Thomas Mooney, 45, American Diplomat (US Defense Attache) Missing in Cyprus (Update: Found Deceased)
45 year old Thomas Mooney, an American diplomat, has been missing for 3 days on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Thomas Mooney has a large black American car with tinted windows (1996 Chevrolet Impala SS, license 48CD47).
(Thomas Mooney)
Thomas Mooney, 45, has not contacted the U.S. Embassy in three days, a police statement said.
Neither the police nor the embassy specified his role at the embassy, but a Lt. Col. Thomas Mooney is the embassy’s military attache. (Yahoo News)
1996 Chevrolet Impala SS, license 48CD47
From the Nicosia – Cyprus Embassy of the United States webs site
U.S. appeals over diplomat missing in Cyprus
According to reports, Tom Mooney just disappeared. There appear to be no leads and authorities and Embassy officials are being extremely tight lipped.
Authorities declined to speculate on where he might be or the reasons for his disappearance.
“We are looking into all possibilities, and searching everywhere for him,” a police source involved in the inquiries told Reuters, but declined to be more specific.
“He just disappeared,” a United States embassy official told Reuters.
The US embassy in Cyprus issued a public appeal for information on the whereabouts of a senior diplomat who has been missing for three days.
Thomas Mooney, 45, described on the Cyprus government Foreign Ministry web site as a US defense attaché, was last seen leaving the embassy on Thursday afternoon.
The embassy declined to state the nature of his work, calling him “an employee”.
Member of the American embassy has been reported as missing, police are cooperating with US embassy in search efforts to locate
Police will not say whether they are treating the case as suspicious or elaborate further on an investigation being treated as “sensitive.”
According to state radio, the 45-year-old diplomat was last seen leaving the US embassy Thursday lunchtime, adding that his mobile phone is switched off.
It said the Americans contacted the police late Friday after their own internal investigation came up with nothing.
Police are concentrating their initial search on ports, airports, and checkpoints on the divided island’s Green Line, the radio report added. The diplomat has been serving in Cyprus for more than a year. (Al Bawaba)
UPDATE I: Thomas Mooney Found Deceased in Cyprus
A senior American diplomat missing for four days has been found dead in a rural area of western Cyprus, state radio reported Monday.
CyBC state radio said Lt. Col. Thomas Mooney, the U.S. embassy’s military attache, was found dead in the Lefka area, around 28 miles west of the capital, Nicosia.
Police could not immediately confirm the report.
Cyprus police find U.S. diplomat dead
The body of Lt. Colonel Thomas Mooney, 45, was found near his locked car north-west of the capital, Nicosia, and a police spokeswoman said the cause of death would be determined at a post mortem due on Monday.
Local media said foul play appeared to have been ruled out and, in Washington, the U.S. State Department said there was nothing to suggest Mooney’s death was an act of terrorism but noted the investigations were continuing. (Yahoo News)
UPDATE II: US diplomat commits suicide: authorities
Authorities are treating the death of the US military attache in Cyprus, found in a remote area of the island, as a suicide.
The body of Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Mooney, 45, was found near his locked car north-west of the capital, Nicosia, four days after he went missing.
“There is no foul play involved,” forensic pathologist Marios Matsakis, who carried out the post-mortem, said.
Speculation rife over Mooney’s death (Suicide or Murder – Conspiracy Theories)
U.S. AMBASSADOR Ronald Schlicher said yesterday it was clear from the investigation into the death of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Mooney that the case was a personal tragedy.
Mooney, third in command at the embassy in Nicosia, was found dead in a rural area north-west of the capital on Monday morning, four days after his disappearance. He died from bleeding from a deep wound to the neck that investigators said was self-inflicted.“At this point in the investigation, it is now clear that LCT Thomas Mooney’s death was a personal tragedy with no political or security implications,” Schlicher said in a statement on the embassy’s website yesterday.
However, even as reports come out that the wound that caused the death of American diplomat Thomas Mooney … the local papers let loose with conspiracy theories.
More bizarre than the reports of possible foul play in the Greek Cypriot press, Turkish and Turkish Cypriot newspapers were filled with conspiratorial reports yesterday.
Daily Kibris, quoting mainland Hurriyet newspaper, said the US administration had asked for the help of the Turkish General Staff to find out the conversations Mooney conducted through a Turkcell telephone line.
Since Thursday, the day he disappeared, the Turkish Armed Forces had been looking for Mooney, the paper said. It also said that after Mooney was found, the attach?’s assistant crossed to the north and said it was clear his boss had been murdered. (Cyprus Mail)
Hummmm, define “Foul Play”. As I am now aware, via the Natalee Holloway case, laws/crimes/foul play seem to be very different depeding on the country.
My sympathies to this man’s loved ones.
Comment by NM | July 3, 2007
There is no reason to think that this was not murder. As a Greek American, I am all too familiar with the hatred for America and Americans in both Greece and in Cyprus. These countries may be in the European Union, but they are definitely much more like the countries of the Middle East in countless ways, and this is just one example. They’ll never mention that in the tourism brochures, though. How can an American found in a remote area of Cyprus with his throat slit suggest suicide? It doesnt, but the Cypriot authorities easily suggest it to protect their national interests, and the niceties of international relations are hindering justice for this man and his family.
Comment by JG | July 4, 2007
i am a lifelong friend of thomas mooney and there is NO WAY IN HELL he took his own life.
Moon – all of us from the edge-of-the-woods love you and honor your life and your service to your country.
your spirit lives on in all of us.
Comment by mg wolf | July 7, 2007
Cheers to our fallen hero. Well put, Mr. Wolf. In concurrence, and as someone who knew Tom since we were both 4 years old and have remained as close as could be for 41 years, I can assure everyone who reads this that Thomas Mooney did not commit suicide. Inconsistencies abound and all have read about them. A few simple truths in addition are that he was scheduled to move back to the US at the end of August to be with his family. He loved his children as much as humanly possible and was going back specifically to be with them. Tom spent the night over my house just weeks before this happened. We discussed his moving back and his future plans in excruciating detail. Anyone who claims this to be a suicide will have to personally show me the most irrefutable evidence that’s ever existed in the history of mankind. To those in Cyprus who initiated the suicide fabrication, sorry, we aren’t buying it.
Comment by GS | July 8, 2007
I, too, have known Tom (“Moon”, as we call him) since grade school, and have been very happy and even proud to be able to count him among my friends. The “Moonman” was a very humble, fair-minded, earnest guy of great sincerity, and the kind of guy who made you proud to be from the same ‘Leave It To Beaver’ neighborhood that Edgewood, Rhode Island was back in the 1960s and 70s. This was the kind of place where you could leave your bicycle on the lawn and your doors unlocked and not worry about it — the kind of place where life mentors abounded. Tom was that hard-working, honest, and very sincere guy who magnetically attracted both the shy and the very outgoing into his life because his sincerity and good will were palpable. And what a good feeling you had after spending time with him! He was, to trot out a cliche, ‘one of the good guys’ of this world. I spoke with him last on Christmas Day and assumed that he and the gang would “share a brew” and hopefully take in a Red Sox game this summer, but it wasn’t in God’s plan for it to happen. To me, Tom was one of the guys whose mere presence made you remember what the gracious soul of America was like when we were growing up at the tail end of the Baby Boom — when doctors still made house calls, and we all trusted the warm and folksy Walter Cronkite. Tom cared about people and about being fair to people. I believe that he was loved by so many — far more than he knew. I miss Tom very much — as I know everyone does, and still am incredulous that he won’t be around any more to experience life’s trials, tribulations, and celebrations with us. I’m sure he is with us in spirit. We will miss you buddy! God rest your beautiful soul !
Comment by Tim Fogarty | July 9, 2007
As a returning “edgewoodite” we will all miss Tom and his laid back nature, funny disposition and all around nice guy. I too believe and appeal to the representatives of the state of Rhode Island that an investigation be put forth into finding out the true reason for this tragedy.
A fallen friend that will be sadly missed and taken from us to soon. Peace!
Comment by Edgewoodite | July 16, 2007
Tim spoke of the heart and soul of this great man – more eloquently than I’m capable. Let me introduce you to Moon, the guy:
He was a damn good baseball player.
He was a great hoop player. (Burned my ass at will whenever I had the misfortune of covering him.)
He loved cold Heineken…and lots of it.
He loved the Pats.
He loved the Sox (and somehow managed to remain optimistic).
He loved rock and roll. He loved the blues.
He was very intelligent. He loved knowledge and information.
He loved people and never had an unkind word to say about anyone.
He loved Narragansett, RI.
He loved Edgewood, RI.
He loved America deeply…and not in a simple flag-waving way.
He loved “his” Army.
He LOVED his friends and wasn’t afraid to tell them.
He LOVED his family.
He LIVED FOR his children.
That said, those of us blessed to have known Tom intimately and aware of the direction in which his life was headed, cannot begin to fathom he would bring it to an end. It just doesn’t add up. While one never knows for sure, is no news organization or investigative journalist curious about these circumstances surrounding the death of an American soldier found by the side of a dirt road in a foreign land? I pray there is.
R.I.P., Brother Moon, and thanks for being here.
Comment by Lintz | July 19, 2007
Am glad that those who knew Tom feel as I do. Our boys went to school together and we knew him as a man of honor,justice and willing to stand up for what he believed in, even if it was against- “policy”….
He loved his famiy and life and made friends on “both sides of the border”. Thomas Mooney DID NOT kill himself…
This is a tragedy that only reflects back on us and breaks the hearts of those who knew him.
He deserves justice, not this.
Kvk
Comment by KVK | August 17, 2007
I was directed to this page from a video on youtube. I hadn’t even heard about this story. Why was it not covered more widely? Sounds like a coverup to me.
Comment by UBrice | September 17, 2007
Some time has passed now. But still we are troubled, and do not rest easy. Tom left an impression on those he met. And that impression has been expressed well by many, life-long friend or acquaintance, it didn’t matter, the man left his mark. So what is new in this investigation? Is there an investigation? Does anyone have any news?? I can’t seem to leave this as is.
With deepest respect,
H.O.Nails
Comment by Bmow | April 4, 2008
Well, it’s been a year since my buddy left us and while life goes on, it does so in a slightly lesser world.
H. O. Nails, I heard several months ago that the military had concluded its investigation and officially declared his death a suicide. So, it is “officially” what they say it is but…
Comment by Lintz | July 3, 2008