Another Noncombat Death in Iraq -- Electrocuted in a Shower

By: E&P Staff For more than four years, E&P has highlighted how the media reports, or fails to report, the growing toll of noncombat deaths in Iraq, now approaching (by most counts) 800 Americans. In all cases the Pentagon announces no details beyond saying a death is under investigation, but local news outlets often learn the details from family or friends.

It happened again on Friday. Just hours after the military announced the death of Ryan Maseth, a TV station near where he had lived outside Pittsburgh, Pa., KDKA, learned an explanation from his family: he was electrocuted.

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review also talked to the family. His mother, "Cheryl Harris of Cranberry, always has known that her sons might get wounded or killed -- but not by a faulty water pump," the paper revealed.

Here is an excerpt from the KDKA report.
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The father of a local soldier has questions after learning of his son's death in Iraq and is anxious to bring his other son home.

Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, 24, from Shaler, died in Baghdad on Jan. 2. Doug Maseth was told his son was electrocuted in the shower but there are no other details.

Maseth says he's devastated.

"I could have put this to rest a lot better if he would have been shot or he would have got killed by an IED," he said. "I'd have said, 'OK. That's what happened.' How can you justify getting electrocuted in a shower?"

While he waits for answers, he's making arrangements for Ryan's twin brother, Brandon, to come home at least temporarily.

"I don't want to lose another boy," Maseth said. "Who wants to lose one? I don't [want to have] the chance of losing two."

Right now, the loss of Ryan is all he can bear. "I'm heartbroken," he said. "I watched him from when he was born all the way up 'till now and I just ... turned into a good young man - taken away so fast."