What happened the night Maj. Jill Metzger disappeared from the department store in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan is still a mystery—and will be for an unknown period of time. “We’re plugging ahead with the investigation as fast as we can,” MSgt. Carolyn Gwathmey, Office of Special Investigations spokeswoman, told Stars and Stripes. According to Gwathmey, there currently is no time frame to end the investigation. Since Metzger’s mysterious Sept.5 disappearance, media speculations about the events of that night have run rampant, but none have been confirmed by the Air Force. Gwathmey called some of them “squirrelly.”
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.