Alleged terror ring leader charged with murdering wife

Prosecutors say pvt. Isaac Aguigui hoped to finance his anti-government plots with his wife's life insurance policy

Published April 6, 2013 12:00PM (EDT)

                           (<a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-150571p1.html'>Andrey Burmakin</a> via <a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/'>Shutterstock</a>)
(Andrey Burmakin via Shutterstock)

This article was originally published by The Southern Poverty Law Center.

The Southern Poverty Law Center Pvt. Isaac Aguigui, the alleged ringleader of a murderous antigovernment group, was charged today by the United States Army with killing his wife, who was several months pregnant when she was found dead in their home on the Fort Stewart military base in Georgia nearly two years ago.

The 21-year-old Aguigui, according to Georgia state prosecutors, funded his dreams of overthrowing the government through a campaign of political assassination and other acts of terror with money from a $500,000 life insurance policy he received after the “highly suspicious” death in July 2011 of his wife, Deirdre, an army sergeant who had served a tour of duty in Iraq as a linguist.

While the army has been investigating Sgt. Aguigui’s death for nearly two years, military officials released no further details, according to The Associated Press.

Following his wife’s death, Aguigui and his followers spent $87,000 on military-grade weapons and bomb-making material.

Aguigui, of Cashmere, Wash., has been jailed since December 2011, when he and three other active-duty soldiers were charged by state authorities with the slaying of former soldier Michael Roark, 19, and his girlfriend, Tiffany York, 17, a high school junior.

The young couple was lured to the Georgia woods and killed, according to prosecutor Isabel Pauley, to ensure the secrecy of the terrorist plans of the group known as Forever Enduring Always Ready, or simply F.E.A.R.

“The state of Georgia is thrilled by this development,” Pauley told Hatewatch today. “The cases are interrelated. It’s going to greatly assist our case.”


By Don Terry

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Associated Pres Georgia Southern Poverty Law Center Terrorism United States Army