Vanessa Guillen
The family of missing U.S. Army soldier Vanessa Guillen said Sunday that military investigators confirmed that human remains found Tuesday in Bell County, Texas belong to the victim, according to The Washington Post.
Guillen, who was promoted from Private First Class to Specialist amid her disappearance, went missing on April 22 from Fort Hood, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command has said. The turning point in the case came with the discovery of human remains in Texas, and the identification of two suspects. According to officials, Cecily Aguilar, the estranged wife of a former Fort Hood soldier, told them that her boyfriend U.S. Army Specialist Aaron David Robinson recruited her to help dismember and bury the body of a dead female soldier (Guillen), and that he claimed to have hit the victim in the head with a hammer in an arms room.
Police in Killen, Texas have said that Robinson fled Fort Hood, and shot himself when confronted by authorities early Wednesday morning.
In the family’s press conference on Wednesday, Guillen’s sister Mayra Guillen said she actually met Robinson before.
“He had the nerve to laugh in my face and apparently now he kills himself,” she said. “Why? I don’t know, but whoever is responsible has to pay.”
The victim’s family and their attorney have voiced frustration with the U.S. Army, claiming that Guillen faced sexual harassment.
Guillén felt she could not approach her chain of command with allegations, her relatives said. “She felt if she spoke, something would happen,” sister Mayra Guillén told The Post. “I now realize everything leads back to them harassing her at work.”https://t.co/9pS7yLT3t2
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) July 5, 2020
U.S. Army officials have defended their handling of the disappearance, saying they communicated with Guillen’s family since day one of the investigation.
[Image via U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command]
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