Living Out Loud with Darian

A tragic end to a short life and promising military career. The body of August Provost, 29, was found in the pre-dawn hours on Tuesday in a guard shack on the western edge of Camp Pendleton in an apparent homicide. Naval Criminal Investigative Service has taken a "person of interest" into custody but no charges have been filed. Local gay activists are urging the case to be investigated as a hate crime as it was known that Provost was a gay man.


Sources are reporting that the victim was shot and burned. An autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday to determine the cause of death. The results from yesterday's autoposy have not been released to the public.


Provost's Myspace page confirms that he was gay and involved in a relationship with Houston resident Kaether Cordero. Cordero, said yesterday that Provost was openly gay but kept his private life quiet for the most part, in a statement to the San Diego Union-Tribune.


"People who he was friends with, I knew that they knew,” Cordero said from Houston. “He didn't care that they knew. He trusted them.”


Provost had recently complained to his family that someone was harassing and bothering him, and they advised him to tell his supervisor, said his sister, Akalia.


“He's the type that if someone comes at him, he walks away. He never stands and argues,” she said. “He didn't deserve anything but a good life.”


In a blog on his Myspace page Provost opens up about the loneliness he experienced being away from his family and specifically his boyfriend and his desire to one day get married.


Provost was reportedly involved in an argument about same sex relationships with another seaman before his death.


h/t Rod 2.0