Airman's death in Japan probed as homicide

The death in Okinawa of a U.S. Air Force technical sergeant who spent his childhood on Long Island is under investigation by Japanese authorities as a homicide, relatives of the airman said Saturday.

Carolann Eccleston, the mother of Tech. Sgt. Curtis Eccleston, 30, said her knowledge of the probe into her son's death was based on articles she and other family members saw on the Internet. Two Air Force servicemen came to her Maryland home last Sunday and told her Curtis had died, but gave no details of the circumstances, she said in a telephone interview.

Stars and Stripes reported last week that Curtis Eccleston was found dead around noon last Sunday in his apartment in Chatan. Police in Japan are investigating Eccleston's death as a homicide after an autopsy determined he bled to death from a cut on his neck, the news service reported.

Eccleston had been assigned to Kadena Air Base for more than two years, Carolann Eccleston, 59, of Ellicott City, Md., told Newsday.

"He loved the Air Force," the mother said. "He was proud of his work. He was going to be a career serviceman."

In a release posted on the Kadena Air Base website, Lt. Col. Ryan Marshall, commander of the base's 733rd Air Mobility Squadron, said, "We lost a valuable member of our military family. We share in the sorrow felt by Tech. Sgt. Curtis Eccleston's loved ones, and we must not forget the tremendous contributions he made to our Air Force, our nation and the impact he has left on our organization."

Eccleston, who was born in Babylon, attended elementary school in Medford, his family said. When he was 14, the family moved to West Babylon, where he attended middle school before moving with his parents to Flanders, N.J. He joined the Air Force after one semester in college, relatives said.

"He was definitely an outgoing, friendly, happy kid," said his father, Michael Eccleston, 57, of Midlothian, Va., a computer programmer. "He was hardworking. . . . He loved serving his country."

Carolann Eccleston said she returned recently from a trip to see her son. She was last with him just six days before his death, she said, adding her son got married in Japan in April but had been thinking about returning to the United States in June.

A wake will be held Thursday in Catonsville, Md., at the Sterling-Ashton-Schwab-Witzke Funeral Home. He is to be buried Friday in Baltimore National Cemetery. A memorial service at Kadena Air Base is Thursday.