Because the bullet has to cause the injury.". And what about that sheet hanging from the bunk above Stahlman's bed, the one that Michael Maloney claims has bloodstain misting on the wrong side? Kim Stahlman: He sold his motorcycle for my -- first ring, too. Himself - Correspondent, 48 Hours (segment "Truth or Consequences"), Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story in a News Magazine, Outstanding Investigative Journalism - Segments, Outstanding Coverage of a Breaking News Story in a News Magazine, Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking. Kim Stahlman: It was not self-inflicted. So, he helped Kim file another Freedom of Information Act request. Dave Fuentes: A couple other high-ranking personnel … had been relieved of duty due to -- stealing fuel from post and selling it to the locals. … I just remember, like, the lights being dimmed, and I can still smell the hospital room [cries]. He was worldly. Michael Maloney [pointing to evidence photo]: But we have none in this area or this area. © 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Peter Van Sant: Did Mike have any history of depression? Recently, another significant step forward. No. Kim Stahlman has always accused NCIS of not conducting a thorough investigation. He was a patriot," said MacKenna. Before long, word of their war would win them another important ally. Stuart Bowen: It might be the case that the rush to judgment … led to practices that departed from best practices. "48 Hours" submitted its own Freedom of Information Act request, and we discovered it's not quite that simple. … What's the terrible thing?". Michael Maloney: A lot of times when you are over there, you do drop a sheet … It blocks the light coming in from the windows. This byline is for a different person with the same name. Michael Maloney: Well, there was a … tampon found on the floor. Like the photocopies. That something, he says, could have been the assailant's body. Michael Maloney: All those little dots --, Peter Van Sant: This could be gunshot residue –. Kim Stahlman: This is his last hurrah, you know. Morell saw Stahlman the night before the shooting. Kim recently visited her husband's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Gunnery Sgt. Kim Stahlman: Change … the death certificate. And Mark Reynolds says Michael Maloney made miscalculations in analyzing photos of the scene. Colonel Stahlman was a decorated Marine; a flight officer and a military lawyer. Morell says he doesn't see it as a suicide note, either. Suzanna Andrews: I started out wanting to know what had really happened. They declined to give "48 Hours" an on-camera interview. MacKenna Stahlman: He was always such a happy man. Bowen and Kim have helped Cilla McCain and others push Congress for a bill of rights for bereaved families. So, first responders rightly were focused more on stabilizing him than preserving evidence. By a year after the shooting, Kim Stahlman had decided to go on the offensive. Love Mike.

See more of Peter Van Sant on Facebook Log In or Create New Account See more of Peter Van Sant on Facebook Log In Forgot account? ... My father … was probably the best man that I have ever met and might ever will meet.

Cilla McCain: She was grieving, totally grief stricken, but fighting. Michael Maloney [pointing to top of a graph]: Why is the trajectory of the bullet way up here and his injury is here? Peter Van Sant is a producer, known for Beslan: Three Days in September (2006), 48 Hours (1988) and 60 Minutes (1979). They should overlap each other. Missing you terribly!!!" Kim Stahlman: She said, "This is not a suicide note.". Gary Morell: You gotta talk in code … This is something that I could see me sending my wife and I felt I've sent her that letter before. Maloney says the bullet hole in the wall, as seen in the investigator's photo, likely came from the assailant's first shot. Army Medic Dave Fuentes says he was just coming off shift at about 8 a.m., when he responded to a shooting scene. "The evidence shows there's no way he could have done what they said he did," Kim told Van Sant. Mark Reynolds: Transfer bloodstains look like spatter even under the microscope. Like many military families, the Stahlmans moved around the world: South Carolina, California, and Japan, where Kim says she co-founded a counseling program on the base. He says that's partly because Col. Stahlman was still alive when he was found. She is an actress and producer, known for American Masters (1985). MARK REYNOLDS: I think he doesn't understand how difficult it is to classify bloodstains on fabrics. Someone shot him. See more of Peter Van Sant on Facebook Log In or Create New Account See more of Peter Van Sant on Facebook Log In Forgot account? In October 2008, she filed a Freedom of Information request with NCIS, which had arrived at the scene some hours after Stahlman was found. Suzanna Andrews and Mike Stahlman lived on the same block in Chevy Chase, Maryland, as teenagers. But what about the curious items on the floor? Peter Van Sant: Because what can that medical examiner do? Mark Reynolds [showing the diagram]: Did you get that? The bloody nightstand, says Maloney, supports his theory, too, because he says the stains only cover certain areas --.

By the summer of 2008, Kim says Mike was looking forward to coming home for R&R to spend time with her and the girls. Peter Van Sant: There has been speculation that … Mike Stahlman perhaps had a girlfriend there. Kim says she received about 1,500 documents and a small batch of photos.

By the early 1990s, he'd traded in his wings for a law degree. Mark Reynolds believes Michael Maloney made miscalculations in analyzing photos of the scene. A Marine colonel is fatally wounded in Iraq; authorities say it was a suicide, but his wife says it was murder and she is determined to prove it, [This story first aired on March 30. PETER VAN SANT: And the fact that it's on the outside of the sheet, when the shooting occurred on the inside ...  is an indication that someone pulled the sheet down. Peter had 2 brothers: John Van Sant and one other sibling . Kim Stahlman:  He came up to me, he said, "You remember me?" She says she's trying to honor the legacy of her husband, Col. Michael Stahlman, one of the highest-ranking American fatalities in the Iraq War. Suzanna Andrews: The gun is half under him around his waist but pointed down. That explains the hole in the wall. Himself - Correspondent / Narrator / Himself - Corresondent. … the truth needs to come out.". And it doesn't show the conversations we had on the phone.

Stahlman offered to show her around, but she says he was quickly distracted by the triplet baby boys of someone she knew. Mark Reynolds: There is no obvious scientific evidence to indicate that it was a homicide. You know, all these officers and soldiers and institutions who just didn't take them seriously at all. Because the bullet has to cause the injury. Pam Van Sant was born on February 10, 1955 in the USA. He also believes the scene then could have been made to look like Stahlman had been alone and shot himself with his own gun.

Kim says it's also possible Col. Stahlman had enemies closer than he thought. Suzanna Andrews: Kim said right away, "I wanna do my own investigation.". As a cadet, Stahlman was a Marine recruiter's dream. Kim Stahlman: He rode his motorcycle up and that's when he proposed to me. In June, he emailed: "…just 2 more months until I come home. In his interpretation, those particles would be unlikely to have hit that area of the wall, if Col. Stahlman's head had been in the way of the bullet. It could've been anything on that wall. I just was hysterical pretty much the whole day. Love, Mike.".

After her husband's death, Kim Stahlman was paralyzed by grief. Van Sant asked.

At the heart of the mystery: an email that was sent just hours before the gunshot: "Kim, sorry about what you are about the [sic] find out. MacKenna Stahlman: During Christmas it was his duty -- was the cameraman.

Kim Stahlman: Oh, yeah. Find the best way to get in touch with Peter by joining Muck Rack. As for the man they loved, Col. Stahlman's family knows they may never prove how he died, but they will always be proud of how he lived. Kim says she brought the case to other experts who supported Maloney's findings, and she still stands by Maloney.
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Two experts, two very different conclusions. Never. Required fields are marked *. Reynolds says the unstained area on the nightstand is too narrow to be meaningful.
They also provided her with all those photos and thousands of documents, many of which were passed on to "48 Hours." Michael Maloney: I stand by my assertion that the best explanation given the evidence that I've examined, does not indicate suicide. Kim Stahlman filed a lawsuit in 2013, alleging authorities conducted little or no investigation into various aspects of the scene. They married six months later. Mark Reynolds: It was never determined. Bowen was the George W. Bush administration's Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction. Over a long career at NCIS, Michael Maloney investigated some of their highest-profile cases. He says Marines are trained to avoid divulging too much information when writing home from war zones. And they were copies of copies.

Kim Stahlman: Gut instinct is … it was somebody Mike knew and close in rank. Poring over the new photos, Maloney reached a startling conclusion. … I didn't think anything, you know?

This byline is mine, but I want my name removed. And she soon enlisted some important allies: Cilla McCain, is an author and advocate for bereaved military families. And Kim is furious. Kim Stahlman: All I could think of, his eyes. Peter married Deborah Van Sant in 1674, at age 25 at marriage place . And -- that was probably one of the earliest memories I have. Investigators took photos of Michael Stahlman's quarters in Ramadi, Iraq, after he was found with a gunshot wound to the head. "He'd done so much. ". Michael Maloney: This is a homicide … There was someone else in that room. I love you and always will. Mark Reynolds:  My name is Dr. Mark Reynolds. Cilla McCain: I know of 166 families who believe that their loved one was murdered and it has been labeled a suicide.