Sgt. Robert Bales' Wife Karilyn Bales: "I Just Don't Think He was Involved" in the Shootings

Karilyn Bales speaks with NBC The wife of Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who was formally charged on Friday with 17 counts of premeditated murder for the deliberate killing of 17 Afghan civilians, told "The Today Show" on Monday that she doesn't believe her husband committed the crime.

"I just don't think he was involved," Karilyn Bales told NBC's Matt Lauer.

Bales turned himself in after leaving his base on March 11 and shooting civilians at two separate locations. The victims included nine children and a pregnant woman; Bales is also accused of attempting to burn the bodies of the victims. His lawyers told Reuters that Bales "really doesn't have any memory" of the shooting.

"He loves children, he's like a big kid himself," his wife said. "I have no idea what happened, but he would not ... he loves children, and he would not do that."



Bales is being held at a U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. His wife and their two children, ages 3 and 4, are under military protection on the base at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Military wives around the country have come out in support of the family as Karilyn goes through one of the most horrifying experiences anyone spouse could imagine. Lori Volkman, the deputy prosecuting attorney in Washington State and a military wife herself, posted an open letter to Karilyn on her blog.

"I can't imagine the stress you were under when you were told that you needed to pack up your things and move onto the base for your own protection, a protection that meant you would be safe from the media but surrounded by people who stared and judged you," she wrote. "When I thought of my own husband and my own children, I sat at my own dinner table with my mother, another military wife, and we cried for you tonight, thinking about how alone and isolated you must feel right now."

"I don't condemn you for being married to a man who has been accused," she added. "I know that there is nothing you could have done to prevent what happened. And I know you are hurting."

The post garnered more than 300 comments, many of them from other military spouses reaching out to offer their support.

Karilyn Bales said that she was at the grocery store when her parents called to tell her that there had been a shooting incident in Afghanistan. When she got home, she found out that the shooter was her husband.

"I saw 38-year-old staff sergeant, and I don't think there are very many of those, and I probably prayed and prayed that my husband wasn't involved," she said. "And then, I received a phone call from the Army saying that they would like to come out and talk to me. And I was relieved, because when you get a phone call, you know that your soldier is not deceased."

But the relief was short-lived.

"They held my hand and they just said that perhaps, you know, they thought that he had left the base, and gone out and perhaps killed the Afghan civilians, and that was really the only sentence, and I just started crying," she said.

When asked point-blank whether seeing him on a surveillance tape would convince her that he really was the shooter, she told Lauer no. "I don't think anything will really change my mind in believing that he did not do this," she said. "This is not what it appears to be."

We wouldn't expect her to be unsupportive. And no one wants to believe that the person they love could be capable of committing such a horrible crime. But in light of all of the news reports and statements from military officials, we're wondering: At what point could a wife not stand by her man?

Copyright © 2012 Yahoo Inc.




Also on Shine:

Why do women stay with men through scandals?
Do you know the symptoms of PTSD?
Life in a military family: 5 things you might not know