‘Failure’: Big call on soldier’s death

News.com.au - 01/04
A former cop and army officer says new claims about the fate of an Australian soldier who died in Iraq highlights the “failure” of his employer to preserve a potential crime scene.

A former cop and army officer says new claims about the fate of an Australian soldier who died in Iraq highlights the “failure” of his employer to preserve a potential crime scene.

Private Jacob “Jake” Kovco, 25, died from a gunshot wound in 2006, shot in the head by his own pistol at his Baghdad barracks in the Australian embassy.

A military board of inquiry and subsequent inquest questioned whether someone else could have pulled the trigger. Both concluded the dad-of-two died from “skylarking” with his gun and accidentally shot himself.

Private Jacob “Jake” Bruce Kovco. Shelley Kovco. Picture: AAP Image/Department of Defence
Private Kovco died in Baghdad.

It has previously been disclosed that soldiers were allowed into the bedroom where Kovco died, taking things out before investigators arrived.

An investigation by news.com.au has revealed new claims that Kovco’s parents received a chilling phone call from an unknown person telling them “your son’s been murdered”.

This call came before the soldier’s identity was publicly revealed ...
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