An American citizen, found dead in his room at The Westin Hotel in Dhaka’s upmarket Gulshan neighbourhood on August 31, first entered Bangladesh in April 2025 before “travelling to different locations in the country for work related to his country’s government”, police sources revealed to Northeast News.
This is the first time that Dhaka Police officers, who had earlier told the local media that the American national, identified as Terrence Arvelle Jackson, was in the country on “business”, have admitted that the US citizen was in Bangladesh on “sarkari kaaje nijer desher uddyeshe bibhinno jayegaye gechhilo” (“he visited several locations in Bangladesh on his government’s work”) after he first arrived in April.
A curious element of the mysterious episode surrounding Jackson is that while the police maintained that he checked into The Westin at 3 pm on August 29, hotel and other security sources disclosed that the US national checked in on August 27, a Thursday. Northeast News verified this from two separate sources.
The booking request was from a person from the US embassy and an email was sent to an employee of The Westin’s sales department. The booking was confirmed by the hotel’s reservation department.
“He moved in and out of the hotel that day (August 27). He had breakfast and dinner at the hotel restaurant the next day (August 28). The next evening (August 29) he went out, but he did not step out at all on Saturday (August 30) or eat out.
He did not leave the hotel on Sunday (August 31) either. That day his body was found inside the room,” a Westin staff revealed to Northeast News.
When Jackson’s body was discovered by housekeeping staff on August 31, the hotel’s other employees went into a tizzy.
The front desk advised all staff not to enter the room. One source said that “a senior Westin executive admonished some junior colleagues for their curiosity about the death and advised them sternly to not try to know much and avoid calls from the media”.
Around 12:30 pm on August 31, three US embassy officials, including a woman, reached The Westin and instructed the hotel staff to “not talk to anyone about our involvement”. In this context, hotel sources said that Jackson’s booking was done by a US embassy official. They disclosed that Jackson was found lying in his bed “totally naked”.
Information accessed by Northeast News shows that Jackson, aged 50, was born in a state in eastern US.
The US embassy, the hotel sources said, were against the idea of issuing a statement to the press even at this “crisis situation” even as Jackson was on the hotel’s records as a “long-staying guest”.
The US embassy brought in its own security and doctor and even cordoned off Room No. 808, which was occupied by Jackson, with “blue and yellow” tapes.
The police later stepped in to issue a statement to the media. It was around 6:30 pm on August 31 that the US embassy took away Jackson’s body. Several large suitcases and other personal items used by Jackson were also taken away.
On September 1, a spokesperson of the US Army’s 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) emailed this reporter to claim that an American national who was found dead in a hotel room in Dhaka was not the same “individual” living in Raeford, North Carolina.
This email was in response to Northeast News’ story headlined ‘American found dead in Dhaka’s Westin Hotel was a US Special Forces Command (Airborne) officer’ which appeared on September 1, a day after the body of American citizen Terrence Arvelle Jackson was found in room number 808 of The Westin Hotel, Dhaka.
Northeast News is withholding revealing the name of the spokesperson of the 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) for security reasons.
A Northeast News report said that Jackson was a Command Inspector General for the 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) and had plans to retire in the next two years.
Details available on his LinkedIn page showed that he “served in the United States Army for over 20 years and participated in multiple combat deployments, and temporary duty assignments across the Asia Theater”.
Following a written response by Northeast News, the US Army Special Operations Command’s Public Affairs Officer Lieutenant Colonel Allie Scott, “officially” wrote on September 4, saying, “We formally request a correction of your story because it is false. All currently serving personnel who are assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command are accounted for and present. We have no ongoing operations in Dhaka and therefore do not have any authority to comment on the reported death. We would defer your request for details and virtual conference to the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka. They can be reached at DhakaEMB-ODC@state.gov”.
A questionnaire emailed by Northeast News to the US embassy in Dhaka on September 4 did not elicit any response more than two days after it was despatched.
There is now clarity that Jackson was a serving US Special Forces (Airborne) officer whose mission to Bangladesh – along with other soldiers – was classified.
Hotel staff who Northeast News spoke with said that a week a before Jackson died, “five to six” US military officers, in uniform, were seen at The Westin’s lobby.
“They were guests at the hotel,” this employee said.
Contrary to the claims made by the Dhaka Police that Jackson was a “businessman”, he was part of a larger number of US Special Forces personnel who imparted or continue to impart military training to the host country’s army officers.
Northeast News is in possession of evidence that show Jackson imparting training to some Bangladesh Army personnel at an undisclosed location.
During his training sessions with Bangladeshi defence personnel, Jackson would often wear T shirts with the logo of Nine Line apparels, a company founded in 2013 by a Special Forces officer, Tyler Merritt.
The parent military unit of some of these officers was the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) nicknamed the ‘Night Stalkers’.
In his email to Northeast News, the spokesperson of the 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) claimed (on September 1) that “the individual in question (Jackson) is confirmed alive and in the US at this time”. He continued that “This misinformation is harmful to the individual and could certainly result in unnecessary attention in his personal life”.
And yet, curiously enough, the information culled by Northeast News from Jackson’s LinkedIn page, which remained unchanged till the evening (IST) of September 3, someone accessed his account to delete this portion – “My previous Military Occupation Specialty (MOS) was Infantry Officer 11A, and my current MOS is Special Forces Officer or 18A. I currently wok (sic) as a Command Inspector General for 1 Special Forces Command (Airborne), and I plan to retire in the next two years”.
It could not be immediately verified whether any person other than account holder deleted the sensitive part of the profile information.
At least two Bangladeshi government and military sources revealed to Northeast News that Jackson was imparting military-related training to host country army officers for at least four months since his first arrival in Dhaka.
While the sources were chary to disclose the names of the places where these trainings were imparted, it has come to light that other US Special Operations officers continue to be in Bangladesh for the same reason.
Bangladeshi military officers were unwilling to indicate the precise dates when these US Special Forces officers entered Bangladesh and the names of the locations, including sensitive areas, where they imparted specific combat training to junior officers.
Bangladesh Army headquarters is in full knowledge of the presence of US Special Forces officers in Dhaka and other locations, including Sylhet. And yet the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) wing did not respond to questions over phone and messages.
Other Bangladeshi government sources, however, revealed that Jackson was in the country for at least four months. While much of Jackson’s sojourn is shrouded in mystery, Northeast News is in possession of evidence that strongly indicate that he was involved in imparting military training to Bangladeshi Army personnel.
A second US Army officer, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, was or continues to be in Bangladesh and is likely involved in activities similar to the ones pursued by Jackson.
There is evidence to suggest that he remains in contact with Bangladeshi Army officers over social media and related messaging platforms.
Notwithstanding the claims by the US Army Special Operations Command, there are multiple sources and evidence that definitively point to Jackson as a Special Forces (Airborne) officer.
But Jackson had other interests too. He was an avid RC (radio-controlled) aircraft and enjoyed this hobby with a host of others living in Arizona. Many of his Arizona-based friends who shared RC flying interests condoled his passing.
