A person of interest in being held in
connection with the death of a gay sailor whose death is feared to be
an anti-gay hate crime. The sailor's remains were found Tuesday in a
Camp Pendleton guard shack Tuesday, military authorities said.
August Provost of Houston, Texas was
found dead about 3:30AM Tuesday, said Doug Sayers, a spokesman for
Navy Region Southwest. Navy officials said a person of interest was
being held in the brig at Miramar Marine Cops Air Station but no
charges have been filed. Several sources reported that Provost was
shot and burned.
Authorities said they suspect foul
play, but have not ruled out other factors. An autopsy was completed
Wednesday, but a cause of death will not determined until a
toxicology report is completed. That might take up to 4 weeks.
Local San Diego gay activists have
called for a full investigation, fearing the 29-year-old's murder was
an anti-gay hate crime.
“We're definitely monitoring this,
and trust and hope the military will investigate this in the
professional way it should,” Nicole Murray-Ramirez, chairperson of
San Diego's Human Rights Commission, told the San Diego
Union-Tribune.
Provost's partner, Kaether Cordero,
said Provost was openly gay with close service members.
“People who he was friends with, I
knew that they knew,” Cordero told the paper from Houston. “He
didn't care that they knew. He trusted them.”
Provost joined the Navy in March 2008,
after completing three years of college, to help finance his
education. He was studying to become an architectural engineer.