THE death of Irish-born U.S. Army Specialist Ciara Durkin, 30, originally from Connemara, Co. Galway has been ruled a suicide by the Army after a nine month investigation which concluded last week. The Army based its finding on ballistics evidence, psychiatric reports, phone records and witness statements. The Durkin family was told that the bullet that killed Ciara was fired directly into her mouth.Durkin died at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan last year in circumstances that were described as suspicious by her family. She was killed by a single gunshot wound behind a church in the airbase at about 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 30. Before her death Durkin had a desk job doing payroll in an office about three miles inside the secure Bagram Air Base. After initially declaring Durkin's death as "killed in action" the Defense Department revised its statement within 24 hours to say that Durkin, who was part of the Finance Unit of the Army National Guard, was not in fact killed in combat.Although the exact circumstances of Durkin's death remain a mystery, it is known she expressed some concerns about her safety. While at home in Massachusetts on leave a month before her death, she told her sister Fiona Canavan, that if anything happed to her in Afghanistan, they were not to let it go without an investigation. Last year Senator John Kerry, at the request of the Durkin family, contacted Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with a list of questions raised by the family. It is understood that all the new information about the Army's suicide finding came from the Durkin family's own website, where they posted a notice requesting time to grieve and reflect away from the media glare surrounding the case. Kerry is currently in Saudi Arabia and could not be contacted for comment. Durkin originally moved from Galway to Massachusetts with her parents and siblings when she was nine. Her ashes are now buried with those of her father in Lettermore graveyard in Galway, near where she attended primary and secondary schools.The question of "why" she may have taken her own life remains unanswered and Durkin's family sound unconvinced, saying they are "saddened" by the army's final report. In a statement on their own website last week they wrote, "We are very upset and saddened by their conclusion. We have borne an extraordinary amount of pain over the past nine months, compounded by a protracted and at times ambiguous investigation. We now need time and privacy to grieve, and let our Ciara finally rest in peace."The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) spokesperson Christopher Grey told the press on Thursday, "We investigated the family's concern that she may have been murdered, but the evidence did not support that theory. We followed all available leads and found no sign whatsoever of foul play." Durkin, who was a lesbian, was engaged to marry her partner in Massachusetts last year.