The key suspect in the death of Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen has been identified as a 20-year-old soldier who committed suicide hours after her body was discovered, and Your Content rounded up the need to know facts surrounding the situation.
Authorities say Spc. Aaron David Robinson fled Fort Hood on Tuesday night before he could be arrested by Army criminal investigators. He shot himself when officials caught up with him early Wednesday morning.
Cecily Aguilar, 22, the estranged wife of a Fort Hood soldier, has been arrested on suspicion she helped Robinson dismember and dispose of Guillen’s body. She is being held on a conspiracy to tamper charge at Bell County Jail and could face 20 years in jail and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
CID Senior Special Agent Damon Phelps said in a press conference Thursday that investigators were looking into Robinson’s connection with Guillen. While both were at Fort Hood, they were not in the same command and did not work in the same building.
Phelps dismissed the claims of Guillen’s family that she was sexually harassed by a sergeant shortly before her disappearance, saying there was ‘no credible information’ to support their claim
Guillen, 20, was seen alive at the Texas Army base on April 22 after telling her family she was being harassed by the sergeant.
On Wednesday, US Marshals, Killeen police and the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force tracked down Robinson who had abandoned his post and was walking through at city a few miles from the base.
‘As officers attempted to make contact with the suspect, the suspect displayed a weapon and discharged it toward himself. The suspect succumbed from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,’ the Killeen Police Department said.
The lawyer for the family of Guillen say the young woman was killed with a hammer on base before being dismembered and buried in concrete.
Natalie Khawam said that she had discussed the case with the Army’s Criminal Investigations Division recently who told her that Robinson and Aguilar worked together to dispose of the body.
She alleges that they used a machete to dismember the 20-year-old after trying to burn her.
In a press conference Thursday, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) revealed Robinson, 20, was stationed in the building adjacent to Guillen on the Texas base.
Khawam claimed Guillen was working in the armory with the suspect when she told him she was going to report him for breaking a military rule.
She said the man then grabbed a hammer and began ‘bludgeoning her head over and over’.
She said she was told by officials that the other soldier cleaned up the area where Guillen was killed, placed her body in a container and wheeled her out to his car.
Later that afternoon, Khawam said, the soldier drove to pick up a woman and took the body to a nearby river. There, Khawam said, the pair tried to burn Guillen’s, but later dismembered it with a machete. Then, they put cement on the body and buried the remains.
She added that the remains were so badly damaged that medical officials were unable to use her face or skull for bone recognition or for dental record confirmations.
‘It appears he buried her, put lime on her, mixed up concrete, put that over her, put dirt over her, rocks and stuff,’ Texas Equusearch’s Tim Miller told KHOU.
On Wednesday, a picture of the site was revealed for the first time as Miller announced they found the lid to a Pelican storage case which prompted them to continue the search in the area.
The discovery was made as the Army announced they were promoting Guillen despite her missing status.
She was promoted to Specialist on Monday.
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