The bones of former Navy Lt. Andrew Chabrol, who was killed in 1993 after he kidnapped, raped and killed a sailor who rejected his advances, will be exhumed from Arlington National Cemetery.
The Navy Times revealed last week that Chabrol secured a surface burial for himself in the Veterans’ Cemetery while on Virginia’s death row for the murder of Petty Officer 2nd Class Melissa Harrington. . Chabrol having completed his duty honorably, but the Navy at the time lacked justification to prevent his burial at Arlington.
Rep. Jackie Speier (R-Calif.) included a clause in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023, which passed in December 2022, requiring the Secretary of the Army to exhume Chabrol of Arlington from here on September 30 and to transfer his remains to next of kin or dispose of them appropriately if no one responds to the military’s request.
“It was appalling to me to think that a naval officer could sexually harass, then kidnap, then rape, then murder a sailor and be buried in a national cemetery, supposed to honor our war heroes and our dead,” Speier told the Washington Post in June 2022. It is therefore inappropriate for this cemetery.
The Associated Press reported in 1993 that Chabrol had pleaded guilty to murdering Harrington in 1991. Harrington had rejected her advances and protested to her supervisor after he sought to start a relationship with her while she was under his supervision.
Chabrol said his allegation caused his marriage and career to fail. While her husband was away, he worked with another man to kidnap Harrington, who was 27 at the time of her murder, from her Virginia Beach home. She was raped and tormented by him and his sidekick Stanley Berkeley until, according to Chabrol, he strangled her to death. For his part in the kidnapping, Berkeley was sentenced to three life terms in prison.
Joe Harrington, the widower of Melissa Harrington, said: “I’m looking forward to going to Arlington later this year to visit my friends after I know that [Chabrol is] dead.” “Just to feel like this is the place to honor the people who are here. That’s great, then.