Wife of Sgt. Robert Bales, Accused of Afghanistan Massacre, Says 'My Husband Did Not Do This': ABC News Exclusive
On the eve of the most important court hearing U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will ever attend, the wife of the man accused of killing 16 Afghan villagers maintains her husband's innocence.
"My husband did not do this. Did not do this," said Kari Bales in an exclusive interview with ABC News. "I truly believe from the bottom of my heart that my husband is not involved."
Kari Bales said it is simply "incomprehensible" to her that her husband and best friend, "Bob," faces 16 charges of premeditated murder.
Staff Sgt. Bales is accused of sneaking out of his combat outpost and single-handedly conducting a cold-blooded massacre of men, women and children in two remote villages outside of Kandahar, Afghanistan on the night of March 11, nearly 8 months ago.
"It doesn't seem possible. Especially that there were women and children. My heart goes out to those families that lost loved ones, parents and grandparents. I am a mom; I can't imagine losing my child, especially to something like that."
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Kari Bales told ABC News in an exclusive... View Full Size
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The government's "Article 32 investigation" starts Monday: The proceeding is essentially a pre-trial hearing, in which military investigators lay out the case against Bales to determine if there is enough evidence for a court-martial to go forward. It will be conducted both from a tiny courtroom at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Wash. and via a satellite link from the villages where the killings took place. The Afghan witnesses who will testify -- women and children survivors of the attacks -- refuse to leave their homes.
Kari Bales said she learned of the attack within hours from military officials:
"It must have been a mistake, is how I initially took it. It certainly wasn't, it wasn't my husband. That wasn't something, when I learned more about the details of how, what came out of it and all of that. It was disbelief. It could not have been my husband. It was just incomprehensible to me. I know my husband. I know him very well, and especially the talk about the women and the children. I knew that it wasn't my husband. So it was just incomprehensible to me."
A midnight call that night from her husband, she says, confirms to her that even Robert Bales does not know what really happened.
"He was like, 'What? What you talking about?' He had, he knew that something was going on, but did not know the extent of what was going on, and I was actually the one that had told him how many people had died, and that included women and children, and he was blown away. He did not know the details as they had been portrayed in the press."
Military investigators say they have two surveillance videos from the remote combat outpost that show Sgt. Bales returning to the base, putting down his weapon and surrendering. But Kari says she believes the truth has yet to come out.
"I don't think we have even begun to have the truth."
Meantime, Kari struggles to explain to the couples' 2-1/2-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter why their daddy sits in a jail cell just a little over a mile away on the same base where the young family is now sequestered.
"It's been difficult," she said. "I question myself, what is the right thing to say, what is the right thing to explain to them, what can they understand? And for me, I don't even really understand what is happening, so how can I possibly expect my kids to understand, right?"
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