Veteran accused of shooting wife found dead of apparent self-inflicted gunshot after dayslong manhunt, officials say

By Holly Yan, Amanda Musa, CNN

(CNN) — The manhunt for a special forces veteran accused of shooting his wife ended when his body was found Wednesday, the Stewart County Sheriff’s Office said.

“Initial indications show he died due to a self inflicted gunshot wound,” the sheriff’s office said.

Craig Berry, 53, was wanted on suspicion of attempted murder after he attacked his wife at their Tennessee home and shot her as she tried to drive away on the night of April 30, the Stewart County Sheriff’s Office said. His wife, who suffered a neck wound, has been released from the hospital, Sheriff Frankie Gray told CNN.

How the search ended

Berry’s body was found several miles from his home, near the area where trail cameras captured him entering the woods, Gray told CNN.

In fact, Berry likely died not long after he fled early on May 1, Gray said, based on his body’s decomposition. Heat detection planes had not picked up anything during a search of the immediate area the next day.

By that point, Gray said, “his body temperature would have dropped low enough where we wouldn’t have picked that up.”

His body was found about a quarter of a mile from his in-laws’ house, which wasn’t far from the house where Berry lived with his wife, Gray said. But the sheriff said he doesn’t believe Berry was going there to harm them.

Berry was found with a single weapon along with a supply of ammunition, the sheriff said, according to CNN affiliate WTVF.

A preliminary investigation shows he died from a gunshot wound to the head, Gray added. Berry’s body will be sent to the medical examiner for an official determination of death, he said.

A tragic domestic dispute

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Berry’s wife said her husband beat her and tried to strangle her at about 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 30. She managed to get into her car, but Berry shot her as she fled, the wife told investigators.

She has since been released from the hospital and is expected to recover, according to the sheriff. She suffered one gunshot wound to the neck, an arrest warrant affidavit said

Berry vanished into the nearby woods before deputies arrived and led authorities on an extensive manhunt through heavily forested terrain that included steep hills, snakes and ticks.

During the manhunt, Berry called his parents, who cooperated with investigators, the sheriff said before Berry’s body was found.

In addition to second-degree attempted murder, Berry faced charges of domestic assault, aggravated assault and leaving the scene of an accident, court documents show.

Who was Craig Berry?

An infantryman and a special forces medical sergeant in the Army from 1992 to 2016, Berry left the Army as a sergeant first class, according to Christopher Surridge, a US Army spokesperson. He had deployed to Iraq four times, Surridge said.

Berry had “extensive training in survival tactics,” in addition to being an “excellent swimmer and diver,” the sheriff’s office said Monday as the search stretched on.

Before Berry’s body was found, officials were planning to expand their search by 30 miles from Dover to the sprawling Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, the sheriff said, which has more than 170,000 acres of forests, wetlands and open lands and represents one of the largest areas of undeveloped forest in the eastern US.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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