Army concludes missing soldier killed by fellow soldier from Calumet City: lawyer
AUSTIN, Texas — Army investigators believe a Texas soldier missing since April was killed by another soldier on the Texas base where they served, the attorney for the missing soldier’s family said Thursday.
Lawyer Natalie Khawam said the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division told her that the other soldier bludgeoned 20-yearold soldier Vanessa Guillen with a hammer at Fort Hood and later dismembered her and buried the remains in the woods.
Khawam said she met with investigators from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division on Wednesday evening and was told the other soldier cleaned up the area where Guillen was killed, placed her body in a container and wheeled her out to his car.
“The whole thing is devastating, gruesome, barbaric,” Khawam said.
The Army said Wednesday that a soldier who was suspected in Guillen’s disappearance had killed himself. The Army also said a civilian suspect had been arrested.
On Thursday, the Army identified the soldier suspected in Guillen’s disappearance as Aaron David Robinson, of Calumet City in Chicago’s south suburbs. The civilian suspect was not named. Army investigators declined to comment further on the details of Guillen’s case.
The Army CID said human remains were found Tuesday near the Leon River in Bell County, about 20 miles east of Fort Hood. The family said through Khawam that they believe the remains are Guillen, but the Army says it is still awaiting positive identification.
Khawam said the Army CID told her that after the soldier killed Guillen, he drove to pick up a woman and then they took the body to a river. There, Khawam said, the pair tried to burn Guillen’s body, but later dismembered it 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 that investigators found a lid last week that belonged to a container consistent with one a witness saw loaded into a car at 8:30 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 it appeared the suspect “buried her, put lime on her, mixed up concrete, put that over her, put dirt over her, rocks and stuff.”
The family had said they believe Guillen was sexually harassed by the military suspect and is calling for a congressional investigation, Khawam said Wednesday.
Army investigators said Thursday that they had no credible evidence that Guillen had been sexually harassed or assaulted.
Guillen was last seen April 22 in a parking lot at Fort Hood.