Human remains have been found in the search for missing Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen believed to be those of Ms. Guillen, although they have not yet been positively identified.
The family's attorney, Natalie Kahwam, referred to a suspect -- identified by officials as a fellow soldier who fled Fort Hood on foot Wednesday morning and reportedly shot and killed himself as local police and federal marshals closed in on him at a home in Killeen, Texas. Another suspect -- identified only as the estranged wife of a former Fort Hood soldier -- was taken into custody and awaits charges in connection to Guillen's disappearance.
"We believe that her remains were found," Kahwam said in a press conference in Washington, D.C. "We believe that the suspect had killed himself in the morning. And that, unfortunately, does not provide us much information about how this happened, why this happened. About why a beautiful young soldier is not with us today." The lawyer added that the suspect, who authorities said died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, worked with Guillen the day she vanished.
The military officer who died by suicide after being confronted about his involvement in Fort Hood soldier Ms. Guillen’s disappearance allegedly walked in on her showering, her family’s lawyer said Wednesday. The incident is one of two alleged instances of sexual harassment Guillen, a 20-year-old Private First Class stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, experienced at the hands of her superiors before she went missing from the base’s parking lot in April the attorney for the Guillen family, said at a Wednesday press conference.
Killeen Police said in a statement that its officers, U.S. Marshals in the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force and investigators with the Fort Hood Criminal Investigation Division located the suspect in the 4700 block of East Rancier Avenue in Killeen around 1:29 a.m. Wednesday. “As officers attempted to make contact with the suspect, the suspect displayed a weapon and discharged it towards himself. The suspect succumbed from a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” the press release said.
Ms. Guillen’s family is still waiting for official identification of the remains found Tuesday near the Leon River in Bell County, just 25 miles from Fort Hood.
Photo: US Army