Coroner: Veteran killed on I-25 intoxicated

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Feb 13, 2007 by DEEDEE CORRELL THE GAZETTE

The Iraq war veteran killed Thursday as she drove the wrong way on Interstate 25 was intoxicated, authorities said Monday.

Jessica Rich, 24, had a blood-alcohol content of .202, more than twice the legal limit for driving in Colorado, according to El Paso County coroner's officials.

Rich was driving south in the northbound lanes of I-25 about 10:25 p.m. Thursday in Colorado Springs when her 1996 Volkswagen Jetta slammed into a 2003 Chevrolet Suburban. Five people in the Suburban were injured, none of them critically.

Friends said Rich had struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder since returning from the war in late 2003.

"She was very depressed," said Jeff Peskoff, a former soldier who served with Rich in Iraq in 2003 and attended the same support group she did upon his return.

Although Rich apparently was undergoing therapy through the Department of Veterans Affairs, Peskoff said her depression seemed to have worsened when he last saw her four months ago.

"(Iraq) affected what she did in her life," said her former roommate, Sararina Brennan, who lived with Rich for six months after her return from Iraq.

Rich's death comes on the heels of allegations that some soldiers at Fort Carson haven't gotten proper care for PTSD or were punished for seeking care. Fort Carson has denied those allegations, but post officials have said there has been a sharp rise in the number of soldiers seeking mental-health treatment since Fort Carson troops started deploying to Iraq in 2003.

Rich joined an Army Reserve unit in New Mexico, where friends said she spent her high school years in Los Alamos. She was a heavy- equipment operator in the 52nd Engineering Battalion, which served in Iraq from April 2003 to February 2004.

There, she was deeply affected by the suicide of a man with whom she was a close friend, said Peskoff, who was in Iraq at the same time as Rich but did not get to know her until he returned home.

In late 2003, Rich was medically evacuated, diagnosed with back pain and PTSD.

Back at Fort Carson, Rich shared a barracks room with Brennan for the next six months, a period mostly filled with movie-watching and drinking, Brennan said.

She described Rich as outgoing, sweet and a loving mother to her 7-year-old son, who had stayed in New Mexico with his father. Rich also was very self-conscious, Brennan said.

"She always worried about what she looked like," said Brennan, who last saw Rich in late 2005.

But Rich wasn't forthcoming about her emotions, she said. Once, Brennan recalled, Rich wept about her experience in Iraq, but without saying what specifically was troubling her.

"She didn't share much with me," she said. "We probably drank our sorrows away."

She said Rich often got so drunk that she'd black out. "She'd just pass out, and we'd put her in bed," she said.

People suffering from PTSD also frequently suffer depression and substance abuse, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

It seemed to Brennan that Rich was troubled before going to Iraq.

"It seemed like she was trying to hide something instead of talking about it with us," Brennan said.

Yet, Rich also was active in a support group called Vets 4 Vets.

"She was a great listener," Peskoff said. He declined to reveal details but said she was struggling with a number of problems.

Rich said she was in therapy through the VA, he said. "I think she was pleased with therapy," he said. "Was she making progress? I don't know."

Another friend told the Denver Post that Rich was waiting this year to enter a specialized center for PTSD treatment.

Peskoff said Rich was having financial trouble and was considering moving in with her family in California, which she didn't want to do.

He hadn't seen her in the past four months, since the support group stopped meeting.

Some of her issues may have predated Iraq, but the war probably exacerbated them, Peskoff said.

"With every soldier that deploys, if you had issues prior to going, they're going to come out," he said.

No information was available Monday about a memorial or funeral service.