DeDolph and Melgar were part of the intelligence operation in Mali supporting counterterrorism efforts in 2017.
Just a few days after Melgar was strangled, the Navy sent DeDolph back to his base in Virginia Beach under suspicion of murder. Despite the investigation, the Navy promoted DeDolph to chief petty officer in August 2017 despite his admission of choking the Green Beret to death.
“It is another failure of leadership,” then-Brigadier General Bolduc had said. “I mean senior leadership. It’s unfortunate. He should have never been promoted. The investigation was started right away. They whisked them out of there as fast as they could.”