Mom reunites with daughter but loses son in Fort Hood rampage
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - The mother of an Illinois soldier killed during an attack at Fort Hood, Texas, says she was reunited less than two weeks earlier with a daughter she gave up for adoption at birth.
Muntean told the AP she has heart problems and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Her 54-year-old daughter sought her out, and the two met on March 23, she said.
"She finds one child and loses another," said Betty Goodwin, Muntean's niece and Owens' cousin.
Sitting on her recliner on Wednesday, Muntean saw news on television of the attack at Fort Hood.
"She said, 'Mom, I want to tell you how sorry I am. Tim's gone,'" Muntean said. "I broke down. I'm 77 years old and I can't hardly take this."
Owens' cousin, Glen Welton of Effingham, said Owens grew up with military dreams.
"He was one of those kids who wanted to wear camouflage and wanted to wear bomber jackets and sunglasses," said Welton, himself a National Guard veteran of Iraq. "It took him a few years before he got himself in."
Owens dropped out of high school in 1995, according to his mother and school records. But she said he earned his GED diploma after joining the Army in 2004.
Welton said he ran into Owens last year at a funeral and the two figured out they'd served in Iraq at the same time. Welton was there from 2005-06.
"He had grown into a man. The military had made him a complete man," Goodwin said. "I sure know he cleaned up pretty with his uniform."
A trauma center outside the base said the conditions had improved for three people who sustained critical injuries in the attack. Dr. Matthew Davis, trauma director at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, expressed optimism nobody else would die from their injuries. Several patients were released from the hospital Thursday.
One of the wounded was identified as Maj. Patrick Miller, a 32-year-old Iraq War veteran from western New York, the state's Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. Miller, who lives with his wife outside Austin, Texas, is a native of Allegany in Cattaraugus County. Information on his condition hasn't been released.