Four months after a soldier was found dead in a Fort Drum barracks, the circumstances surrounding his death remain undisclosed by the Army Criminal Investigation Division.

The body of Sgt. Mark D. Ackerman, 28, from Menominee, Mich., was discovered on June 16, about 23 days after he was last seen alive. An autopsy was conducted in Watertown, but the only comment by CID spokesman Christopher Grey is that test results are still being awaited and the investigation continues.

If he was referring to toxicology tests from the autopsy, those are usually returned in six to eight weeks in New York State.

He was noncommittal about whether the case is a murder investigation.

“They aren’t telling us anything, either,” said the late soldier’s father, Robert J. Ackerman, reached by telephone Tuesday in Menominee. Mr. Ackerman declined additional comment.

Sgt. Ackerman, survived by his wife Kara and a son, Christian, was assigned to the 10th Sustainment Brigade after serving in Iraq from November 2008 to October 2009. He was a resident of Thompson Park Apartments, 127 Spring Ave., when he disappeared on May 25. Watertown police were first disclosed to be investigating the disappearance on June 14, and acknowledged they were looking for a man with possible information about Sgt. Ackerman. Police learned on the evening of June 14 the whereabouts of the possible witness, but subsequently did not comment about whether he provided any information. Undisclosed is whether discovery of the soldier’s body two days later was coincidental to locating the possible witness.

Since the case involved a soldier who was found dead on Fort Drum, the investigation passed out of the hands of Watertown police.

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