From the Stars and Stripes:

A report of a foul odor emanating from Vail’s room led to the discovery of his body, hanging by a belt tied to a towel rack in the bathroom. The door to Vail’s room was locked, and entry was made through a partly open window. Medical personnel pronounced Vail dead at 1:30 p.m. March 28, but Mortuary Affairs personnel said his remains indicated he had been dead for five to seven days, according to information published in Friday’s Morning Calm military newspaper. They confirmed his identity through dental records. 

To answer Nomad’s question on how this could happen here is my best explanation.  I had a situation like this happen before in a unit I was in a few years ago.  A staff sergeant committed suicide after receiving a Dear John Letter from his wife.  This guy was a really good NCO, that took care of his soldiers, but the break up with his wife just made him snap.  He hung himself in his closet in the barracks on a Saturday and wasn’t discovered until Monday morning when he didn’t show up for PT formation. 

The PT formations especially on Mondays are critical to account for everyone.  Accounting for people is one of the most basic requirements of leadership.  How this guy was able to slip through the cracks for up to week is quite unusual.  I think Mark offers the most plausible explanation that this NCO in the above article was on a RSOI tasking.  It is extremely hard to track the guys on these taskings.  My first sergeant hated these taskings because he was depended on soldiers calling their platoon sergeants in the morning on the phone to maintain accountability of them.  Usually the taskings have an NCO in charge of the group which helps with tracking them.  The hardest ones to track are the soldiers tasked to be VIP drivers because they have no NCO supervision.  They just drive a VIP around and operate on the VIP’s schedule.  However, they still have to be tracked daily and if they don’t check in somebody has to track them down. 

If this NCO was not on a tasking and just slipped through the cracks within his unit that is even a much larger break down in basic leadership than losing track of a soldier on an RSOI tasking.  Either way it is not good and a systematic breakdown in leadership.  Hopefully everyone across USFK reviews their accountability policies because things like this should not and cannot happen.