Paragraphs 5 through 8 read:  “Investigators found the
23-year old’s body and along with the body of 20-year old Waide James of Port
St. John in Brevard County in their apartment just outside Ft. Drum in New York.
The two failed to report for duty on base.

Police say the Army Specialists had been stabbed to death.

New York

authorities tracked their other roommate, military police officer Joshua
Hunter, to Ohio.

“Hunter, 20, was expected to be arraigned on
second-degree murder charges Friday morning, three days after the bodies
of James and Valbuena 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.”

Paragraph 11
reads:  “‘He was a gunner and he was active,’  says his father, Jim
Hunter.  ‘He said he saw some things he couldn’t get out of his mind. I
know he was seeing a therapist and taking

Prozac‘.”

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/dec/04/slain-port-st-lucie-soldier-recalled-loving-person/

Slain Port St. Lucie soldier recalled as ‘loving person’ who put others
first

• BY CAROLYN SCOFIELD WPTV NewsChannel 5
  
• Posted December 4, 2009 at 6:18 a.m.

PORT ST. LUCIE ­ Nicole
Aviles will always remember his smile.

Diego Valbuena, a 2006 St. Lucie
West Centennial graduate, had a big grin and knew how to make his younger cousin
laugh.

“He was like the life of the party,” says Nicole Aviles. “He
always had a big grin on his face.”

There’s not a lot of laughter in the
family right now as they prepare for the funeral of the Port St. Lucie
resident.

Investigators found the 23-year old’s body and along with the
body of 20-year old Waide James of Port St. John in Brevard County in their
apartment just outside Ft. Drum in New York. The two failed to report for duty
on base.

Police say the Army Specialists had been stabbed to

death.

New York authorities tracked their other roommate, military police
officer Joshua Hunter, to Ohio.

Hunter, 20, was expected to be arraigned
on second-degree murder charges Friday morning, three days after the bodies of
James and Valbuena 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.

Investigators have not
released a motive, but Hunter’s family says he served 15 months in Iraq and came
back scarred.

Relatives of Hunter said Thursday that he told them he saw
his best friend “blown to pieces” in Iraq and came back a changed man: abusive,
violent, sleepless, edgy and plagued by flashbacks.

“He was a gunner and
he was active,” says his father, Jim Hunter. “He said he saw some things he
couldn’t get out of his mind. I know he was seeing a therapist and taking

Prozac.”

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 an emotional wreck.

“He’d just burst into
tears; spouts of anger or sadness,” she said. “There’d be one emotion but it
would be really deep, just extremely happy or extremely sad. His emotions were
always on the rocks.”

“He’d take his rage out on the wall, or throw
something,” she said.

While he wasn’t violent toward his buddies, he was
toward her, she said, adding that she went to the hospital a couple of times for
treatment of an injured arm and thumb.

She said she moved out two weeks
ago because of his violence and is pursuing a divorce.

Valbuena also
served 15 months in Iraq. His family says he loved his country and excelled in
the Army.

He earned the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal
and Iraq Campaign Medal among other awards.

More important than the
medals was his love of family.

“A guy like him is like, one in a trillion
basically,” says Aviles. “He was just such a loving person, like he always put
others in front of himself.”

Sergio Valbuena said his brother was a good
man.

“He’s a pretty good boy, a pretty good kid,” he said. “He was loved
by everybody. He was a very good brother, a very good son.

“He was always
a problem-solver. He loved this country. That’s the reason he joined the
military.”

In September, James and Valbuena graduated from Fort Drum’s
Warrior Leaders Course, which teaches skills required to lead, train, fight and
accomplish the mission as noncommissioned officers. The two and Hunter all
listed each other as friends on their MySpace pages.

Valbuena wrote on
his MySpace page that he was born in Bogota, Colombia, and had joined the
military in August 2008.

James and Valbuena served as motor transport
operators with the Headquarters Battalion of the 10th Mountain Division,
according to Fort Drum’s public affairs office.

James arrived at Fort
Drum in July 2007, while Valbuena joined in August 2007 and came to Fort Drum in
January. Both have received awards and decorations including the Army
Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraq

Campaign Medal and overseas service ribbon.

James’ grandparents, who live
in Port St. John, described him as an avid outdoorsman who loved
fishing.

James lived in Brevard County for three years before joining the
Army in March 2007. He arrived in Fort Drum in July of that year.

“He
returned from his first tour of Iraq about seven months ago,” said his
grandfather, Chuck Mills. “If he could go fishing every hour of the day, he
would. He loved four-wheeling, being out in the mud.”

Valbuena’s family
is making arrangements to hold his funeral in Port St. Lucie.

Staff
writer Eric Pfahler, Kaustuv Basu of Florida Today and The Associated Press
contributed to this report.