The Shocking Truth Behind a Troubled US Army Base: Disappearances, Violent Incidents, and Drug Activity

The military base where the New Orleans terrorist and Cybertruck bomber once worked has a dark and sinister past.

At the beginning of 2025, a violent incident occurred where Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, aged 42, deliberately ran over and killed 14 people who were celebrating in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. Shortly after, Livelsberger detonated an explosive device near a Tesla EV outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day, thankfully causing no injuries in what appeared to be a terrorist act carried out in the form of a suicide attack.

Ideologically, the two individuals were polar opposites – Jabbar espoused Islamist beliefs and harbored a deep hatred for the Western world, while Livelsberger seemed to be a troubled patriot. However, there was a common factor that linked these two perpetrators.

Both Jabbar and Livelsberger were former military personnel residing at Fort Liberty, the largest military installation in North Carolina. This base has a history marred by incidents of violence, including killings, suicides, widespread drug abuse, human trafficking, and unexplained disappearances that date back many years.

Multiple servicemen and military wives who live on base revealed to DailyMail.com the squalid housing conditions, with toxic black mold infesting their living quarters, and a toxic culture that drove people to psychological breaks.

Hazing rituals have also been conducted in the shadows of the barracks, with one soldier taking his life after being harassed over his Chinese ancestry.

Data for deaths on the base is limited, but records show there were 41 suicides and 109 homicides reported from 2020 to 2021 alone.

One of those was Private 2nd Class Caleb Smither, who at age 19 died in his barracks following head trauma during training. His mother told DailyMail.com: ‘My son died in his barracks and was left there for six and a half days before leadership found him.

‘They informed me, a week after I had already been planning an open casket, that he was too decomposed to be viewable. 

‘What an absolute disgrace to them. Caleb was discovered in the fifth stage of decomposition, petrified and mummified at 19.’

Livelsberger had been at the base as recently as November 2024 and was being treated for depression before killing himself when he detonated a Cybertruck packed with explosives.

Meanwhile, a 2013 photo on the 82nd Airborne’s Facebook page shows Jabbar working as an IT specialist at the base while attending Campbell University from 2012 to 2014.

Fellow soldiers of Jabbar were shocked by his action, leaving them baffled to what led him to commit such atrocities.

The two men’s actions and their connection to Fort Liberty has many Americans asking what is going on at the base.

The base is home to the 4th Psychological Operations Group (POG), which conducts ‘influence activities to target psychological vulnerabilities and create or intensify fissures, confusion, and doubt in adversary organizations.’ 

After the 10 day assessment, soldiers are put through 41 weeks of physically and mentally demanding training, called the PSYOP Qualification Course.

The last few months see soldiers learn how to use propaganda and other methods to influence the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of a target audience, often in an enemy territory.

Reports about violence within the housing date back for at least a decade.

In 2012, Pvt. Danny Chen was a victim of hazing and committed suicide because he was abused for being Chinese. Chen was mocked, embarrassed and physically abused by a fellow soldier.

And a year later, two Navy SEALs and two Marines were charged with the death of an Army Green Beret in what appeared as another act of hazing. 

Charging documents described how the four men broke into a Green Beret’s bedroom while he was sleeping, bound him with duct tape and put him into a choke hold. 

Drug abuse is also running rampant on the base with over 15,000 service members overdosing from 2017 to 2021. Then there are the mysterious deaths the plague Fort Liberty.

At least 44 soldiers lost their lives to suicide and homicide in 2020, starting with Smither’s death. 

Smither, who had joined the military just seven months earlier, was stationed at Fort Liberty for only seven weeks before his death.

On January 9, he suffered a severe head injury while working on a track line vehicle called a Deuce.

‘The young lady working with him told me he kept coming in and out of consciousness and hitting his head,’ Baker, said.

She explained her son had to be wheelchaired into Womack Army Medical Center on January 15, where medical staff identified sinus opacification, likely fluid buildup in his sinus cavities.

His last known call was made on January 15, after which there was ‘radio silence,’ Baker explained.

Daniel K.R. Maharaj, Baker’s attorney from Solomon, Maharaj & Kasimati, P.A., described the events leading to Smither’s death as grossly negligent.

‘Caleb was placed on medical quarters, meaning he couldn’t leave his room,’ Maharaj said.

‘That whole weekend—Martin Luther King weekend—no one brought him food or water, and no one knocked on his door to check on him.’

‘The first thing the Army secretary told me was, ‘I’m sorry, the Army failed you and your son,’ Baker said.

‘The second thing she told me was, ‘Nobody checked on your son.’

In December 2024, Baker received a multimillion-dollar settlement in a medical malpractice case against the Army for negligent care at Womack.

Pvt. Jamie Wyatt Boger, 25, was also found unresponsive in his barracks room two months after Smither. His cause of death has not been released.

And in May, Army paratrooper Spc Enrique Roman-Martinez, 21, was murdered during a camping trip with his fellow soldiers.

His head washed up on a beach a week later, but the rest of the slain paratrooper’s body has not been recovered to this day.

Unexplained deaths are not just found among soldiers on the base, but also their children.

Approximately 12 infants died from 2006 to 2007 after parents said their babies were not ill, but suddenly stopped breathing.

The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command (CID) opened an investigation into the deaths in 2010, as parents suspected the toxic Chinese drywall was to blame.

Research has shown that certain drywall contains high levels of sulfide, and the gases it emits may be responsible for health issues as well as the corrosion of copper wiring, air-conditioner coils, and other metal objects.

Tests ruled out the environmental structure of the homes as the cause of death. CID declined DailyMail.com’s request for comment.

Sgt. Armando Garza and his then-wife, Brittany, lost their four-month-old son, Jaxson, in 2007.

‘My wife called me, crying hysterically,’ Garza said. ‘She found him lying on his stomach and not breathing. He didn’t show any signs of illness that I remember.

‘The autopsy suggested possible exposure to black mold, though conclusive evidence was lacking,’ Garza explained. We tried to prove it came from the cheap drywall in the home, but it wasn’t definitive.

‘I think it was mold—spores circulating through the air from the fan under the carpet where maintenance had dumped water. I also think there was mold in the walls.’

Military families on base have also been forced to live in mold-infested homes, leaving them and their children ill. 

Fort Liberty has more than 6,000 homes across nine communities managed by Corvias, a private housing contractor, where military wives claimed that they are living with mold-infested homes.

Robyn Mack I VP, Military Stakeholder Relations for Corvias told DailyMail.com: ‘I was able to check with our local property management team at Fort Liberty – we are not aware of any resident concerns regarding the potential presence of mold that have not been addressed.

‘100% follow-up inspections following completion of the work by our own QA/QC professionals; and 100% follow-up inspections by the Army Housing Office regarding any alleged mold or moisture work order.’

Corvias was hit with a $5 million lawsuit in 2020, alleging the company ‘conspired to conceal potentially harmful environments and structural housing defects from unsuspecting service members and their families, and failed to comply with applicable building and housing codes,’ according to the suit.

In January 2024, Corvias reportedly began settling the lawsuit, according to ABC 11. 

The company also said at the time that Fort Liberty is one of six installations it’s investing $560 million for home improvements.

Corvias declined to comment on the status of the lawsuit. 

A military wife claimed her health was compromised when a wall in her home was opened to investigate mold.

‘When they opened the wall with no preparation or warning, I became very ill,’ she stated.

‘I was coughing so intensely that my hernia shifted. You could see the bulge, and I had to push it back myself. I ended up with pneumonia afterward. Our whole family has had more chest-related viral illnesses than ever before.’

Another military wife claimed Corvias was supposed to fix mold issues in their home, which had caused the back door to rot.

‘They were also supposed to fix our front entrance because that area was super dangerous to walk out of, and my kid sustained multiple injuries because of it,’ she said.

‘It took three injuries for them to come out and fix it. I was the third person to fall, and I ended up pulling a muscle and injuring myself while pregnant.’

Melissa Godoy, a military wife who has lived on Fort Liberty, said: ‘It all falls back to proper maintenance. What I’ve heard from contractor is that they do not have the funding. The ultimate source to blame… it all begins and ends with Congress.

‘Why aren’t you guys giving the money to your servicemembers? You can’t go to Congress and ask them, or you’re seen as violent or unruly.

‘They’re supposed to be taking care of their service members and they’re not.’

Godoy has found ‘an explosion of injustice’ as a military wife for the last 12 years. She has also lived in mold-filled homes while travelling to different base around the country.

‘Service members are living with mold, lead asbestos, water damage, rodent and bug infestations and water contamination.

‘Some of these soldiers and families are living in condemned homes that are not liveable, which are making people sick, and it is just business as usual in Washington DC.’