I felt a bad vibe there, Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. But the only among the victims may be the institution that them all to kill. October 13, 2021 04:48 PM. Their minds both turned to Vanessa, whose hourly texts to family members had gone silent. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. There were no Black residents in town until the early 1950s. The circumstances are so strange and awful that fully understanding the events can be difficult. This memory now refreshed, Gloria began asking around for a name and soon learned it through Guillens friend: Aaron Robinson, the last person to have seen her daughter. During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. Why hadn't the arms room been treated like the crime scene it was? On August 11, a higher-up called Fernandes's mother, Ailina, to tell her that her son had not shown up for work for two days. Casteel had told Rodriguez he was getting away from the abuse.. Mayra wept during the journey, already fearing the worst. First came the British and Germans. 60.2 (births per 1,000 women 15-44 years of age) Teen Birth Rate. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. Robinson gave Guillen the serial number for a .50 caliber machine gun that needed servicing. On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. Before Fort Hood was built, the land was used for grazing by some 3,000 farmers and ranchers, according to Gerald D. Skidmore, a Killeen historian. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. 24, 2021 KILLEEN, Texas Spc. Simply browse the Fort Hoods obituaries listing you can find on this page or conduct a search on the web site with your loved ones name. Around the Guillen murals in Killeen and in Houston, I met people who had lost loved ones to the military, who felt harm done, who saw in Guillen a savior. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. The suicides, which reportedly jumped by as much as 20 percent across the military last year, work out to a rate of one soldier a month. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. The search party arrived at Fort Hood at 3 a.m. Guillens staff sergeant told the group to come back in the morning. Thirteen killed themselves. Casteel had told Rodriguez "he was getting away from the abuse.". Two witnesses had seen Robinson roll a black cargo box out of the arms room and through the parking lot, where he loaded it into his car and drove away, contradicting an earlier affidavit from three soldiers who falsely claimed they had seen Guillen departing the arms room earlier. The pursuit of happiness, or simply stability, will invariably lure people to the American military, which may be why the undocumented, the indigent, or those with a criminal record are overrepresented in its ranks. It was unclear, in 2020, what American soldiers were fighting for. Maxwell Hockin, 26, joined the U.S. Army in 2017. "She doesn't belong to the Army anymore," AnaLuisa Tapia, a local organizer, told me. Fernandes had just been stationed at Fort Hood in January. Maxwell Hockin. Fort Hood was founded in January 1942 as a training ground for tank destroyers, selected for its varied terrain. It was a "heartrending, searing experience," central Texas historian Gra'Delle Duncan said, "leaving lifetime marks on all, and actually killing some" from the psychic devastation that followed. Fort Hood hurriedly put up a $25,000 reward for Wedel-Morales as well. After 8 p.m., Guillens sister Mayra called the base. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who did not like him. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. Women, who make up 17 percent of active-duty military, were doubly bereft, and the case files were awash with stories of the dead. A few days later, so did 21-year-old Specialist Trey Ring. The very next day, a Fort Hood investigation concluded that Fernandes's charges of sexual assault were unsubstantiated. Yet instead of being taken into custody, Robinson was placed in a conference room on base, initially, it was said, for committing adultery, which is against the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The purported motto of the Army was family first, mission second, Gary Shafer, a noncommissioned officer who served at Fort Hood from 2012 to 2018 and who knew Wedel-Morales through the car-club scene, told me. Don't they care as to what happened to Elder Fernandes? At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. Just before noon, Guillen left her keys, Army ID, and bank cards in one arms room and entered another adjacent arms room, separated by a hallway. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. He ultimately murdered her when she was eight months pregnant, then set her on fire before fleeing to Mexico. Last year, at least 39 Fort Hood soldiers died or went missing. Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. (His son's alleged killer is in custody awaiting trial.) The vast emptiness that is most of the state can make you feel inconsequential, as if you could disappear and no one would know you ever lived. Maxwell Hockin, 26, was. It's possible. They married in May 2017, and he took her name with hyphenation. Maxwell Hockin, the Central . To revist this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. It was ruled a suicide until her father noticed her broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, and burns on her genitals. Amid all those other deaths, on June 21, 2020, a search party found the charred lid of a cargo box along the Leon River 20 miles east of Fort Hood. They pointed glumly to past cases, some of which there were public records for and others I could find no traces of in the official files. She has become that complicated, indelible thing: a hero. He refused to send a selfie or get on a video chat and began using a strange and unfamiliar speech pattern. They pointed glumly to past cases, some of which there were public records for and others I could find no traces of in the official files. And yet: The data is not really out of the ordinary for U.S. military bases. Not long after Fort Hood opened, soldiers began bringing home souvenirs in the form of war brides. Death Notices Famous Deaths Search Wednesday, March 01, 2023 Audrie Talmadge "A.T." Powell 10 hrs ago Services for Audrie Talmadge "A.T." Powell, 78, will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at Salado. Rodriguez sensed something was off. Namely, the military. Last December, an internal investigation found that Fort Hoods culture, environment, and leadership resulted in women feeling vulnerable and preyed upon, with no reliable recourse for their very real sense of duress. Fort Hood might not even stand out were it not for a particularly bad year among many. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. The stories are gruesome, then heartbreaking, then beyond belief. Is it possible Elder was murdered? Four days later, an anonymous tip directed investigators to an urban prairie at the end of a residential street where Penny Morales used to live. As publication approached, it stopped responding to emails pertaining to both specific questions about individual cases as well as broader queries about the base.). Later the same day, at 8:30 p.m., Aaron Robinsons girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, changed her story and told Army investigators that Robinson had confessed to her that he killed Guillen in the arms room, beating her to death with a hammer. (The Boley case remains unsolved.) There she encountered Specialist Aaron Robinson, also 20 years old but a rank above. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). A young soldier found dead at Fort Hood has been identified, but his cause of death remains hidden. Atop these sedimentary layers of desecration, displacement, and disorientation, the War Department set out to build a base that would go on to serve as a footnote to nearly every war in modern memoryKorea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, but also Grenada, Panama, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Chee had joined the military in part to support the young family he was starting with his high school sweetheart turned fiance. I will tell you everything. Fernandes was dropped off at his friends house the next day, August 17, never to be seen again. That an overwhelming majority of the towns economy comes from Fort Hood makes Killeen a kind of rentier state, in that most of its revenue comes through a foreign entity, which historically has led to the collapse of domestic industries, leading to increased dependence on a single source of income. He had been happy enough there that in February he reenlisted for an additional four years. (According to Killeen police, no such vests were found at the scene of the crash. Guillens youngest sister, Lupe, made me promise to stay at the Marriott, a hotel she considered safer than the rest. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. He joined the U.S. Army in March of 2017 as a combat engineer and had been assigned to . Remains of soldiers have been turning up around the Texas military base with terrifying frequency. Fertility Rate. Tributes.com is the online source for current local and national obituary news. Chee, like Yazzie, was a member of the Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation community, and was new to the base. He died in 1879, leaving a troubled legacy that is only now beginning to be questioned. Thirteen people were determined to have committed suicide. Such moral injury deteriorates social trust, which is then "replaced by the settled expectancy of harm, exploitation, and humiliation from others," resulting in despair and violence to self and to others. All rights reserved. Amid all those other deaths, on June 21, 2020, a search party found the charred lid of a cargo box along the Leon River 20 miles east of Fort Hood. Vanessa Guilln, who was missing for about two months before her remains were found. Killeen itself sits on an especially brutal stretch of central Texas, along the Balcones Fault, which separates the high plains of the Hill Country to the west from the grand prairies and limestone plains of the east, and along which runs Interstate 35. On April 29, it was Private Joshua Barnwell, 19. The brutal murders of four Idaho college students shocked millions. Why had it taken forensics 72 days to conduct a search of the arms room? Most of the groups were aboveboard, even as they were ruled by certain strictures for meeting attendance, dress code, and how to appropriately signal respect. Frantic, she called around, to no avail. Toxic leadership is nothing new. Basic details of the incident kept changing. Fort Hood has come under serious fire in recent years, as the incident follows the heartbreaking death of Vanessa Guilln. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. Texan sentenced to 20 years following drug-related death of Fort Hood soldier. (His sons alleged killer is in custody awaiting trial.) She doesnt belong to the Army anymore, AnaLuisa Tapia, a local organizer, told me. Garrison Policies and Regulations. The base was named after John Bell Hood, a Confederate general from a family that enslaved people in Kentucky, who made his name by breaking a Union line at Eltham's Landing in Virginia and who, by today's standards, likely suffered from PTSD. As many as 28 Fort Hood soldiers died in 2020, including in multiple homicides, suicides and other accidents. And yet: The data is not really out of the ordinary for U.S. military bases. (There was also literal toxicity on base in that some of the mold-infested barracks where soldiers lived were technically condemned, according to Maureen Elliott, a military spouse and a housing advocate.). = Link to a CAC-required sites . It was also an ancient Comanche Native American burial ground, discovered when construction workers unearthed more than 2,200 grave sites in 1998. His killers were never looked for properly and thus never found. Rodriguez sensed something was off. That an overwhelming majority of the town's economy comes from Fort Hood makes Killeen a kind of rentier state, in that most of its revenue comes through a foreign entity, which historically has led to the collapse of domestic industries, leading to increased dependence on a single source of income. After he returned to Fort Hood, Rodriguez managed to get Casteel on a video call. His body was mostly intact but for his hyoid, which was never found. A few hours later, Robinson, who had mostly been playing video games, escaped Fort Hood by car. Joshua Diamond, 35, of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Pfc. He died the evening of September 2. The wave of pain went away as suddenly as it had come on but returned again, and again, and again, over the next hour. And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Yet instead of being taken into custody, Robinson was placed in a conference room on base, initially, it was said, for committing adultery, which is against the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In 2007, also in Iraq, Specialist Kamisha Block's death was ruled an accident by a single shot of friendly fire before the family received the body and saw that she had five gunshot wounds, including one to the head. Rosecrans, shot four times, was found three miles from his vehicle. Linda Schweers, whose specialist son, Justin, died in a car crash in June while suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, wanted me to "be careful of cartels," which she said ran the area. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. When Ailina offered the Fort Hood authorities the contents of her sons car, including a laptop, iPad, and external hard drive, they declined to investigate further. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. Boots and hat at Vanessa Guillens memorial, Killeen TX, Jeffrey Epsteins Decades-Long Relationship. In 1941, Private Felix Hall was lynched by fellow soldiers, at Fort Benning, Georgia. She pleaded not guilty. Hockin was found dead behind his company barracks. A small minority, which bikers call one percent groups, and which the Department of Justice calls by the regrettable acronym OMG, or outlaw motorcycle gangs, were the people Wedel-Morales had been hanging around with. (Fort Hood refused all official interview requests for this story, citing ongoing investigations. A few hours later, Robinson, who had mostly been playing video games, escaped Fort Hood by car. Many complained specifically of being made to cut grass to ready for such official visits. No skid marks were apparent, nor did anyone hear the crash. The Armys own investigation found major flaws at Fort Hood, leading to the firing or suspending of 14 officials. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. The rolling, semi-arid terrain is ideal for multifaceted training and testing of military units and troops. 5.2 (infant deaths per 1,000 live births) Life Expectancy (at Birth) 76.5 years (2020) Marriage Rate. When Kim called Fort Hood inquiring after her son, she was told the case was the remit of the Killeen Police Department as Wedel-Morales had gone missing off base. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims'. So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. The first week I spent in Texas that October, 22-year-old Lucas Hicks-Mack went missing on base. During the day, though, it was still hot enough that if you dropped a beer bottle, the contents appeared to dry on contact. Many complained specifically of being made to cut grass to ready for such official visits. Give me the name and I will report the bastard, Gloria told her daughter, who refused to tell her mother more for fear of worrying her, and also, Gloria later suspected, for fear of reprisal. III Corps Inspector General. On May 19, military investigators went through Robinson's phone and learned that he had called his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, multiple times on the night of April 22, as late as 3:30 a.m., from a town 20 miles east of Fort Hooddespite his claim he had been with Aguilar that night. (Penny says they met online.) But at Fort Hood, it sometimes seemed like "mission first, equipment second," he said, highlighting the paradox of the military that in word puts the well-being of soldiers first but in deed must, by design, favor combat readiness over all else. My caution wasnt entirely unfounded. 1st Class Calvin T. Rockward, 38, died during physical training Oct. 27, 2021. . Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. According to officials, the deaths include seven off-duty accidents; seven suicides; one combat-related death; four homicides, one of which was on the base; two of natural causes; one that was. These figures eclipse American casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq in the same year. Before Fort Hood was built, the land was used for grazing by some 3,000 farmers and ranchers, according to Gerald D. Skidmore, a Killeen historian. "As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will call you. (Killeen Police stated they have no knowledge of anyone declining to investigate.) Its possible. A group of soldiers, including Robinson, greeted them. "You can find Osama bin Laden, but you can't find a soldier that went missing on your own base?" Last December, a Special Forces soldier and an Army veteran were found dead at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where another soldier disappeared in May and was later found murdered. "What on earth are you training for?" Later that year, Private Dakota Lee Stump left his barracks to report for work less than a mile away but never arrived for formation. My caution wasn't entirely unfounded. Before Guillen, there had been Private LaVena Lynn Johnson, who was found dead in a tent in 2005 in Iraq. Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. The search party arrived at Fort Hood at 3 a.m. Guillen's staff sergeant told the group to come back in the morning. You can find Osama bin Laden, but you cant find a soldier that went missing on your own base? Guillens youngest sister, Lupe, says. The small Texas frontier town was also a hotbed of Klan activity, according to Texas historian Gene Preuss of the University of Houston, so much so that when trains stopped in Killeen, Black passengersrelegated to colored carsknew to pull down their window shades to avoid a pelting with rocks by locals. Dozens of people were killed, died by suicide, or went missing from the Texas military base last year alone. Fort Worth (817) 293-8477 Laurel Land Funeral Home and Cemetery 7100 Crowley Road, Fort Worth . ), Wedel-Morales's death was not the first from the base that may have involved bike gangs. The military is necessarily an institution of state-sanctioned violence, where we teach our young to kill on our behalf in the name of ideologies such as patriotism or democracy. Oct 29, 2021. They are part of Killeen's population of 151,000, many transient and very young, two thirds of whom have military ties. Guillens superior confirmed she was missing. I will tell you everything, he told his mother. That most soldiers enlist when they are still teenagers, their yet-unformed minds taught to kill. In 2007, also in Iraq, Specialist Kamisha Blocks death was ruled an accident by a single shot of friendly fire before the family received the body and saw that she had five gunshot wounds, including one to the head. So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. Radically transparent, low cost versions of high cost generic drugs. There had been a few people, then it was a group run of 11. Robinson gave Guillen the serial number for a .50 caliber machine gun that needed servicing. (Fort Hood) A soldier in the 1st Cavalry Division was found dead Saturday in his company area, according to a statement from. On the night of August 19, Wedel-Morales went out to Club Fuego, located in a desolate strip mall about 10 miles east of Fort Hood. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. The 20-year-old small arms specialist, then a private first class, was supposed to be off that day, so she showed up in civilian clothesblack tee, purple leggings, and a fanny pack. Why was Robinson not put under watch? Hoover, Alabama. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. The U.S. Army on Tuesday announced the removal . Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. Later the same day, at 8:30 p.m., Aaron Robinson's girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar, changed her story and told Army investigators that Robinson had confessed to her that he killed Guillen in the arms room, beating her to death with a hammer. A 214,968-acre installation, this is the only post in the United States capable of stationing and training two armored divisions. That morning, Guillen had left her third-floor barracks and headed downstairs to her work station at the motor pool, a vast garage for military vehicles. The numbers are distressing. He got home around 2 p.m. and told his wife, Gloria, about the unusual aches. If not, what explained the false accounting? Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. Fernandes wouldn't share much, nothing about what had caused him to be hospitalized, and said that he was using an insecure base hospital line. Far from itthe military was operating as it had been intended. And being mission-ready, the perpetual vigilance it requires, ensures a kind of endless possibility of war, which in turn justifies the $740 billion annual defense budget. Is it possible Elder killed himself ? A sergeant from Guillen's division called it "mandatory fun days." Casteel had been stationed at Fort Hood since the end of June, where he'd been bullied for a spinal injury that consigned him to desk duties. The death was ruled a suicide despite the fact that the blanket stuffed around the window to hold the pipe in place had been doused in Schuette's own blood, and Schuette was found with nine stab wounds across his body, including his forearm and his left hand. The coming months brought the suicides of Staff Sergeant Richard Harrington, 45, and then Specialist James Green, 23. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims' families. Schuettes body was returned to his family wrapped like a mummy. Later that year, Private Dakota Lee Stump left his barracks to report for work less than a mile away but never arrived for formation. By then, the Army, it seemed, had stopped providing Wedel-Morales with a sense of purpose, and he had turned to alternate sources of meaning, namely car and motorcycle clubs, and life beyond the base. The murder of Vanessa Guilln, a 20-year-old United States Army soldier, took place inside an armory at Fort Hood, Texas, on April 22, 2020, when she was bludgeoned to death by another soldier, Aaron David Robinson. Thomas Berg, whose son Private Brandon Rosecrans's Jeep was found burning in May, told me not to go out after dark. Since being stationed at Fort Hood in November 2016, Wedel-Morales had frequented the Dollhouse, a strip club not far from where his remains would eventually be found. (Fort Hood refused all official interview requests for this story, citing ongoing investigations. But with each encounter, it was becoming clear that the military had not failed its soldiers at all. Without any sense of purpose, the suffering at Fort Hood had started to lose its meaning. On May 11, however, Fernandes reported to Fort Hood abusive sexual contact from a staff sergeant, whom he alleged groped him in a supply room, according to the redacted military investigation report. The Idaho Murders, Part 1: How 4 College Kids Lived and Loved. Vanity Fair may earn a portion of sales from products that are purchased through our site as part of our Affiliate Partnerships with retailers. In the same week, Private Edward Casteel, who had been missing from Fort Hood since October 6, was found in a parish jail in Louisiana, arrested after a high-speed chase. Here are some of the tragic deaths that have plagued the base in recent months: Pvt. I have sponsored a a Change.org listing advocating renaming the post after Oveta . None of the messages added up, nor were they how he usually speaks to me, Rodriguez told me. After 10 torturous weeks and growing. Staff Sergeant Devin Schuette was found dead in his pickup truck, fitted with a hose running from the exhaust pipe to the cabin, in January 2016. He died the evening of September 2. Fort Hood announced that Stump had crashed his car while driving under the influence, though a toxicology report proved inconclusive. Terrie Boley, whose daughter Candance became addicted to crack cocaine while serving at Fort Hood and was murdered in a motel room in 2011, told me not to drink the water. So when, the following spring, Fort Hood offered a $15,000 reward for information about Guillen, then raised it to $25,000 in June, Kim called to demand the same. The story appears in the July/August 2021 issue of Vanity Fair.I enthusiastically recommend this article. The exact cause of Hockin's death remains unclear . Soon after, the Temple police, who led the investigation, ruled Fernandes's death a suicide. He had then driven the body to the Leon River and had come back to pick Aguilar up from the gas station where she worked on Veterans Memorial Boulevard, five miles east of Fort Hood. In 2018, a soldier was allegedly shot and killed in her front yard by her husband at Fort Campbell, in Kentucky, which also has one of the highest rates of suicide in the Army. A few days later, so did 21-year-old Specialist Trey Ring. On the night of August 19, Wedel-Morales went out to Club Fuego, located in a desolate strip mall about 10 miles east of Fort Hood.