SCRIPT: Mothers Want Answers: The Fallujah Tragedy 4/05

April 7, 2005 — -- Now, the story of a young American murdered by bloodthirsty insurgents, his body desecrated and hung from a bridge. But when his mother tried to find answers about why her son was killed, she says no one wanted to talk. ABC News Chief Investigative Correspondent, Brian Ross, with a mother who's lost everything but her fighting spirit.

SCOTT HELVENSTON, FORMER NAVY SEAL

Welcome to the Navy SEAL Training Camp Exercise Video series.

BRIAN ROSS, ABC NEWS

His name was Scott Helvenston.

SCOTT HELVENSTON

This is a strength and resistance workout ...

BRIAN ROSS

For 12 years, Helvenston was a member of the elite US Navy Special Forces unit called the SEALs. Blonde, handsome, a poster boy for the invincible all-American warrior.

KATIE HELVENSTON-WETTENGEL, MOTHER OF SCOTT HELVENSTON

He was a tough guy.

BRIAN ROSS

But not tough enough, his mother Katie says, to go to war as a civilian, where she says the enemies included corporate greed and an office grudge she blames for her son's brutal death. Scott died one year ago in Iraq in one of the ugliest scenes of an ugly war. Four American civilians shot dead in Fallujah. Their bodies set on fire and then hung from a bridge. One of them was Scott Helvenston.

KATIE HELVENSTON-WETTENGEL

How much more horrible can it get? And then something more horrible comes up and you go, oh.

BRIAN ROSS

The last year has been a hard one for Scott's mother. Not only dealing with her grief, but discovering what she says is troubling new information about what really happened that day and why. Pushing her to want to know more now.

KATIE HELVENSTON-WETTENGEL

I can't stop. I'm not gonna stop. They cannot do this and get away with it.

BRIAN ROSS

It turns out Scott Helvenston was working for a little known and secretive private security company called Blackwater. At least 11 of its employees have been killed in Iraq. Scott's mother says the company cut corners in protecting its men and is now trying to cover it up.

KATIE HELVENSTON-WETTENGEL

And it turned out everything they told me was not even remotely true. Not even close.

SCOTT HELVENSTON

I got a gold medal for obstacle course ...

BRIAN ROSS

Helvenston's road to Blackwater came at the end of a rough transition from honored warrior to out of work civilian.

SCOTT HELVENSTON

Got a silver ...

BRIAN ROSS

Scott's Navy SEAL exercise tapes didn't sell well.

SCOTT HELVENSTON

One, two, three ...

BRIAN ROSS

He even tried Hollywood, as an adviser on the Demi Moore film "GI Jane."

SCOTT HELVENSTON

Come on, here we go ...