Federal and military investigators on Thursday said that a soldier missing since April was killed by a fellow soldier stationed at the same Texas base.
The revelation followed demands for the US Army to release details about its investigation of the disappearance.
A criminal complaint released by the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas charges a civilian with helping to hide the body of 20-year-old solider Vanessa Guillen. The document, prepared in conjunction with the US Army Criminal Investigative Command and the FBI, says that the civilian helped the other soldier get rid of evidence after he bludgeoned Guillen with a hammer at Fort Hood in Central Texas, and later dismembered and dumped the body.
Human remains were found on Tuesday near the Leon River in Bell County, about 32km east of Fort Hood, in the search for Guillen.
Her family said through attorney Natalie Khawam that they believe evidence shows the remains are Guillen, but authorities said they are still awaiting positive identification.
“The whole thing is devastating, gruesome, barbaric,” Khawam said.
The US Army on Wednesday said that the soldier suspected in Guillen’s disappearance had killed himself.
At a news conference on Thursday, the army identified the soldier suspected in Guillen’s disappearance as Aaron David Robinson. Army investigators declined to comment further on the details of Guillen’s case, saying that they did not want to compromise the ongoing investigation.
The criminal complaint released later said that the civilian arrested in connection with the Guillen case was Cecily Aguilar, 22, of Killeen, Texas.
Aguilar faces one count of conspiracy to tamper with evidence.
Robinson enlisted Aguilar to help him dispose of Guillen’s body, the complaint says.
Aguilar was arrested on Wednesday and was being held at the Bell County Jail in Belton, Texas.
Khawam said that the US Army Criminal Investigations Division told her that Robinson cleaned up the area where Guillen was killed, placed her body in a container and wheeled her out to his vehicle.
After driving to pick up Aguilar, Khawam said, the pair drove to a nearby river and tried to burn Guillen’s body, but later chopped it up with a machete. Then, they put cement on the body and buried the remains.
Tim Miller, of Texas Equusearch, who was assisting in the search for Guillen, told KHOU television that investigators found a lid last week that belonged to a container consistent with one a witness saw loaded into a vehicle on the night Guillen disappeared.
Investigators were called back to the scene this week when a man working in the area reported a foul odor. Miller said that it appeared the suspect “buried her, put lime on her, mixed up concrete, put that over her, put dirt over her, rocks and stuff.”
Guillen’s elder sister, Mayra Guillen, on Thursday said that the family was distraught after learning details about her sister’s disappearance.
“There are a lot of horrifying things that happened that day,” Mayra Guillen, 22, said. “There are just no words.”
Mayra Guillen said that her sister had spoken with their mother about experiencing sexual harassment, but that her mother has been too devastated to talk about it.
From their text conversations, Mayra Guillen said that she believed her sister was afraid during her time at Fort Hood.
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