Congresswoman wants openness in investigation of missing soldier
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia on Tuesday called for transparency in the Army investigation of a missing Fort Hood soldier whose Houston family said had been sexually harassed, while the case garnered celebrity attention.
Private First Class Vanessa Guillén was last seen on April 22 at around 1 p.m. in the parking lot of her barracks, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division Command said at the time.
Garcia said that she has met with Army leaders at the post in Killeen, including Col. Ralph Overland, the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment to which the 20-year-old Guillen was assigned. She said she wanted to know “what they have been doing to find Vanessa and ensure that there is more transparency in this case.”
Gloria Guillén, the soldier’s mother, said that her daughter told her that a sergeant had sexually harassed her at the base. “She told me that she didn’t feel safe there,” the mother said during the online conference.
The soldier’s family said they are unsatisfied with the Army’s investigation and don’t trust it.
“They did not begin looking for my daughter until the next day with only 20 soldiers,” the mother said, crying. “Why didn’t they close the base immediately?
Why didn’t they look for a girl properly?”
Mayra Guillén, the soldier’s older sister, said the family doesn’t know what the Army investigators have been doing or if they have found anything.
“We have received no meaningful information from the investigators,” said Mayra Guillén. “It’s close to being two months, and they say they have no lead. You are a military (organization) and tell me that you have no lead, when you are trained to find soldiers in the middle of the war abroad? That’s hard to believe.”
Chris Grey, spokesman for Army CID, said investigators have no credible information or report that Guillén was sexually harasssed. “We are completely
committed to finding Vanessa and aggressively going after every single piece of credible information and every lead in this investigation,” Grey said in a news release. “We will not stop until we find Vanessa.”
Mayra Guillén said the family wants the FBI to take over the investigation. The family also is asking that volunteers with Texas Equusearch, who have been helping in the case, be allowed to search inside the base. The sister said family and friends will continue rallying every week outside the base until Guillén is found.
At the news conference, the president of the League of United Latin American Citizens Domingo Garcia announced a reward of $25,000 for information that leads to finding Guillén. He said the amount is in addition to the $15,000 that the Army announced in April.
Guillén’s case is gaining national attention with the intervention of high profile figures. Among them, actress and filmmaker Salma Hayek posted a photo to her 15 million followers on Instagram during the weekend, holding a bilingual sign with a picture of the soldier. The post calls to bring Vanessa back.
“Vanessa, you are not alone. We are all with you and will not stop until you come back,” reads a part of Hayek’s message written in Spanish.