Three and a half years after Joseph Eric Barker’s body was found in a pond at Fort Carson’s sewage treatment plant, Army investigators have stopped looking for who or what killed the Iraq war veteran.

In an e-mail to Barker’s mother, Lynda Carlock of Tulsa, Okla., the Army says investigators still don’t know how Barker died or how he wound up in the sewage pond. Polygraph tests, grand jury subpoenas and a $10,000 reward have led nowhere.

“I agree that someone who knew him knows more than they are saying; however, none of them has changed their story in the last three years,” Army Criminal Investigation Command agent Matthew Walsh wrote to Carlock.

One line in the e-mail has Carlock fuming: “I know you don’t want to hear this but nothing more can be done at this time,” Walsh wrote.

“I’m ready to scream out everything I’ve been holding in for three and a half years,” she said Wednesday. “They’re giving up — it’s just horrible. It’s horrible that they would do this to one of their own.”

A spokesman from Criminal Investigation Command said the case remains open and could not be discussed.

“Also, we do not discuss private conversations we have with family members of deceased individuals,” spokesman Christopher Grey wrote in an e-mail. “Once this case is closed, I will be glad to discuss this death investigation with you.”

Carlock said she’s been told by investigators and still believes that her son was killed after a dispute over a girl.

The Army says almost anything could have killed Barker, from drowning to overdose.

Barker went to war in 2003 with Fort Carson’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team and attained the rank of specialist. He re-enlisted and got married before he was discharged in 2005 because of chronic back problems.

After the discharge, Barker drifted, separating from his wife and moving back to Oklahoma. Carlock said painful memories of war led Barker back to Fort Carson, where he could spend time with friends who shared his Iraq experience.

It was with those Army buddies that Barker spent his last day, partying at a friend’s house on post before going to the barracks with other friends for a few more beers.

He fell asleep on a bunk, where his friends left him snoozing as they left for early morning physical training.

A witness told investigators he watched a man being helped across the barracks parking lot and into an car at about that time, Carlock said.

Barker’s body was found two weeks later by a treatment plant worker.

In the ensuring years, a parade of Army investigators worked on the case. Carlock says she’s worked with eight or more as one agent deployed or moved from Fort Carson and another took over.

Walsh’s e-mail details the agents’ work. Barkers’ friends were interviewed. Informants wearing recording devices were employed to no avail. Agents combed through phone and bank records.

“Every rumor and vague suggestion was investigated,” Walsh wrote. “Offers of immunity were made. Polygraph investigations were conducted.”

A lengthy autopsy was conducted, but damage from the sewage treatment plant erased evidence that would have led to the cause of death.

While there’s been no ruling on what killed Barker, some things have been ruled out. He wasn’t shot, stabbed or beaten. Walsh wrote that Barker was likely alive when he went in the sewage pond.

Carlock says it’s unlikely, though, that her son would have scaled a tall fence to go willingly into the sewage.

“They know he didn’t put himself there,” she said.

The questions pile up on Carlock, but the answer she wants now is what went wrong with the Army investigation.

Scores of e-mails she got from the Army promised all the other questions would be answered.

“I feel I’ve been lied to,” she said. “From the beginning they did not do their job and I think that’s what they’re trying to cover up now.”

While Carlock is upset over the military’s inability to solve the case, she has some hope. She saw the Army quit before, during the two-week period her son was missing in 2006.

“The day they gave up is the day his body was found,” she said.

Joseph Eric Barker Photo by