No arrests have been made nearly five months after a Special Forces soldier and veteran were found dead Dec. 2, at Fort Bragg, an official said last week.
A spokesman for the Army Criminal Investigation Command said the investigation continues into the deaths of Master Sgt. William LaVigne II, 37, and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44.
Death certificates for Dumas and LaVigne state each died from gunshot wounds and were shot by an “unknown assailant.”
In February, the FBI announced that it is assisting in the case.
“There have not been any arrest(s) and we are not releasing any additional details at this time,” Shelly Lynch, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Charlotte, said in an email this week.
Investigators have asked anyone with information on the case to contact the FBI or Army Criminal Investigation Command.
A news release from the FBI in February stated that the bodies of the men were found near a Fort Bragg training area. LaVigne’s gray 2016 Chevrolet Colorado pickup was found at the crime scene in the woods off Manchester Road.
Dumas’s dark-colored 2015 Dodge Ram pickup was discovered abandoned somewhere else, the news release stated.
Cause of death and court cases
The death certificate lists LaVigne’s cause of death as multiple gunshot wounds. Dumas’s cause of death is listed as gunshot wounds to the chest and head.→
The death certificates say the two men were found about 3:30 p.m. Dec. 2, in the woods on Fort Bragg. The certificates don’t indicate how long the bodies were in the woods.
It is not clear how the men knew each other.
LaVigne was assigned to the Headquarters and Headquarters Company of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and had been in the Army for 19 years.
His death certificate states his last place of residence was in Hope Mills.
Army records show Dumas served in the Army as a property accounting technician from November 1996 to March 2016, separating as a chief warrant officer 3.
He was a resident of Pinehurst at the time of his death.
LaVigne and Dumas were each scheduled to appear in court on unrelated cases in December and January, according to court records.
LaVigne was supposed to be in Cumberland County District Court on Jan. 15 for a Feb. 17, 2020, hit-and-run charge, court documents say.
Dumas was scheduled to appear in Forsyth County District Court on Dec. 17 for charges of breaking and entering, communicating threats and impersonating a law enforcement officer, according to court records.
Court documents state that Dumas broke into an apartment in Walkertown “with the intent to terrorize and injure an occupant of the building,” on April 11, 2020.
The record states Dumas yelled “police open the door” after knocking.
A spokeswoman for the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office said the 911 call for the Walkertown incident came it at 12:54 a.m. April 11, 2020, as an anonymous assault in progress.
Spokeswoman Christina Howell said she could not elaborate on the specifics of what happened because stories of individuals at the scene appeared to differ “about why they were there and how they know each other,” but that it did not appear to be a random incident.
Howell was unable to say what threats Dumas directed toward the victim but that there was enough evidence to charge him with the crimes.
LaVigne also was involved in other Cumberland County cases that never resulted in charges, records show.
On March 21, 2018, at his Anhinga Drive home, LaVigne shot to death his friend, Army Sgt. 1st Class Mark Leshikar. The LaVigne and Leshikar familes had just returned from a trip to Disneyland. The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office investigated and declared the death “justifiable homicide.”
Then, on Sept. 1, 2018, Lavigne was charged with felony harboring an escapee and maintaining a vehicle or dwelling to manufacture a controlled substance. The charges were dropped when authorities determined he was not involved in the criminal activity, Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West told The Fayetteville Observer at the time.
Investigators ask that anyone with information about the deaths of LaVigne and Dumas call the FBI Charlotte office at 704-672-6100 or Army CID at 910-396-8777.
