Missing Soldier Update: US Military Suspects Foul Play In The Case Of Fort Hood’s Vanessa Guillen

The U.S. Army suspects foul play in the case of missing soldier Private First Class Vanessa Guillen, who disappeared from her station at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas. The update was confirmed by Texas Rep. Sylvia Garcia on Tuesday.

“They have now used the words 'foul play,'” Garcia said at a press conference. "They are convinced now that there is foul play involved and they are following all the leads they can.”

The press conference came after Guillen’s family was able to meet with the investigators on the case and receive updates about what had been uncovered. While not as extensive as the family had hoped, they were able to provide the family with a timeline of events and a photo of soldiers searching for Guillen in a river near the Fort Hood training area.

Garcia said that she believes the investigators were as forthcoming as possible given the case’s ongoing nature.

“The 3rd Cavalry Regiment continues to aggressively search for Pfc. Vanessa Guillen and we will not stop until we find her,” 3rd Cavalry Regiment Commander Col. Ralph Overland said in an official statement from Fort Hood. “Our number one mission is to find Pfc. Vanessa Guillen. I’m laser focused on that. We are working with CID and law enforcement and we will not stop."

Guillen was last seen at approximately 1 p.m. on April 22 in a parking lot near her squadron headquarters. Her car keys, barracks key, wallet, and ID were later found left in an armory room where she had previously been working.

“I pleaded with them from the beginning that they search for my daughter, that they close the base and that they use the more than 30,000 soldiers to look for her and they never did it,” mother Gloria Guillen said in Spanish at the press conference. “I begged them to close the base and investigate room by room, barrack by barrack, building by building and they didn't do it. Why now are they doing a show to look for my daughter?”

On a tip sent to investigators, Fort Hood officials recently uncovered skeletal remains near the base. The remains were eventually identified as Gregory Morales, another missing soldier last seen in August. There is believed to be no connection between the disappearances of Morales and Guillen.

Fort Hood is located roughly between Austin and Waco.