Family of airman killed at Sheppard Air Force Base growing frustrated with questions on her death

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Family of airman killed at Sheppard Air Force Base growing frustrated with questions on her death

Abbie Carter

Story Created: Oct 6, 2008 at 11:42 AM CST

Story Updated: Oct 6, 2008 at 11:42 AM CST

(AP) WICHITA FALLS – Hours after Senior Airman Blanca Luna was found with a knife in the back of her neck in her Sheppard Air Force Base room, authorities told her family it was "an apparent homicide."

But investigators later asked relatives whether Airman Luna, 27, was right- or left-handed and if she was having money or boyfriend problems, saying they thought it may be suicide, said her mother, Gloria Barrios of Chicago, who visited Sheppard on Friday.

Then an investigator denied knowing about bruises on Airman Luna's face and scratches on her hands that several relatives saw after her body arrived for burial, Ms. Barrios said. Agents also seemed dismissive when two people who had visited Airman Luna at the base said some airmen, resentful of her being a woman in a leadership position, had given her problems, Ms. Barrios said.

After seven months in agonizing limbo and gnawing suspicions of a military cover-up, Airman Luna's family is demanding answers.

"I have come here for responses ... but no responses have been given me regarding the murder of my daughter," Ms. Barrios said in Spanish after meeting with officials at the base. "I feel everything was a failure because I did not receive what I came for. ... I feel there is a cover-up."

Base spokesman George Woodward said he understands Ms. Barrios' frustration but that most details cannot be released to protect the investigation's integrity.

Mr. Woodward said he could not comment on anything investigators may have told the family.

"We are committed to finding out what happened to Senior Airman Luna," he said.

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