4 Fort Stewart soldiers charged with Georgia killings

ATLANTA – Four soldiers have been charged with shooting a former soldier and his teenage girlfriend, whose bodies were discovered by fishermen in southeast Georgia.
The four active-duty soldiers were denied bail in a Long County court on Monday. Private Christopher Salmon and Sergeant Anthony Peden, both 25, are charged with first-degree murder. Private Isaac Aguigui, 19, and Pfc. Michael Burnett, 26, are charged with aiding and abetting murder.
The men were arrested Saturday, days after two fishermen found the bodies of 19-year-old Michael Roark and 17-year-old Tiffany York near a rural road. Authorities would not say what led them to the four suspects, but they said they all knew Roark.
“They were friends, if you can call it that,” said Captain Nickey Anderson of the Long County Sheriff's Office.
The defense attorneys were not immediately available for comment and the men's relatives did not respond to calls.
Georgia Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Mike McDaniel said the victims were shot in the head but declined to comment on possible motives or other details of the investigation. He said the killings had shaken the normally quiet community, a district of 14,000 near several military bases.
“It is a very serious and unusual crime to kill two young people of this age,” McDaniel said.
The soldiers were part of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division's 4th Infantry Brigade, based at Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia. Military officials said Roark was discharged from service on Dec. 2 but did not provide further details.
The bodies of the victims were found on December 6, a day after the two were believed to have been killed.
Anderson said authorities believe Roark soon planned to move to Washington state, where his mother lived. He said Roark had been dating York, an 11th-grader, for several months at the time of the shooting.
Investigators said additional charges may be filed as the investigation continues.
“We're still working,” McDaniel said. “We still have a lot of work to do, and it's not 100 percent finished yet.”