(soft music) - [Operator] Clovis 911, what is your emergency?

- [Jasmine] Hi, I'm at the Van Hook Park.

- [Operator] The which park?

- [Jasmine] The Van Hook?

- [Operator] The Ned Houk?

- [Jasmine] Yeah, maybe that's what I meant.

Is this the Ned Houk?

- [Operator] Okay, what's going on?

- [Jasmine] I'm gonna commit suicide, and I want my family to know to not save me.

- [Operator] I'm sorry?

- [Jasmine] I wanna commit suicide, and I just want my family to know that if it comes down to it, don't save me, just pull the plug.

- [Operator] Ma'am, you're saying you wanna commit suicide?

- [Jasmine] I'm gonna do it.

Please, don't let anyone save me.

- [Operator] Okay, why do you wanna commit suicide?

- [Jasmine] Okay, I've gotta go.

- [Operator] Ma'am?

(dial tone) (soft music) - [Thomas] I first learned about Jasmine Lovett's death more than a year ago.

(soft music) Her story immediately resonated with me.

Jasmine wanted to make a difference.

She told her mother she wanted to help save the Nigerian girls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

She also believed that the military offered her only path to college.

(soft music) I had also joined the military as a way to afford college.

I'd end up serving more than two decades.

In early 2021, I was hired to help investigate the non-combat deaths of more than 130 military women.

I was aware that women in the military commit suicide at twice the rate of their civilian counterparts.

In my research, I noticed another pattern.

Family after family complained they weren't getting complete or timely information about their loved one's deaths.

Some began to suspect the government's motives.

They struggled to find closure.

(soft music) To learn more about who Jasmine was, I decided to meet with her family.

(soft music) (knocking on door) Hi, Connie.

- Jasmine was the type of child, she always stood out from the other kids because she was always separating herself from the other kids.

Everybody would watch a cartoon or eat cereal.

Jasmine would watch the news.

You know, she always did everything by the book.

She was very smart, an all A student.

I couldn't have asked for a better child.

- This is when she made ninth grade cheer team.

She was worried about that one too.

This was her senior prom.

This was the date that she did not wanna go with, but by him asking, she took his invite.

She came out pretty, though.

Beautiful.

She always talked about, "I'm gonna get outta here."

She said that all the time.

When she said it, I knew she meant it too.

She was talking about ROTC and all of that there.

And I said, "You think that's your way out?"

She said, "No, I really wanna go to a college.

I really wanna get a scholarship and go to a college."

That didn't happen.

- In high school, Jasmine worked three jobs up until graduation, and then she was like, "Well, I'm going to the military."

And I said, "Jasmine, you going to the military?

You can be a doctor or anything you wanna be."

"No ma'am, I'm going to the military.

I wanna fight for my country.

I wanna change, I wanna make a change, I wanna be a part of the change, and I want to get you out the hood, so I'm gonna help you take care of my sisters."

- When she first said that, I was thinking in my head, like, I don't want her to go.

But I didn't wanna be negative about something she was so determined to do.

But her determination was coming from our environment.

She didn't want, like, she told me, I was like, "Why are you not going to celebrate graduation?

It's graduation night."

"Well, I don't want anything to happen.

I don't wanna break a leg, get pregnant or nothing.

I don't even wanna get pink eye before I leave."

Jasmine went to the Air Force three days after graduation.

So it's like three days is all she really got to just explore herself and you know what I'm saying?

As an adult, and that's not enough time.

That's not enough time at all.

(soft music) - [Thomas] In May, 2015, Jasmine boarded a flight to Texas where she completed two months of physically demanding basic training.

(soft music) This was followed by two months of technical training as a Security Forces specialist, an Air Force cop.

(soft music) She was then assigned to Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico.

There, she thrived.

(soft music) - She excelled.

She never did good, she excelled.

Like, she just, through the roof.

They said she got a what?

Diamond Award or something like that.

I don't speak military that well.

I just was so proud to see all the little knickknacks that she earned.

(soft music) - [Thomas] In addition to winning the base-wide Diamond Sharp Award, Jasmine was promoted to Senior Airman below the zone.

(soft music) - It's very rare.

They usually only promote one, possibly two out of the unit every year.

Her performance was amazing.

I mean, she was a well-rounded troop.

She wanted to do everything.

She wanted to know how to do her job, be great at it, and excel in it.

(airplane engine whirring) - [Thomas] In June, 2016, Jasmine was sent on her first deployment to Kuwait.

But a month later, she got some bad news.

Her great-grandmother had died.

(soft music) Jasmine began struggling with anxiety and depression and her mission.

The Air Force brought her back to New Mexico.

There, she was given counseling and medication.

After more than a year of therapy, Jasmine said she was improving, but then she started to talk about suicide.

- I wanna say for about two weeks, I can't give you an exact date without looking at my messages on Facebook, but for about two weeks, I would call Jasmine, she would not pick up.

It was going straight to voicemail, and I'm like, "What is going on?"

That bothered me so bad.

So when she finally got on the phone, she said, "Hello," and I just snapped.

I'm like, "Girl, what you got going on?

Why you ain't been answering that phone?"

Like, you know.

She was like, "I couldn't.

They sent me to a mental institute."

I said, "Well, why nobody called us?

Why you didn't call us and tell us what was going on?"

She was like, "I couldn't, they took my phone.

They wouldn't let me contact nobody."

(soft music) - [Thomas] Jasmine continued to bring up suicide during her therapy sessions.

She would end up being hospitalized three times in three months at El Paso area psychiatric facilities.

She applied to get out of the Air Force, but her request was denied.

- She was paranoid.

She was broken.

She was literally begging to come home.

It was one time she said, "Okay, I found a way I could get out."

I was like, "Okay, so what do you gotta do?"

And she's like, "Well, I contacted a friend.

I'm gonna have her to buy some marijuana, so I'm gonna smoke it, so I know if I test dirty, then I just gotta go.

They're gonna put me out."

- But she couldn't even find a weed man.

She was like, "Sis, I don't even know where to get it from."

Waited a week later, "Did you find some weed?"

"I don't know where to get it from.

Like, what do I do to get it?"

Like, she just didn't know.

- [Thomas] Jasmine's Commander got wind that she had been looking for marijuana and ordered a urinalysis.

She tested clean.

- When Pomeroy got there, I noticed a very drastic change in Jasmine.

And a prime example of that situation is when Jasmine called me hysterical.

Like, she was screaming, crying.

As soon as I had said, "Hello," she was screaming.

It wasn't, you know, she was screaming.

I'm like, "Jasmine, what's going on?"

She was like, "Commander Pomeroy said that he's gonna put me out the military, and once he get done with me, I won't even be able to get a job at Burger King."

She was like, "He told me I might as well just commit suicide.

- [Thomas] Brent Pomeroy had taken command of Jasmine's squadron in January, 2018.

In an email, he denied making any statement about Jasmine's future employment and didn't address the allegation concerning suicide.

He declined to give an interview.

- And I said, "Jasmine, why would he tell you that knowing you've been going through depression, you know, they giving you a gun, taking it away, you know.

If he know you going through this type of stuff, why would he try to say that type of stuff to you?"

And she was like, "I don't know, but I need my benefits.

I worked hard for my benefits."

She was really upset.

A little bit after that, I wanna say maybe a week, not even a full week, she called me and she was calm, and she said, "Sister, I think I know a way we can get like $500,000."

And I was like, "What?

Where?"

She was like, "I think I'm gonna commit suicide."

And I told her, I said, "Well, sister, I don't know how it works in the military world, but as a civilian, you know, a lot of policies don't even cover suicide.

So that's first off.

Second off, 500,000," I said, "Sis, that's cheap.

That's beyond cheap."

I said, "500,000?"

I said, "Sis, it's car is out here that cost that much.

You really wanna put that price on your life?"

And we talked a long time about a lot of spiritual stuff.

And at the end of the conversation, she was like, "You know what, that make a lot of sense."

And I told her, I said, "So you okay now?"

She was like, "Yeah, I'm okay.

I feel a whole lot better now."

And I told her, I said, "Well, if you do plan on ever just giving up, just let me know something.

You need to leave a letter, you need to call me, you gotta leave something 'cause if you don't, I'm gonna think they did something to you.

And I'm not gonna stop until I figure out what happened."

- [Thomas] But on May 11th, Jasmine went to a local gun shop in Clovis and bought a pistol.

The salesman she chatted with for two hours described her as outgoing and in good spirits.

(soft music) - The last conversation that I had with Jasmine, I was fussing at her, and I was like, "Okay, it's Mother's Day.

You guys haven't gave me a gift, what is up?

What's going on?

What am I gonna get?"

"Well, mom, I have meetings, I'm at work, I have a lot to do."

So she called me back maybe like an hour later, and she was like, "I need for you and Rosalynn to go to the nearest Walmart.

I just sent you guys some money."

So we get on Messenger and we FaceTime, we're talking on the phone, we're all happy.

So she's like, "Mama, you just love me."

And I said, "Well, I'm so glad you sent my gift."

So she was like, "Well, I have a briefing, and after my briefing, I will call you guys as soon as I leave."

And she said, "This is it, I'm coming home."

And I said, "That's what's up."

And she was like, "Yeah."

She said, "Yeah, I'm just going to sign the papers and I'm coming home."

So, you know, she was already making preparation to come home.

She had already filled out for jobs and everything else.

(soft music) - [Thomas] That afternoon, Jasmine went home from work.

She grabbed her gun and the ammunition she had bought just three days prior and drove to Ned Houk Park, just north of Clovis.

(soft music) (ducks quacking in the distance) (water rippling) (footsteps) (ducks quacking) - I initially found out about Jasmine through Facebook.

A family member of hers screenshot a post that someone from her squadron posted, and they sent it to us.

Then we began to call Jasmine, and she wasn't answering.

We called several times.

So at this point, I'm nervous.

So finally I spoke to her Commander.

He said that, you know, I was telling him what happened.

And he told me, he said, "Well," saying, he just said, "Is the casualty team around?"

I said, "Well, what's happening?

What's going on?"

And he told me, he said that she completed the mission.

That's what he told me about my child.

So after he told me that, within minutes, there was a knock on the door.

It was two people from the military.

And they hand me a flag, and they told me that Jasmine was dead.

- [Thomas] Within days of Jasmine's death, the Air Force had her family flown to New Mexico where they could visit the site of her death and attend a memorial service.

But multiple family members told me they felt watched both in New Mexico and at Jasmine's funeral in Georgia.

(saxophone rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner") As Jasmine's mother waited for the completion of the police investigation, Jasmine's friends and coworkers quietly reached out as they grappled to make sense of her death.

(soft music) Jasmine's friends and family struggled to find closure.

As the months went on, they began wondering if the military was hiding something.

(soft music) And so five months after Jasmine died, her mother spent thousands on their own autopsy and she shared it with police investigators who had not yet received the state's lab results.

(soft music) To this day, Jasmine's family still wonder how methamphetamine found its way into Jasmine's system.

(soft music) - How could, how could the blonde black girl who couldn't find a weed man, find a methamphetamine man?

Like, it doesn't happen.

(soft music) - [Thomas] Three years after Jasmine's death, I shared an audio file of her 911 call with Connie, who hadn't previously heard it.

It only raised more questions.

- She's very familiar with that park.

She goes there to walk, that's one of her peace places, so she would know the name of the park and everything.

It's just suspicious.

- [Thomas] I spoke with Paul Berlin, retired Commander of Oakland's Homicide Division, about the case.

He confirmed that thorough investigations, even in suicides, are critical to the grieving process.

- The idea behind doing suicide investigations is to ensure for the family that there's closure.

That as an investigator, we've documented and we've dotted all the I's and crossed all the T's to ensure that there's no question about how the person's death came about.

- [Thomas] Of course, for that closure to be possible, the family first needs to be able to get information.

I thought about the other military deaths I had looked into and how the Air Force struggled to meet the time guidelines of the Freedom of Information Act.

I thought about Kelsey Anderson, whose parents ultimately filed a federal lawsuit to get the information they deserved, but still, they struggle to find closure.

- I was so proud of our people here.

And then they got the Attorney General of Idaho involved with that.

And then it went to Washington.

And that's the only way we got our Freedom of Information Act, the only way.

- FedEx showed up in a van here and delivered this report, and redacted the whole thing.

So you couldn't glean anything out of it, how my daughter really died.

So there was no way I could do any investigation of my own or figure out any, that report was basically useless.

- [Thomas] I also remember talking to Gary Hobart, whose daughter Melissa collapsed in 2003.

Nearly two decades later, he has yet to be told an official cause of death.

These cases, like Jasmine's, left families with too many unanswered questions and a feeling of abandonment by the military.

- If someone is doing everything that they're supposed to do to get help from counseling, to medication, to hospitalization, all this, and I mean, she's literally begging for help, nobody's helping, nobody's there.

- This is a voluntary military, and they're young kids there, you know?

They're young kids.

And these people are committing suicide.

Why is this happening?

I mean, come on, let's look at the situation here and let's make it better, let's not make it worse.

It'd make your jobs a lot easier.

(soft music) - Me personally, my personal opinion, I feel like the soldiers fight for their country, but the military don't fight for them.

(soft music) - If they put the right amount of evidence in front of me and tell me, and show me that my sister killed herself, maybe I'll go for it.

But I feel like it's way more to the story time.

(soft music) All in all, that's why everybody keep asking me, "How are you willing to continue to speak on it?"

Because we got these same people coming into our high school with our, you know, these kids, they're babies, they're kids.

And y'all coming around them with all these fancy dreams and hopes of benefits and you know, and then when they get in there and they do exactly what y'all tell them to do, "Oh, you not getting your benefits."

Well, what I came here for?

(soft music)