http://www.mainecoastnow.com/articles/2007/08/16/courier_-_gazette/local_news/doc46c32f72b9329743674135.txtWALDOBORO — Army National Guard Sgt. Richard Wilkes has been laid to rest but whether his family will find peace remains unknown.
One month after the highly decorated soldier was found dead in his barracks at Ft. Stewart Army Base in Georgia his mother, Dixie Sproul, still wants to know why her son died. Sproul and her daughter-in-law, Jennifer Lacrosse, question whether Wilkes received proper oversight while at the army base’s medical facility.
They say Wilkes was prescribed methadone to treat a back injury he sustained in a Humvee accident while serving as an automatic machine gunner in Afghanistan. He later took himself off the powerful pain killer because he didn’t like the side effects, Lacrosse said.
“The medical examiner’s report came back saying he was perfectly healthy,” Lacrosse said. “There is no reason why a 36-year-old healthy man died in his sleep. This family needs to know what happened. His last words to his mother were that ‘they will take good care of me.’”