Marine on the run?

Dennis Schroeder/Rocky Mountain News, via Associated Press

A search poster for Lance Cpl. Lance Hering last
month in Eldorado Canyon State Park near
Boulder, Colo. The five-day search used helicopters,
dogs and hundreds of volunteers before it was called off.

Mystery Deepens in Case of Missing Colorado Marine


By MINDY SINK
Published: September 16, 2006

BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 12 — The story was compelling. A marine home on leave from his first tour of duty in Iraq was injured in a fall while hiking down a mountain with a friend and vanished after the friend went to call for help.

Corporal Hering’s parents, Lloyd and Elynne Hering, at the park this week. Their son, who has been on home leave from his first tour of duty in Iraq, is due back at Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Monday.

As one of the largest search and rescue operations in state history was under way, speculation ran high that the marine, Lance Cpl. Lance Hering, 21, might have lost his memory or become disoriented as a result of his head injury or that a mountain lion or bear had attacked him.

On the second day of the search, investigators began to have their suspicions and have since said that it was all probably a hoax and that the marine might be on the run.
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In the first days of the search, Corporal Hering’s mother, Elynne, wore a T-shirt with the Marine motto “Semper Fi” as she combed the mountains. She later collapsed from dehydration and exhaustion.

Mr. Powers also joined the searchers, with many risking their lives.

Days after the search ended, Mr. Powers confessed to detectives that it had all been a set-up to help Corporal Hering avoid returning to Iraq. Mr. Powers, a student at the University of Colorado here, was charged with false reporting, a misdemeanor.

Calls to Mr. Powers’s lawyer were not returned, and his father, answering a call to his house, said his son was not answering questions.

Corporal Hering’s parents now say that they do not know what to believe and that they fear that their son may be a victim of foul play.

“There is no shred of evidence at all to confirm this man’s new story,” Mr. Hering said of Mr. Powers’s confession. “It may be as completely false as the lies he told us all for 10 days.”

Lloyd Hering is a Vietnam veteran, and the corporal’s brother Brendan, 23, who flew in to join the search, is in the Air Force. The family has repeatedly said that Corporal Hering, who is due back at Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Monday, is a proud marine who would not flee.

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Commander West said Corporal Hering’s access to $2,000 that he owed his parents and his criminal record were red flags. In 2004, Corporal Hering and Mr. Powers were caught trying to break into a store. They were given deferred sentences for the felony charges, but they have now violated their probation.

Why was a convicted felon a Marine? Before this war, he wouldn't have been let near the military.

I bet he wasn't talking to his parents either. I mean, he was a criminal before he went in, the idea that he wouldn't run, well........

I mean, I don't think he sat his parents down and said "Iraq was hell on earth and I can't go back there".

Murder? Maybe, but I wouldn't be shocked if he popped up in Vancouver.