AWOL Bragg soldier discusses disappearance

Pvt. Juliet Striped Wolf was found safe and unharmed in Volusia County, Fla., on Friday. Her mother said she had been missing since July 1.

Striped Wolf, a military intelligence analyst in the 92nd Civil Affairs Battalion, said the pressure of her job and a personal relationship pushed her over the edge.

"I got to a point where I just wasn't able to do it anymore, and every single day, it was just, it just wasn't easy. It was like probably the hardest point in my life, but I didn't know how to deal with anything," she said upon her return to Fayetteville. "I left because I was basically being threatened, that this person I was with at the time was going to kill themselves, and that's what I was told almost every single day."

She has been in a turbulent relationship with a Brunswick County woman with a lengthy criminal record, according to her mother, Janel Striped Wolf. The woman was arrested Friday in Florida and is wanted on a probation violation in Brunswick County.

Juliet Striped Wolf said the relationship became mentally abusive, and she regrets not reaching out to her commanders for help.

"I really didn't reach out to them," she said. "They more or less noticed some behaviors, and they brought it up with me, and I just couldn't tell them the situation."

Striped Wolf will undergo physical and mental evaluations before the Army decides what punishment she should face under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. She said she isn't sure if she wants to fight to stay on active duty or get out of the Army.

"I'm just taking everything day-by-day. I'm just trying to get through this and move on with my life, however that may be," she said.