Army records confirm that Delta Force soldier William “Billy” Lavigne tested positive for drugs on three occasions in 2019, over a year before authorities identified his remains in the woods near Fort Bragg, N.C., while investigating a mysterious double-murder.
The Army’s Criminal Investigative Division provided me with the records under the Freedom of Information Act. They show the Army knew of Lavigne’s repeated drug use, but chose not to court-martial him.
And while numerous questions about Lavigne’s final moments remain unanswered, the Army CID documents may shed new light on an earlier deadly incident involving the special operations master sergeant and another elite soldier: Lavigne’s best friend, Sgt. First Class Mark Leshikar.
New details in 2018 killing of Green Beret
In March 2018, Lavigne shot and killed the 33-year-old Green Beret Leshikar in front of the men’s two young daughters at Lavigne’s home. They’d just gotten back from a Disney World vacation.
Leshikar was reportedly unarmed, but a CID review of the case raises questions about that fact without providing satisfactory answers, in part because local law enforcement investigators seem not to have sought them out.
Local authorities deemed the killing justifiable homicide after Lavigne claimed Leshikar threatened him with a large screwdriver in his garage and later lunged at him inside the house. Lavigne said he believed Leshikar still held the screwdriver, though police found no screwdriver near the body.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office has refused to ever disclose its records of the case, unless a court order forces it to do so. But an Army official did not find Lavigne credible, according to a military memorandum that Jack Murphy obtained.
The FOIA documents show that CID launched a review of the sheriff’s investigation under a special operations commander orders and after Leshikar’s family requested it.
The CID investigation confirms that authorities did not find a screwdriver during the crime scene investigation, but it says that they found Leshikar’s privately owned pistol on a countertop near his body. The police never asked Lavigne about it and he provided no explanation for it, the investigation states.
The Army investigation failed to turn up new information or evidence to refute the sheriff’s office findings. The investigator concurred with the justifiable homicide ruling. The report also shows that the Armed Forces Medical Examiner in Dover, Del., found cocaine and MDMA in Leshikar’s blood and urine.
Drug use was ‘out of control’
Leshikar’s family told Murphy about the men’s drug use. Seth Harp previously reported in Rolling Stone that several people told him Lavigne was known to snort coke, pop pills, and drink heavily.
“It was out of control,” Laura Leshikar, the slain soldier’s wife, told Harp. “Almost every time I saw Billy, he was strung out on something.”
Leshikar’s sister Nicole also told Harp about the men’s drug use.
“Full disclosure,” Nicole told the Rolling Stone reporter, “me and Billy and Mark all did coke together.”
She said she saw other special operators snorting cocaine, too, Rolling Stone reported. “There were a couple others that were with us … drinking and partying.”
The Army did not respond to Harp’s questions about Lavigne’s drug use or whether special operators were tested for drugs. Harp writes:
Col. Tage Rainsford, a spokesman for USASOC, did not respond to written questions regarding allegations of cocaine and MDMA use among members of Delta Force, and would not say whether operators are tested for drugs. Col. Kara Soules, a press officer for JSOC, also did not respond to questions.
The Army knew about the drug use
While the drug test results should come as little surprise to those who have been following the case surrounding Lavigne’s mysterious murder, they do shed light on what the Army knew about his drug use at least a year before his death.
The CID reports appear to confirm earlier reporting that Lavigne, a master sergeant, frequently used illegal drugs, revealing that he tested positive at least three times.
- During admission to Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg on March 28, 2019, Lavigne admitted to using cocaine and subsequently tested positive for the drug.
- Lavigne tested positive for cocaine and d-amphetamine during a unit urinalysis inspection, the Fort Bragg Biochemical Testing Center reported to CID in June 2019.
- Lavigne tested positive for cocaine and heroin during a unit urinalysis inspection, the Fort Bragg Biochemical Testing Center reported to CID in September 2019.
After the third positive test, Lavigne became “extremely hostile and aggressive” during an interview with an investigator in January 2020. The following month, an unnamed lieutenant colonel said he planned “to take actions amounting to less than a Courts Martial” against Lavigne.
About 11 months later, on December 2, 2020, a deer hunter discovered a deadly scene in the woods near Fort Bragg containing the bodies of Lavigne and Army veteran Timothy Dumas, Rolling Stone reported. Someone shot Lavigne several times in the chest, wrapped his body in a poncho liner, and left him in the bed of his Chevy Colorado pickup truck, the magazine reported.
After Lavigne killed Leshikar, the police never booked, photographed, or jailed him, Harp reported. The county’s spokesman Sean Swain told Harp he had “no idea” whether police tested Lavigne for drugs, but seemed to think it unlikely since he was never arrested.
Authorities later indicted Lavigne on two felony charges in a separate incident, which the CID reports also appear to reference.
Why FOIA still matters
The CID records seem to give us answers the spokespeople wouldn’t—proving yet again the incredible value of transparency laws like the FOIA.
I’m thankful the Army CID’s FOIA team has consistently fulfilled its statutory obligations in providing me records I’ve requested, unlike several other Defense Department agencies, including a handful of which I’m suing for summarily denying my access to vital public information.
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