7 soldiers who last saw paratrooper alive before he was found decapitated are facing courts-martial on other charges

Seven North Carolina-based soldiers who were camping with a Fort Bragg paratrooper whose partial remains were found along the coast in 2020 are facing courts-martial on conspiracy and other charges. Officials have said the charges are unrelated to the death of Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez.

Eight soldiers assigned to the 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, were camping on Cape Lookout National Seashore when Roman-Martinez was reported missing in May 2020. Roman-Martinez's severed head washed up six days later, but his body was never recovered. The manner of his death is listed as a homicide, but no one has been charged with his death.

"While decapitation is, in and of itself, universally fatal, the remainder of the body in this case was not available for examination, and therefore potential causes of death involving the torso and extremities cannot be excluded," a 2020 autopsy report stated.