Denisha Montgomery: Assault Report, Suicide Ruling, and Missing Footage

Specialist Denisha Montgomery Smith, a 27-year-old Army military police officer, was found dead in her barracks room at Lucius D. Clay Kaserne in Wiesbaden, Germany, on August 9, 2022. The Army ruled the death of Denisha Montgomery a suicide, but her family says she was beaten by fellow soldiers three weeks earlier, feared for her life, and died under circumstances the Army has not adequately explained.¹²

Montgomery Smith was assigned to the 139th Military Police Company out of Fort Stewart, Georgia. Her unit was scheduled to return to the United States at the end of September 2022. She was a mother and, according to her family, wanted to come home.¹²

The Assault She Reported Three Weeks Before Her Death

On July 18, 2022, Montgomery Smith told her family she had been attacked by fellow soldiers inside a vehicle while the group was returning to base from a water park. She said she was choked during the attack and told her assailants she could not breathe. One of the alleged attackers recorded video of the incident.³²

The next day, she held a video call with her family and showed bruises and swelling on her face, arms, and thighs, along with what the family described as a cigarette burn on her shoulder. Her sister, Brooklyn Harris, later told ABC News that Montgomery Smith appeared visibly injured and said she was “scared for her life.”² She also recorded a 13-minute video describing the assault.⁴

According to Stars and Stripes, Montgomery Smith alleged four fellow military police officers took part in the attack, and a first sergeant in her command discouraged her from filing a formal report.³ She tried to file a report with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division and later told her family that CID warned she could also face charges if she moved forward.⁵ She had separately reported the sexual assault of another female soldier in her platoon.

How She Was Found and What the Army Concluded

Montgomery Smith was found unresponsive in her barracks room on August 9, 2022. Stars and Stripes reported she was hanging from a military-issued belt.³ The Armed Forces Medical Examiner System ruled the cause of death suicide. The Army’s roughly 1,500-page CID report cited “evidence of a ligature mark and an associated ligature furrow on the neck” as the basis for that determination.²

The Army acknowledged that a physical altercation had occurred before her death but characterized it as physical, not sexual. Army spokeswoman Cynthia O. Smith said “a comprehensive and independent law enforcement investigation did not uncover any reports of sexual assault by Spc. Montgomery nor any evidence to support such an allegation.”² The report did not name any suspects in the prior physical attack.

The Missing Security Camera Footage

Department of Defense records confirmed that no base security camera recordings were captured from July 18, 2022, the day of the alleged assault, through the morning of August 11, 2022, two days after Montgomery Smith’s death. That gap covers the entire window between the reported attack and her death and leaves no video record of who may have entered or exited her barracks room the night she died.²

Lindsey Knapp, the attorney representing the family, alleged that Montgomery Smith’s supervisor turned off the cameras that would have recorded activity near her room the night she died. The Army’s investigative report did not publicly address that allegation or identify the supervisor by name, and no disciplinary action tied to the camera gap has been reported.²

Why the Family Rejects the Suicide Ruling

Montgomery Smith’s family has disputed the Army’s conclusion from the start. Her aunt, Tomeka Light, a Purple Heart veteran, accused the Army of trying to “cover down and protect the soldiers that were actually assaulting Denisha,” and compared the attack to the killing of George Floyd because her niece said she could not breathe.⁶

The family points to several specific problems with the official account:

Security footage is missing for the entire period between the reported assault and her death.
The Army has not named any suspects in the physical attack it acknowledges took place.
Montgomery Smith told her family she had been discouraged from reporting the assault and warned she could face charges herself.
The Army issued an order forbidding the family from contacting the soldiers she accused of attacking her.²

The Push for an Independent Investigation

The family is represented by Lindsey Knapp, an Army veteran and executive director of the nonprofit Combat Sexual Assault.⁷ Knapp has said Montgomery Smith’s case is “not unusual” and has drawn comparisons to the 2020 killing of Specialist Vanessa Guillén at Fort Hood.⁴

In December 2022, Senator Charles Grassley requested a complete copy of the CID report, called the allegations “disturbing,” and set a December 20 deadline for its release.³ The family and Knapp have also met with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and joined rallies in Washington, D.C., asking for congressional hearings on military violence against women and for the FBI to take over the case. As of the most recent reporting available, the FBI had not publicly responded to that request, and no congressional hearings focused on Montgomery Smith’s death had been scheduled.² The family has raised money through GoFundMe to fund an independent investigation, noting that the only inquiry to date was conducted by the Army itself.⁸

The Broader Pattern

Montgomery Smith’s case has been raised alongside longer-running concerns about how the Army handles the deaths of enlisted women. A 2023 Army Audit Agency report obtained by the Project on Government Oversight found that of 47 Army-sponsored studies on suicide, sexual assault, and related harmful behaviors between fiscal years 2019 and 2022, roughly 89 percent lacked actionable recommendations, and the Army had implemented none of the recommendations produced by the studies that did offer them. Similar findings in 2010 and 2018 audits went unaddressed.⁹ Legislation introduced by former Representative Jackie Speier eventually removed the prosecution of certain sexual misconduct cases from the military chain of command, but Montgomery Smith’s family argues those reforms have not gone far enough when a soldier dies under disputed circumstances.

1
Stars and Stripes. Wiesbaden Soldier Found Dead
2
ABC News. Family Demands Answers in Mysterious Death of Army Specialist
3
Stars and Stripes. Congressional Inquiry Into Denisha Montgomery’s Death
4
Oscar Mike Radio. Denisha Smith Part One – Lindsey Knapp
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Army Times. Family Airs New Video, Alleges Foul Play After Soldier Dies Overseas
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NewsNation. Videos Show Altercation Weeks Before Service Member’s Death
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Combat Sexual Assault. About Us
8
GoFundMe. Justice for PFC Denisha Smith
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POGO. Audit Criticizes Army’s Suicide, Sexual Assault Research Oversight