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Wife: Iraq war changed Drum slaying suspect

ALBANY, N.Y. — Relatives say a Fort Drum soldier accused of stabbing his two Army buddies to death told them he saw his best friend “blown to pieces” in Iraq and came back a changed man: violent, sleepless, edgy and plagued by flashbacks.

Spc. Joshua Hunter, a military policeman, was expected to be arraigned in New York on second-degree murder charges Friday morning, three days after the bodies of Waide James, 20, and Diego Valbuena, 23, were found in their apartment just outside Fort Drum, about 140 miles northwest of Albany. Hunter and the two victims served in Iraq at the same time in the same battalion.

They all were based at the wind-swept Army post near the Canadian border, home of the much-deployed 10th Mountain Division, and shared an off-base apartment.

Hunter’s wife, Emily Hunter, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that her husband was outgoing before he went to war, but when he returned stateside, he was preoccupied by images of his friend being blown up.

“He saw his best friend get blown up to pieces and he tried to put him back together,” Emily Hunter said. “He was never right after that.”

Joshua Hunter grew up in Ona, W.Va., and joined the Army in September 2007. Fort Drum officials said he served in Iraq for a year and returned in May.

In an interview with The Associated Press at the family’s home, Judy Hunter said her son was not the same after coming home. He had trouble sleeping and would stay up for days on end. He sometimes suffered flashbacks. Though her son never talked to her about the war, he did confide in his father about “the trauma he went through,” she said.

“In my heart of hearts, I think he snapped,” his mother said.

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Associated Press writer P.J. Dickerscheid in Ona, W. Va., contributed to this report.

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