Family's search for Erik Jorgensen comes to an end

Recent guardsman suicide prompts PTSD discussion
KTVB.COM
by Stephanie Zepelin
July 23, 2013

BOISE -- KTVB has confirmed an Idaho Army National Guard member committed suicide at the National Guard's Orchard Combat Training Center.

KTVB has a policy that we do not report suicides unless there are extenuating circumstances surrounding it. Post traumatic stress disorder continues to be an ongoing battle for many veterans in the U.S. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says as many of 30 in every 100 veterans suffer from PTSD.

Friends and family spent the weekend searching for Private First Class Erik Jorgensen. A friend of the family said Jorgensen is described as someone who loved life, but they can't say for sure why he took his own life out at the Orchard Combat Training Center. However, PTSD experts we talked to say suicide is a risk in some PTSD cases.

A Facebook post was all it took to get Maggie Haswell-Sheppard involved in the search for Jorgensen. She saw a post asking for help to look for the soldier who had been missing since late last week, and she even helped lead the search efforts.
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