Several reasons:

1 – the guy was sending us text messages from inside the place before the news got hold of things. So any info he got was from inside. Could he have heard rumors? Yes. But that doesn’t lead to a report of seeing a body.

2 – He is now suffering from PTSD. You don’t get that from hanging out in a friendly environment, and my daughter has the training to diagnose the symptoms, whereas this guy doesn’t have the knowledge to fake them.

3 – New Orleans has a very corrupt government. It would not be at all surprising to me that they are covering stuff up. After all, any violence in there is the fault of the local government, which sent people there with no security. I’m sure the reports that came out of there by others were exaggerated, but those rumors started somewhere – most likely they were the result of real incidents which may have then been overcounted.

4 – The guy’s account was first person. He was there. This isn’t repeated rumours.

5 – I know the guy. He wouldn’t make this stuff up. He isn’t a kid – he’s in his late 20’s.

6 – A more recent news report has 10 dead in the Superdome, including 2 murders. Check it out.

7 – The original news report (6 dead) is just too small for that many people under those conditions. Two thirds were kids or elderly. They had little water, and were in crippling heat index conditions. 6 dead of the tens of thousands is simply not credible, even with no violence. The account of the potential rapist being beaten to death has been corroborated by other sources, btw.

So no, I don’t consider the account discredited. It appears that the National Guardsman was wrong on his count, but notice that this was reported as coming from a third source, as is appropriate for information heard rather than events seen.

If you saw the text messages we were getting, at the time they were coming out, you would see that this guy thought he was going to be murdered, and was scared to death. He had no access to information except what he saw and what the guard had to say, as he stayed as close as he could to the national guard perimeter.

Well, this “account” would seem to be pretty much discredited by now.. I assume you have adjusted your “trusted sources” list?

Hartley

Was it not simply a rumor they repeated to your daughter?

These people need to be interviewed and have their story be heard.