A blurry trail camera photo is the last known sighting of Craig Berry, the 53-year-old special forces veteran accused of trying to kill his wife in Dover, Tennessee, just south of the Kentucky border. Authorities say Berry fled into the woods near the couple’s home after the early Friday morning shooting and has not been seen since.
Berry’s wife called 911 after she said a verbal argument turned physical at their home. She told officials Berry hit her in the head several times, then tried to strangle her before she escaped to her vehicle. After she drove away, she said he shot her in the neck. She was later released from the hospital.
The shooting set off a widening search and a warrant for Berry’s arrest. The Stewart County Sheriff’s Office said Berry is armed with at least one handgun and is believed to have taken extra ammunition. Investigators also say he returned home after the shooting, changed into camouflage clothing and likely got more ammunition before disappearing into the woods.
That detail has sharpened concern for deputies searching a rural area where Berry’s military background may matter as much as his location. Authorities describe him as an excellent swimmer and diver in good physical shape, a combination that can complicate any effort to track him through Tennessee terrain. The case also reaches back to a long Army career: Christopher Surridge said Craig M. Berry served as an Infantryman and Special Forces Medical Sergeant in the regular Army from 1992 to 2016.
Berry was deployed to Iraq four times before leaving the Army as a sergeant first class. In Dover, that record sits uneasily beside the accusation now driving the manhunt. John Bidwell said the mood in the area is pretty casual, and added that most people are armed. Frankie Gray put it more bluntly, saying it is not that everybody has a weapon; usually, everybody has several.
The search now turns on a narrow question with immediate stakes: whether Berry’s training helped him vanish into the woods before deputies arrived, or whether the trail camera image is only the last hard point before arrest.
