08/28/12 Cashmere Soldier Implicated in Terror Plot
A Cashmere man is among four Army soldiers based in Georgia who have been named suspects in an alleged terror plot that may have included poisoning Washington's apple crop, blowing up a dam here and eventually overthrowing the U.S. government. "The Everett Herald" says prosecutors think the group killed former soldier Michael Roark and his girlfriend to silence them. Roark was originally from Kirkland. "The Seattle Times" says prosecutors believe Private Isaac Aguigui of Cashmere was the leader of a militia group behind the alleged plot. The Seattle Times reports Aguigui was home-schooled in Cashmere, joining the Army after graduation. He married fellow soldier Dierdre Wetzker at Fort Stewart, according to news reports and interviews with family. Wetzker, 24, died last year at Fort Stewart while pregnant with the couple's son. According to Orlin Wetzker, her uncle in Ogden, Utah, the family was told by law-enforcement officials that she may have been poisoned. A call to Aguigui's parents' home in Cashmere was not returned. The prosecutors in the Georgia homicide case have called Wetzker's death "highly suspicious," but no charges have been filed. According to court testimony, the group used some of the nearly $500,000 in insurance and death benefits to buy more than $87,000 worth of military-grade firearms and land in Washington state.