Capt. Roselle M. Hoffmaster investigation into her death closed

Army report released to newspaper says Smith College graduate shot herself in Iraq
by The Republican Newsroom
Wednesday January 21, 2009, 5:53 PM
By FRED CONTRADA
fcontrada@repub.com

A U.S. Army investigation has concluded that Capt. Roselle M. Hoffmaster, a 2000 graduate of Smith College in Northampton, took her own life by shooting herself in the head while alone in her room in Iraq.

The voluminous report was released to The Republican this week, 16 months after the Army announced that the 32-year-old Hoffmaster, an Army surgeon, had died while on deployment in Kirkuk on Sept. 20, 2007. The investigation includes numerous interviews with military colleagues and family members, many of whom attested to Hoffmaster's positive attitude and expressed disbelief that she would commit suicide.

As the report describes it, Hoffmaster was found dead on her cot by one of her roommates, the M9 Beretta pistol that delivered the fatal shot still in her hand. The highly redacted report deleted the names of virtually everyone involved in the investigation, but several witnesses said that Hoffmaster had broken down in tears previously that day after being berated by a supervisor for failing to carry out one of her medical duties.



One officer told investigators that Hoffmaster was "swamped from the day she arrived at the unit" and "had about four of five months of catching up to do with a new Army program that she was completely unfamiliar with." Because Hoffmaster was a last minute replacement for another surgeon who left the unit, she was not able to attend a joint readiness training center in Louisiana, the officer said, or to get acclimated to her new unit. The officer told investigators he felt the Army did Hoffmaster a disservice and called the situation "a 'perfect storm' to create tension and anxiety."

Despite her distress that day, Hoffmaster was by all accounts a strong, positive, focused person who worked hard to achieve her goals and put the needs of others before her own. At Smith, she is remembered as a top student who was not easily frustrated. Because of her ethical concerns about doing laboratory experiments on live animals, Hoffmaster chose to work with frozen cells, according to her faculty adviser Mary E. Harrington, a professor of psychology.

Carla M. Coffey, Hoffmaster's track coach at Smith, called her "the total package."

"She had the smile," Coffey said. "You just don't find people like that."

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