GEORGETOWN, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Georgetown family continues to search for answers after their son died on Dec. 23, 2023 at the age of 21 while serving at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.
According to Tanner's parents, Julie and Bobby Young, and their attorney, Dennis Shepherd, details surrounding Tanner's death are a mystery.
"I still do not know how my son passed away. No mother should endure this. Unfortunately there was no investigation to my knowledge done for my son, Tanner Young, and that as a mother is what breaks me," Julie said.
Alaska State Troopers found Tanner dead and their immediate conclusion was death by suicide. However, Shepherd is in the early stages of his own investigation. He sent LEX 18 the report he received from the Alaska Department of Public Safety and it's heavily redacted.
"There's no indication that they did anything except to accept the word of a couple of state troopers that it was a self inflicted wound," Shepherd said.
Notably, Shepherd's job is to get the unredacted report.
"There was also an Air Force Office of Special Investigation done, OSI done, over 100 pages and we haven't seen that. It's my job to also get that report. You can go to a scene and you can label as self inflicted but what about other possibilities? What about accident, something nefarious? I don't believe anybody from the state troopers to the Air Force investigated those other areas and that's again what I'm going to fact find in this case," Shepherd added.
Question is, did any foul play occur in this case?
"I mention I'm going to be interviewing a number of people, witnesses at the scene, witnesses in that particular housing area, witnesses on each side of the apartment that Tanner had and of course, Tanner was married," Shepherd added. "Mackenzie, the spouse is also someone I'll be seeking to interview. I don't think there's a whole lot I can go into as far as my particular goals of the investigation, other than the general rubric of I want to know the truth."
Shepherd continued, "I want to know what happened and what kinds of pressure were put on Tanner. More than that, as you investigate a scene like this, you ought to be investigating everything, and in this case I don't think that was done, I'm certain it wasn't done. We're not looking for a lawsuit, I'm not looking for a lawsuit but there are possibilities. Wrongful death is a possible lawsuit, Federal Torts Claim Act is a claim against the federal government for people who put pressure on Tanner or contributed to his death in some way. Criminal Investigation, the prosecutor there could be interested in seeing if there's a case against a person or people who had some sort of negligence or intentional act that also contributed to the death of their son. I can't answer specifically, all I can say is everybody is fair game for me as far as what I'm going to investigate to try to get peace of mind for this family and that's what I'm going to do."
As for Julie and Bobby, they're still trying to cope with the loss of her son, who left to join the Air Force just before Thanksgiving in 2021.
"He had so much going for him...the Air Force was not a job for my son, the Air Force was a passion, it was something he loved dearly," Julie said.
Both Bobby and Julie heard from their son just before they left for a cruise. Julie said Tanner was in good spirits.
"It was approximately 9 p.m. eastern standard time and Alaska is four hours behind us. He was going out to get some groceries, you know just a normal kid, adult, I still call him my kid, my baby, he will always be. The next morning, at approximately 11 a.m. there were officers at our door," Julie noted. "Where they were not able to make contact with us, they went to next of kin which was his older brother. I made a couple of phone calls trying, and it did not make sense to me. Was he in a car wreck? What happened? What happened to my son? Which is still the question today."
Tanner had many hobbies including fishing and dirt biking, but above all, he decided his ultimate purpose in life when he was a sophomore at Great Crossings High School: to serve in the military.
"He wanted to help others, he wanted to be a servant, and he wanted to stand up for his country," Julie expressed. "Going out and volunteering in the Arctic Circle to help a flooded village. Helping other airmen when he was done with his work. So many airmen told me how he helped them. I had two airmen come up to me and tell me how they were having suicidal ideations and if it wasn't for my son they wouldn't be here today and they thanked me for that. They don't need to thank me for that, that was here, that was who my son was, so that night we spoke to him before he passed away, he was so happy."
"I have received reports concerning the chain of command that I believe will show certain things that should have been done were not done in this case. I have received reports that certain people close to Tanner did certain things that didn't make any sense could have contributed to his death. I can't get any more specific than that until I uncover it," Shepherd said.
Shepherd's services for the Young family are only one week in, so his investigation is in the preliminary stages.
