According to insurgents later interviewed by US Defense Attache Office Assistant Army Attache Captain Ronald Glass, Carney grew disheartened by the actions of the atheist insurgent commander Dr. Mata, both by the summary execution of the deserter in front of the remaining men, and then by being prohibited by Mata to minister spiritually to the men, eventually prohibited from performing mass. U.S embassy documents, citing interviews with PRTC deserters suggest that, as the Honduran military closed in on the group, the 60 plus year old Carney grew physically weak, barely being able to walk even a hundred meters before having to rest. The priest, not wanting to endanger, slowdown or burden the now fragmented group, selflessly sacrificed himself, reportedly telling his companions to leave him behind. According to the last two insurgents claiming to have seen him alive, he was left in a hammock, hidden under a triple canopy jungle in the Patuca region, where he presumably died, alone, exposed to the elements and without food. This official version based on interviews with insurgent survivors, is contradicted in news reports echoed from testimony of a man characterized in media as an exiled former intelligence officer Florencio Cabadero who claimed that Carney was captured, tortured, and then thrown to his death from a helicopter by members of the Honduran Army's elite Battalion 316. Eric Haney, who was stationed in Honduras as a member of the Delta Force at the time, reported 'hearing' the same reports, that Carney was tortured and killed by the military. In his book Inside Delta Force, Haney claims credit for killing former Green Beret David Arturo Baez in the final firefight that saw Carney captured (The Battle of Yolo Valley, Honduras). Since the publication of his book and claim Haney has been roundly admonished by the U.S. Special Forces community for fabricating the story of his killing Baez. Another report echoes the same claims that Baez and Carney were taken alive by Honduran forces. However, unnamed sources [need cite] claiming to be linked to the U.S. Embassy in Honduras have purportedly offered that Carney, along with Baez, a Nicaraguan-American Sandinista serving as a military adviser to the guerrilla column, were captured. According to these unsourced reports, both he and Baez were interrogated at a small dirt landing strip in Honduras along with surviving members of the column. Carney and Baez were ordered to be executed by the