Service for slain soldier will take place Friday in Houston
The remains of Vanessa Guillén were handed over to her family in Houston via a funeral home on Monday, and her memorial service will take place on Friday, the family’s lawyer said.
“The Texas Rangers delivered the remains to the funeral home today,” said attorney Natalie
Khawam.
A memorial service will take place at César Chávez High School in Houston, where Spc. Guillén attended, Khawam said.
Luis Landa, principal of César Chávez High School, said he is glad that the family decided to have the memorial at the school.
“I know it’s very, very difficult for the family, and they must be going through quite a bit right now,” Landa said. He said that there are “many students and staff members who knew her extremely well and loved her, and they want to be here for the family.”
The Guillén family received Vanessa’s remains 110 days after she was murdered by another soldier inside an armory room in Fort Hood on April 22, according to investigators.
“We’ll get to see her today for the first time” since she died, said her sister Mayra Guillén. “Today I get her back home.”
The family said that receiving the remains has been a longawaited step in their grieving process, and said they complained about the delay during their visit to the White House on July 30.
The family told President
Donald Trump at the meeting that they weren’t able to have a funeral for Vanessa because the Texas Rangers and the FBI had custody of the remains and said that they could not turn them over because the case was still under investigation.
“The Guillén family is grateful that the president helped expedite Vanessa’s remains back to
her family so they can have a funeral and properly bury her body on Saturday,” Khawam said.
“We have had everything prepared for the funeral,” Gloria Guillén said in a recent interview with the Chronicle. She said she was planning to have two ceremonies for her daughter, a public and a private one, although full details were not yet available.
The family decided to use a custom-made casket donated to them that has elements meaningful to the Mexican-American soldier and her family, including images of the flags of the United States and Mexico and the Virgin of Guadalupe.