NEWBERRY, Mich. (AP) — A former Army officer and Detroit native who reported in 2005 that military prisoners in the Middle East were being beaten and abused by U.S. soldiers has died.

A funeral home says Major Ian Fishback of Newberry, Michigan, died suddenly Friday. He was 42.

No cause of death was listed.

The New York Times reports Tuesday that Fishback’s family says he died in an adult foster care facility in Michigan.

Fishback was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to the newspaper, he wrote about the abuses in a letter to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The allegations eventually led the U.S. Senate to approve anti-torture legislation in 2005.