Foul play suspected in case of missing Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillén
HOUSTON — More than two months after a young soldier went missing from a Texas military base, U.S. Army investigators said this week they suspect foul play related to her disappearance and have opened a separate inquiry into allegations that she was sexually harassed by a supervisor.
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Army Col. Ralph Overland, commander of Guillén’s 3rd Cavalry Regiment, said in a statement that the Army takes “take allegations of sexual harassment very seriously,” and a separate administrative review of the harassment allegations will take place independent of the criminal investigation into Guillén’s disappearance.
The Criminal Investigation Command — the military's equivalent of the FBI — said its investigators have interviewed more than 300 people and have not ruled out anything, according to spokesman Christopher Grey. They began searching for Guillén with the help of several agencies, including the FBI, he said.
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The family and congressional lawmakers met with Fort Hood command staff and investigators on Tuesday to discuss the case. Natalie Khawam, an attorney for Guillén’s family, said she was pleased to have more answers after weeks of hearing nothing but was angered by discrepancies in the statements Army investigators made to the family.
Khawam said the Army initially said Guillén had reported for a 3 p.m. check-in with her supervisor, but, when pressed, admitted the report was erroneous. The Army did not say why the report was wrong.
Khawam said she emailed questions to investigators before the meeting and was promised a timeline and records. But when they arrived, the attorney said she could not obtain specific details, such as who called Guillén into work that day and the location of her cellphone. Khawam said she will file FOIA requests and subpoena phone records herself.
“Their answers were not justified. It was bogus. How dare you not be more transparent with the family?” said Khawam, who has worked on previous military sexual assault cases and is advocating for tougher legislation in Congress. “I think a lot of people dropped the ball. They were being disingenuous about their efforts to find her.”
The meeting, Khawam said, felt staged and devolved into a tense exchange because investigators declined to provide more details, fearing it could jeopardize the case.
“I think the most important part is that they are using the words now: ‘foul play,’ ” Garcia said at a news conference following the meeting. They “are looking at potential criminal activity to have occurred. The question is: who, what and when?”
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