Friend: Marine Staged Disappearance, Fearing Fellow Marines

[thedrifter]

Friend: Marine Staged Disappearance, Fearing Fellow Marines

UPDATED: 7:10 pm MDT October 5, 2006

BOULDER, Colo. -- A Marine lance corporal staged his own disappearance because he feared harm at the hands of other Marines in his unit, some of whom face murder charges in the death of an Iraqi civilian, a friend who helped plan the disappearance said.

Steve Powers, whose report that Hering disappeared after a rock-climbing accident in Eldora Canyon near Boulder sparked a massive manhunt last month, told the Daily Camera for a story published Thursday that Lance Hering had been searching for a way to avoid returning to his unit in California.

"He thought if he would have gone back to Camp Pendleton they would have killed him," Powers told the newspaper. "He was terrified.

Hering, 21, is assigned to the Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, Camp Pendleton officials said. Two members of that unit pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the April 2005 death of 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in Hamdania, Iraq. Five others and a Navy corpsman assigned to the unit also face charges.

The Marines and the Navy corpsman are accused of shooting Awad repeatedly and staging the scene to make it appear as if he were planting a roadside bomb.

Powers said Hering has not talked to anybody about what he saw, fearing he would put them in danger.

Boulder County sheriff's Cmdr. Phil West said his agency was still investigating and has not found Hering. He said authorities were suspicious of Powers' statements.

"He had representation of what he claims Lance told him, but we have no way of verifying it as fact," West said.

West did not immediately return a call Thursday.

Hering has been missing since Aug. 30, when Powers reported his friend had apparently wandered away after falling while rock-climbing. Hering was due back at Camp Pendleton on Sept. 18.

West has said investigators have obtained video of Hering buying a bus ticket in Denver a day after his reported disappearance.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for Hering on a felony charge of failure to comply with terms of a deferred sentence from a 2004 burglary charge and a misdemeanor charge of conspiracy to commit false reporting to authorities.

Powers also was charged with misdemeanor false reporting.

Powers said he and Hering had been close friends since high school, and that they kept in touch by phone while Hering was deployed in Iraq. In one call, Powers said his friend wanted to talk with him when he returned, and "sounded terrified."

When he returned to Boulder in August, Hering asked Powers to help stage his disappearance and came up with the idea of staging a climbing accident, Powers said.

"He was definitely, absolutely convinced this was the only way he was going to survive," Powers said.

The two went to Eldorado Canyon State Park on Aug. 29 and found a place where Hering left some of his own blood to support the story Powers later told authorities -- that Hering hit his head and was unconscious for hours while Powers hiked out to find help, Powers said.

He said he then drove his friend to downtown Denver and returned to the state park, where he reported the alleged disappearance the following day.

Powers helped in the search for six days before telling authorities he had lied. Authorities described the search as the largest in Boulder County history, costing nearly $32,000. West has said authorities will seek restitution from Powers and Hering.

Powers said he hoped to apologize to searchers, and said he has spoken with Hering's family.

"I violated everyone's trust," he said. "It's a choice I'll live with because compared to saying no and having Lance hurt or killed -- I couldn't live with that."

There is no telephone listing for Powers.

He told the Daily Camera he does not know where Hering is, and that his friend has not contacted him.

The Montrose County Sheriff's Office said it had a "credible" sighting of Hering at a campground a few weeks ago but the sighting could not be confirmed.

Camp Pendleton spokesman 1st Lt. Esteban Vickers if Hering saw something that would incriminate any fellow Marines, the military has policies to protect such witnesses.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Report: Marine feared comrades

By Rocky Mountain News
October 5, 2006

Marine Lance Cpl. Lance Hering staged his own disappearance because he feared fellow Marines, not the enemy in Iraq, his friend Steve Powers told the Boulder Daily Camera.

Powers, 20, who is charged with lying to authorities about Hering falling and hitting his head in Eldorado Canyon in August and prompting a massive five-day search, said Hering was in the company that is accused of kidnapping and murdering a Iraqi civilian last April in Hamdania, Iraq.

He said Hering never told anyone what he saw, but still feared for his life, so with his long-time friend, Powers, they cooked up a scheme to give Hering a head start in disappearing.

"He thought if he would have gone back to Camp Pendleton, they would have killed him," Powers told the Camera. "He was terrified."

Hering, 21, is a lance corporal in Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based in California. It is the same unit that currently has seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged in the death of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52.

Awad allegedly was taken from his home, bound hand and foot, placed in a hole and shot repeatedly. They then staged the scene to make it look like Awad was in the process of planting a roadside bomb.

Another Marine in Hering’s unit is accused of assaulting three Iraqis and then lying about it.

A Marine spokesman told the newspaper that they were unaware Hering felt threatened, that the Marine Corps has numerous ways of protecting those who may have witnessed crimes, and there was nothing to fear anyway because all the suspects in the homicide case currently are in jail awaiting trial.