regional police department, said, "Her first testimony was that when she split up with her group in the department store, someone put a hard object and a note saying it was an explosive in a back pocket of her jeans.

"In the note there were also detailed instructions about where to go and what to do. Metzger says it was as if she were in a trance and fulfilling someone else's wishes."

Kiyazov said the major reported that she was met by three men and a woman who put her into a vehicle, took her to a house and placed her in a dark room. He quoted her as saying she managed to escape after an abductor brought her food and she struck him.

Kiyazov, who said he personally talked with Metzger, told AP that her blondish hair had been dyed dark brown and her hands were stained with dye. He said it would be necessary to question her again to get more details, "but Metzger said she really wanted to get a good sleep."

Capt. Anna Carpenter, a spokeswoman at the U.S. air base at Bishkek's Manas airport, where Metzger had been temporarily stationed, said the major was in "stable condition."

Metzger was taken several hours later to another base in the region, Carpenter said, but declined to say where. Manas is the only U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan.

The Pentagon declined to comment and referred questions and calls to U.S. Central Command in Qatar.

The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that "it now appears that Major Metzger had been abducted," but added she was safe and thanked Kyrgyz officials for their efforts.

"We are elated to have Jill back with us," a military statement quoted the base commander, Col. Scott Reese, as saying.

Metzger was serving a four-month stint with the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing at Manas, where the U.S. military has maintained a base since 2001 to support operations in nearby Afghanistan. She had been scheduled to return Friday to her regular post at Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

Metzger's father-in-law, Kelly Mayo, said the major's husband, Air Force Capt. Joshua Mayo, was overjoyed when he was told Friday that his wife had been found.

"I can't even describe it. He's just beside himself, just unbelievable joy," Mayo said.

Mayo's account of Metzger' recovery differed from Kyrgyz officials.

He told AP in Colorado Springs, that the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations had said Metzger was found on the side of the road with her head shaven. He also indicated she had been kidnapped and beaten.

"I know she's coherent, and whoever had her let her go," Mayo said. "We've got her back. Praise the Lord."

Metzger also phoned her parents in Henderson, N.C., early Saturday to let them know she was safe, The News & Observer newspaper of Raleigh reported in its Sunday editions. Her parents said the call left a number of questions about her disappearance, and they still did not know why she vanished, where she was during her ordeal or how she got back.

"She kept saying, "I'm fine, I'm OK, I'm OK," her mother, Jeanette Metzger, told the newspaper.

John Metzger, a retired Air Force colonel, said his daughter seemed to be in shock.

"Her tone of voice at the beginning was kind of distant, I would say, and then all of a sudden, I heard the old Jill come back," he said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-10-missing-major_x.htm



and then on sept. 11 usatoday reported this:

Kyrgyz police: Major's story 'confused'
By Leila Saralayeva, Associated Press Writer

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - A U.S. servicewoman who reappeared as mysteriously as she vanished gave confused accounts of her three-day absence and refused to make further statements after consulting with the U.S. Embassy, a Kyrgyz police official said Monday.

Air Force Maj. Jill Metzger, who had been stationed at the U.S. base in Manas, outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, disappeared Sept. 5 while on a shopping excursion in the city. She resurfaced Friday night when she knocked on the door of a house in Kant, about 15 miles outside Bishkek, and claimed she had been kidnapped.

Metzger was flown out of Kyrgyzstan within a few hours of her reappearance and was admitted Sunday to a U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany. There was no immediate word on what she was being treated for, or how long she would remain hospitalized; officials had previously said she did not appear to have suffered serious injury during her disappearance.

Kyrgyz authorities have said that her swift departure could impede their investigation, because they wanted to question her further to clarify her account. According to investigators, Metzger said an object with a note saying it was a bomb was placed in her pocket in a Bishkek department store, and that she was kidnapped after following the note's instructions on where to go.

"It seemed to me that her testimony was little believable; she was confused in her evidence," Batmirza Dzhailobayev, head of the Kant police department, told The Associated Press.

"After she spoke with somebody from the embassy, she categorically refused to give testimony. Then people from the U.S. Embassy took her away," he said.

Dzhailobayev noted that although Metzger had told police that her abductors had stolen her necklace, she was still wearing an expensive-looking wedding ring.

Also Monday, a resident of the house where Metzger appeared said that the 33-year-old major was clearly in distress.

"Our first impression was that the woman was severely drunk ... (but) there was no smell of alcohol and we then understood that she was in shock," Svetlana Ivashenko told the AP. She said that Metzger was dressed in clothes that appeared to be several sizes too large for her.

Ivashenko said Metzger spoke only in English, which neither she nor her husband understand, so they awoke their daughter to try to help understand.

"Who had seized her, why and were they had held her all this time, she couldn't clarify," Ivashenko said. "As she told all this, she didn't weep - she just sobbed and held her head."

Ivashenko said there was blood on Metzger's feet and that she said she had walked a considerable distance. She also said the right side of Metzger's face appeared to be badly bruised, although Dzhailobayev said "it was my impression that there were no bruises on her face."

Metzger was serving a four-month stint with the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing at Manas, where the U.S. military has maintained a base since 2001 to support operations in nearby Afghanistan. She had been scheduled to return Friday to her regular post at Moody Air Force Base, Ga.

Metzger phoned her parents in Henderson, N.C., early Saturday to let them know she was safe, The News & Observer newspaper of Raleigh reported. Her parents said the call left questions about her disappearance, and they still did not know why she vanished, where she was during her ordeal, or how she got back.

"She kept saying, "I'm fine, I'm OK, I'm OK," her mother, Jeanette Metzger, told the newspaper.

John Metzger, a retired Air Force colonel, said his daughter seemed to be in shock.

"Her tone of voice at the beginning was kind of distant, I would say, and then all of a sudden, I heard the old Jill come back," he said.

Metzger was married to Air Force Capt. Joshua Mayo on April 8 and she was deployed 10 days later. The couple had been set to leave Sept. 24 for a delayed honeymoon, her father said.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-09-11-metzger_x.htm




now all this sounds like it was a rejected storyline from 'The Manchurian Candidate'!

something about this story definitely smells.

it seems like some kind of mind-control device was used on her - hardware which is probably out of reach for your run-of-the-mill abductor and suggests military/intelligence agency involvement.

the military's handling of this incident is also quite suspicious.


any comments?

 

[anart]

It makes no sense to me either - who follows directions on a note put in their pocket attached to a 'bomb'? Why not throw the object away from yourself and run the other direction? It sure sounds like the 'hard object' put in her back pocket was a device that caused the feeling of 'being in a trance and following someone else's wishes' - very, very weird - it makes absolutely no sense.