Just days before New Year’s Eve, Alicia Errett received a text message out of the blue from her ex-boyfriend, a US Special Forces soldier. Matthew Levelsberger.
The couple had not been in touch since 2022. Now, Livelsberger was asking if he was single. They exchanged a few quick texts over the next two days, and then Levelsberger began sending photos and videos of a Tesla Cybertruck he said he had rented.
“It’s st,” he wrote on New Year’s Eve, according to messages shared with NBC News. “I feel like Batman or Halo.”
“How fast,” he asked.
“Ungodly,” he replied.
They continued texting into the evening, with Levelsberger giving no indication that he was planning anything drastic.
It wasn’t until two days later, when FBI agents showed up at Errett’s home, that he learned the painful truth: The 37-year-old Levelsberger drove himself inside the Tesla just seconds before the explosion in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas. was shot. New Year’s Day.
“He actually asked if I wanted to watch the video of him dying,” Arrett said in an interview. “It was horrible to find out about it.”
Investigators are still working to determine exactly what caused Levelsburger to take his own life. He was a Master Sergeant in the U.S. Army’s elite Special Forces unit and a resident of Colorado Springs.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, law enforcement officials said they had found texts on Levelsburger’s phone calling the country’s leadership “weak” and the United States “slightly sick and headed for disaster.” ”
“This was not a terrorist attack,” one of the letters said. “It was a wake-up call.”
Officials added that the investigation, in consultation with the military, determined that Levelsberger may have suffered from PTSD, and that investigators are aware that he may have “had There may be family issues or personal grievances that are causing it.”
Speaking to NBC News before Friday’s news conference, Arrett said she had no idea what was behind her ex-boyfriend’s death.
“I’ve just been spinning it around in my head for two days. I don’t understand it,” she said. “He was always really brave. So whatever he thought he was doing, I bet he thought it was brave.
The couple dated on and off for three years starting in 2018. They also had military service in common. Arrett was an Army nurse, working at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
As their relationship continued, it became clear to him that Levelsberger was struggling with injuries he had sustained in the military. Errett said he had two back surgeries from his days as a paratrooper, and also suffered brain injuries that he hid from his superiors.
“We talked about it a little bit, but I think he was embarrassed about it,” she said. “Ashamed of the memory loss and head injuries. He couldn’t get it treated while he was on active duty. He was worried it would affect his career if he did.
Levelsberger also struggled with headaches and had difficulty concentrating, he said.
“He was competing very well for a long time when I knew him,” he said. “He had such a deep well of inner strength that he was drawing on. And I can’t believe he’s gone.
But at one point in their relationship, he failed to make it through an “advanced school” the military sent him to, Errett said, and that “really destroyed him.”
“He was a super smart guy,” she said. “He was always meticulous about everything he did. He always planned and analyzed things.
He said he doesn’t have particularly strong political views, but he loves his country.
“He was not a blind patriot,” he said. “He thought about what he believed in, and he thought the government had done something wrong, but he loved his country and he loved its people.”
After their breakup, Levelsberger remarried. Arrett said she still holds him in high regard even though they lost contact until the last few days of his life.
“He could do so many wonderful things,” she said. “He had such a deep well of compassion for other people. He had so much military experience that he could use in the world.