Widow's War - Encore
This episode appears to contain dynamically inserted ads. Transcript timestamps may be approximate.
48 hours presents. He was strikingly handsome. His eyes were absolutely gorgeous, piercing blue. And I'm thankful enough to have those as well. My dad, Mike Stalman, was a colonel in the Marine Corps. He devoted his life to his country. He was a patriot. Everybody says he is the poster boy for the Marine Corps. He graduated first in his class. He was a backseater and an RF4. Then he went to law school. It was a star there. And then before getting out of the Marines, because of his commitment to his country, I knew he had to serve in Iraq. This was my soulmate. He'd done so much. It was worldly. He was kind. I should have told him I'd go. In 2008, my father was found with a gunshot wound to the left temple in his room while he was on tour in Iraq. Authorities concluded that it was a suicide. The military says that my husband committed suicide, but I know it was murder. I just do not believe that he pulled that trigger. All of the evidence that I have and all of the reconstruction I've done point to this being a homicide. I see no evidence of homicide in the materials provided to me whatsoever. The evidence shows there's no way he could have done what they said he did. I think she was viewed as a frenzied, unbalanced widow, unwilling to accept that her husband had taken his life. It was not a suicide. There's no evidence to support anything other than a suicide. If this was a suicide, I would have to accept it and move on, but it's hard when you know that that's not what it was. The truth needs to come out. You have to be strong as a military wife. For more than 10 years, Kim Stalman has been at war. With a small group of allies, she's targeting the toughest hill in Washington, D.C., Capitol Hill. All I've ever done is tell them that I want the truth. She says she's trying to honor the legacy of her husband, Colonel Michael Stalman, one of the highest ranking American fatalities in the Iraq war. This is a guy that gave us all. Colonel Stalman was a decorated Marine, a flight officer and a military lawyer. In July 2008, just weeks from going home for R&R, he was found with a gunshot wound to the head on a Ramadi military base. The Armed Forces medical examiner ruled it a suicide, but Kim has never believed her husband shot himself. It was not self-inflicted. Absolutely not.
Transcription truncated.
"48 Hours" Presents: A Marine colonel is found shot in his bunk. Authorities say it was a suicide, his wife says it was murder -- and she is determined to prove it. "48 Hours correspondent Peter Van Sant investigates.