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“As a widow, all you care about is getting the body back, so I just kept saying, ‘Make sure nothing more happens, make sure they take care of him,’” Ziecha Norwillo explained from her home in Texas, recalling the chaotic days following the death in Bulgaria of her husband in June 2015.

“All I wanted, and his sister wanted, is recognition – knowing that it was Francis.”

But she was denied that chance after the body was handled “worse than a wild animal”, according to the funeral director who recently spoke to Ziecha.

Francis Norwillo, aged 41, died after a grenade, which was more than 30 years old, exploded in his hand at a Bulgarian firing range.

He was in Bulgaria on Pentagon business. A private contractor for a firm called Skybridge Tactical, he was brought in to help build a curriculum to train Syrian rebels in the use of Soviet-style weaponry.

It was the first stage of “Syria Train and Equip” programme, a secretive US project to crush Islamic state, ISIS.

At first it faltered, in part due to the tragedy in Bulgaria, but it then delivered more than a billion euros worth of weapons and ammunition to Syrian fighters and trained thousands of rebels.

“We went to pick up his body at the airport, he was in a sealed casket,” Ziecha told Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, Al Jazeera English and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project as part of a joint investigation into the US’s arms pipeline to Syrian rebels.

“I just broke down when I saw it,” she added.

When the morgue owner managed to open the coffin with a welder, the news was not good. “So, she came back and said, ‘Well you’re not going to be able to see the body.’

Norwillo’s widow and his colleague, Michael Dougherty, who was injured in the blast, are suing two of the companies involved in the training programme, Purple Shovel and Regulus Global.

They complain also that neither the firms nor the US government has taken responsibility for the accident, almost three years on.

The Pentagon’s multi-billion-dollar Syria training program relies on contractors and sub-contractors, some with questionable pasts.

Ziecha Norwillo said she hoped the court case would help others taking on dangerous work without a military safety net.

Purple Shovel insists it intervened to speed up the repatriation of the body because it was its “moral duty”.

‘Scooped up and put in a box’

OG-7V warheads, produced in 1982, were fired by Francis Norwillo and his colleagues at the Bulgarian firing range. It was an OG-7V which exploded, killing Norwillo.

Despite not being able to see her husband’s body, Ziecha went ahead with the funeral. But a feeling that she needed to see him for the last time did not leave her.

Two years later, in 2017, it started to affect her sleep. “I had a dream … and in the dream I was talking to Francis and I said, ‘I wish I would have looked at your body because then I would have known.’

“I woke up and thought ‘What in the world is this about?’ It bothered me for about two days, so then I contacted the lady that owns the funeral home and messaged her and said: ‘Is there any information, anything you know that I don’t?’

“She contacted me right away and said: ‘We need to meet for lunch.’

“We went within two days and she proceeded to tell me that … my husband was handled worse than a wild animal. That she had taken pictures without me knowing, which I’m glad she did, that she had never seen anything in that form of state.”

She discovered why she had not been able to see her husband’s body: when the casket had been opened, his body was covered “head to toe” with maggots.

“Scooped up and put in a box which, being a veteran, killed in the military, I don’t believe that in any way he would have been treated like that.”

Ziecha said that her husband’s body had been returned to her within two weeks, which she describe as “rather quick”, but that the funeral home director said it had been “almost like he had been left out, where he was, and maybe a sheet thrown on”.

Michael said he had expected more from everyone involved, including the US embassy in Sofia.

“You kind of assume that the people you work with, even the US embassy, would have been more involved with that [repatriation of the body]. It’s our understanding … that it’s one of their main responsibilities, to ensure the proper return or repatriation.”

Purple Shovel responded to questions about the handling of Norwillo’s body, insisting it intervened to speed up the process.

A spokesman said in a written statement: “After the incident occurred, we felt the individual’s employer was not moving fast enough to recover the remains.

“Accordingly, Purple Shovel interjected, liaising with local officials and Americans at the US Embassy.

“Purple Shovel felt it was our moral duty to assist in the timely recovery of all mentioned persons and bring Mr Norwillo home respectfully. The US embassy facilitated the recovery and the US embassy used embassy-approved mortuary services in Bulgaria.”

The US Special Operations Command, SOCOM, which commissioned the training, said it had “provided you all of the information that we intend on providing you” in responses to our previous story. SOCOM said the weapon involved in the explosion in Bulgaria was not part of their contract.

It added: “We extend our heartfelt condolences to Mrs Norwillo for her loss just like we have since her husband’s death.”

The US embassy in Sofia said that it “takes seriously our mandate to provide assistance to American citizens abroad”, adding: “For privacy reasons, we do not comment on services provided in individual cases.”

Regulus Global and Skybridge Tactical did not respond to our questions.

‘They’re not even saying they are sorry’

Francis Norwillo filmed at a Bulgarian firing range, seconds before the grenade he was loading exploded

Francis Norwillo had supported the elite, special-operation Navy SEALS as a small arms expert, but was in Bulgaria as a private contractor working on the Pentagon’s mission to destroy Islamic State.

Alongside Michael Dougherty and Jerry Parker, Skybridge Tactical employed him to prepare a syllabus in the use of Soviet-style weapons to be taught at a training camp in Jordan for Syrian rebels.

They never made it to the Middle East. A rocket-propelled grenade, known as an RPG, exploded as Francis loaded its’ OG-7V warhead.

Michael, who was filming on his phone, and Parker, who was holding the launcher were seriously injured.

Ziecha and Michael are suing the contract’s prime contractor, Purple Shovel, and the firm responsible for organising the training, Regulus Global.

They argue in a Florida court that the firms knew the fatal grenade had been part of a batch previously rejected by the Pentagon as unsafe.

The case is due to restart soon in Florida after a recent ruling that the men had been working for the Pentagon at the time of the accident.

SOCOM continues to insist that training in the type of grenade that exploded was not part of the contract.

Purple Shovel, which received a $28million contract from the Pentagon for the first phase of Syria Train and Equip , has insisted that the accident happened during a “recreational shoot” and not the official training.

In its submissions to court, Regulus Global argued that the allegations lacked substance.

Ziecha Norwillo says she is pursuing the case on behalf of many other contractors working for the Pentagon.

“I am taking legal action to fight for my husband, for closure, to fight for people that do contracting all the time and are not able to know as much information as I know,” she said.

“No one has come up and said this is our fault. They try and blame it back on Francis and Mike saying that they did something wrong which is slowly been proven that is not the case.”

Michael added: “Working with a bunch of guys from the military, it’s important for us to feel that when something bad happens, that things are going to be taken care of.

“In the meantime, we have nobody company-wise, Purple Shovel, Sky Bridge, Regulus, which are taking responsibility.

“They’re not even saying they are sorry. In fact they are pushing back, saying we had something to do with it.

“The government is not taking responsibility, so we don’t have any closure, and that’s one of the most important things for us is accountability and closure – what really happened.”

This story was produced by BIRN as a part of Paper Trail to Better Governance project.