1 suspect dead, 1 arrested in disappearance of US soldier

One suspect in the disappearance of U.S. soldier Vanessa Guillen died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and another was arrested by the Texas Rangers, the Pentagon announced Wednesday.

Guillen, a 20-year-old soldier from Houston, was last seen on April 22 at the Regimental Engineer Squadron Headquarters in Fort Hood, Texas. 

Law enforcement had been trying to locate one of the suspects, a junior soldier, who fled from Fort Hood late Tuesday. The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) and the League of United Latin American Citizens each pledged $25,000 for any information on the suspects’ whereabouts.

At 1:29 a.m. Wednesday officials located him in Killeen, Texas, where he took his own life upon contact with police, according to a Pentagon spokesperson.

The civilian suspect was identified only as “the estranged wife of a former Fort Hood Soldier.” She is currently in custody in the Bell County Jail and will be charged, officials said.

“We have made significant progress in this tragic situation and are doing everything possible to get to the truth and bring answers to the family of Pfc. Vanessa Guillen,” Chris Grey, a spokesperson for U.S. Army CID, said in a statement.

The Texas Rangers have found partial remains at Leon River in Bell County, Texas, which they are still processing. Guillen’s family believes they are hers. 

Guillen’s family and several House lawmakers have called for a congressional investigation into her disappearance. 

“We don’t want just attention. We want action. We want answers,” Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) said at a Tuesday press conference, The Associated Press reported. “We’ve got to remember that this is a family that is hurting.”

Like Garcia, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) has also called for “independent, federal investigation into this matter.”

“It’s unacceptable that a young soldier simply disappears from a military base and is unaccounted for this amount of time,” Gonzalez said in a statement earlier this month. 

The Fort Hood soldier’s family has said that the military’s response to her April disappearance has been inadequate.

“I demand justice and I demand their respect and that they respect my daughter as a soldier,” Guillen’s mother, Gloria Guillen, said in Spanish on Tuesday, the AP reported. “She enlisted for her country and to protect us. And now that she needs us, we need to support her and find her.”