The bones of former Navy Lt. Andrew Chabrol, who was killed in 1993 after kidnapping, raping, and killing a sailor who rejected his advances, will be exhumed from Arlington National Cemetery.
The Navy Times revealed last week that Chabrol obtained an above-ground burial for himself in the veterans cemetery while he was in Virginia’s death row for the murder of Petty Officer 2nd Class Melissa Harrington. Chabrol having finished his duty honorably, but the Navy at the time lacked the justification to prevent his burial in Arlington.
Rep. Jackie Speier (R-Calif.) included a clause in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed in December 2022, requiring the Army secretary to disinter Chabrol from Arlington by September 30 and transfer his remains to his next-of-kin, or dispose of them appropriately if no one responds to the Army’s request.
“It was appalling to me to think that an officer in the Navy could sexually harass, then kidnap, then rape, and then murder a sailor and get buried at a national cemetery, which is supposed to honor our war heroes and our dead,” Speier said to The Washington Post in June 2022. He is therefore inappropriate for that cemetery.
The Associated Press reported in 1993 that Chabrol pleaded guilty to the murder of Harrington in 1991. Harrington had rejected his advances and protested to his supervisor after he had sought to start a relationship with her while she was under his supervision.
Chabrol said that her allegation caused both his marriage and his 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 received three sentences of life in prison.
Joe Harrington, Melissa Harrington’s widower, 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 get the sense that this is the place to pay respect to the people that are here. That’s excellent, then.
