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. (Marine Lance Corporal Riley Schultz's death on March 15, 2019, at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, was also ruled a suicide, despite his hyoid being broken. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims' families. ), Wedel-Morales's death was not the first from the base that may have involved bike gangs. Fort Hood had refused to list him as missing, and it was only after his then fiance, Paradise Rodriguez, posted a video on Facebook that an officer at the parish jail saw it and got into contact. "What on earth are you training for?" Because what the military asks of its men and women is so antisocial, it must co-opt the rhetoric of the family. After 10 torturous weeks and growing. Those remains, it turned out, belonged to yet another soldier, Private Gregory Wedel-Morales, who had gone missing the previous summer. (Facebook) Two weeks later, Delacruz . The search party arrived at Fort Hood at 3 a.m. Guillen's staff sergeant told the group to come back in the morning. Thirteen killed themselves. 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. October 13, 2021 04:48 PM. It was also an ancient Comanche Native American burial ground, discovered when construction workers unearthed more than 2,200 grave sites in 1998. CID and Homeland security believe the NVGs were stolen from shipping . Texan sentenced to 20 years following drug-related death of Fort Hood soldier. 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. That September, Wedel-Morales, who was from rural Oklahoma, was due to be honorably discharged from the military. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete. "You can find Osama bin Laden, but you can't find a soldier that went missing on your own base?" They married in May 2017, and he took her name with hyphenation. The base might have continued to devour its soldiers had it not been for a missing soldiers family whose rage, love, and devotion would attract the attention of the media, celebrities, and later the White House, sparking congressional and military investigations. 60.2 (births per 1,000 women 15-44 years of age) Teen Birth Rate. Victoria a friend of Gregory Wedel-Morales at the site of his remains, Killeen TX. The military, Rodriguez said, had known about this but had refused to treat him. "As soon as I get out of the hospital, I will call you. The 2020 numbers add to ongoing mysteries, including a 2016 case . That gun safety is a distant concern in a community where the Second Amendment tops the Maslow charts. Fort Hood also stated that it had completed an exhaustive search for Fernandes, and that it had interviewed all relevant parties, including the family. Hood was an unsuccessful battle commander; 400 men of his Texas Brigade died in a single fight, some would argue through incautious direction. Wedel-Morales was thrilled to become a father. (On July 14, 2020, a federal grand injury indicted Aguilar on one count of conspiracy and two counts of tampering with evidence. Police reopen case into Fort Hood soldier's death Austin December 25, 2022 Weather View Your 7-Day Forecast Here MILITARY Family hopeful for answers after police reopen case into Fort Hood soldier's death By Olivia Levada Texas PUBLISHED 4:24 PM CT Apr. They returned several days later to pour concrete over the remains. PUBLISHED 10:53 AM CT Mar. Reformers would say that the military had failed its men and women. Why hadnt the arms room been treated like the crime scene it was? And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Robinson gave Guillen the serial number for a .50 caliber machine gun that needed servicing. March 1, 2023 (94 years old) View obituary. I've lost brothers and sisters in arms, a marriage, I've lost family, I've lost friendships that were supposed to be forever. Barely a week later, Private Corlton Chee, 25, died during training. 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. I am astounded nobody is interested, the Fernandes family lawyer Lenny Kesten told me. In fact, Casteel had been convinced that CIA agents were attacking him since last June. 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. Oct 13, 2021 An official Army photo of Spc. His body was found nearly a month later, two miles from the barracks. More than 2,200 trials over land rights commenced. On April 29, it was Private Joshua Barnwell, 19. Frantic, she called around, to no avail. Military bases are the last piece of the homeland that soldiers see before they are deployed to fight and the first glimpse of home when they return. Is it possible Elder killed himself? Gloria had noticed her losing weight and pressed her for why. (Penny says they met online.) It's possible. The tributaries that run through Fort Hood flow into the Leon River, where Guillen's remains were later found. Later, Robinson would tell investigators that Guillen completed her task and exited the building. (Fort Hood does not count Moore in its official casualty list, as he was a member of the National Guard.). 22.4 (births per 1,000 females 15-19 years of age) Infant Mortality Rate. 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. Tributes.com is the online source for current local and national obituary news. That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. (His sons alleged killer is in custody awaiting trial.) -. We believe that Every Life has a Story which should be told and preserved. First it was a five-mile run, then it was a two-mile run. You can click this link to create an obituary. And so his disappearance was no surprise, his father told me. Echovita Inc is a registered trademark. But then certain details start illuminating the mystery: that one out of three women soldiers have experienced sexual harassment, according to a recent survey. 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. The sense of dehumanizing alienation soldiers complained about was not a symptom of a malfunctioning system, it was its original design. Also that year, Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach was raped by her superior, which she reported. Fort Hood concluded Chee had died in training. 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. On April 29, it was Private Joshua Barnwell, 19. If she wanted to pursue things further, they advised, she would have to file a missing persons report with the local police. 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. Highway renamed & dedicated to late Fort Hood soldier . Later Fort Hood confirmed it was for violating quarantine. At the Dollhouse, he got to know Penny Morales, a dancer and mother of two. I've lost so much since I've been in. So much of reporting is opening yourself up to chance, and there I was, compulsively locking and relocking the rental car door. A U.S. Army soldier, Spc. 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. Women, who make up 17 percent of active-duty military, were doubly bereft, and the case files were awash with stories of the dead. I've even lost myself." On May 18, Brandon Rosecranss burning Jeep was discovered in a hilly suburb east of Fort Hood. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. When the family exhumed his body in November 2020 for want of a second opinion, the independent autopsy revealed that the bone had in fact gone missing.) They married in May 2017, and he took her name with hyphenation. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. They are part of Killeens population of 151,000, many transient and very young, two thirds of whom have military ties. Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. That is the opposite of what hes been consistently saying.. Namely, the military. All rights reserved. My caution wasnt entirely unfounded. 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. Sergeant Brad Reynolds, 37, killed himself on May 16. Escorts should be arranged in advance to allow for coordination with the organization receiving coverage. His mother, Kim, only heard from her son when he needed money. At first blush, such violence at a base that calls itself "the Great Place" may seem extraordinary, inexplicable even. On March 5, 2020, Destanie Sawyer's five-year-old daughter found her father, Specialist Christopher Sawyer, 29, after he had shot himself dead in the bedroom of their Fort Hood housing. 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 Elthams Landing in Virginia and who, by todays standards, likely suffered from PTSD. 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. Two days after Staff Sergeant Anthony Lovell, 40, disappeared in 2017, his body was found, eyes pecked clean, face split in half, in a creek off Killeens seedy main corridor called Rancier, the same street where Specialist Freddy Delacruz, 23, was shot and killed last March. Then they tried burning the body. None of the messages added up, nor were they how he usually speaks to me, Rodriguez told me. As publication approached, it stopped responding to emails pertaining to both specific questions about individual cases as well as broader queries about the base.). The base might have continued to devour its soldiers had it not been for a missing soldier's family whose rage, love, and devotion would attract the attention of the media, celebrities, and later the White House, sparking congressional and military investigations. Who were the soldiers who had testified to seeing Guillen leave the arms room the day she disappeared? The author knocks on the doors bearing the darkest symbols, behind which lie guns, ammo, antisemitism, antiabortion dogmaand a belief in the coming civil war. "I felt a bad vibe there," Lupe says, referring to Fort Hood. "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. 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. She is now for the movement.. SHARE. Five were murdered. "She is now for the movement.". 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. The wave of pain went away as suddenly as it had come on but returned again, and again, and again, over the next hour. The day after Guillen disappeared, Private Gavin Chambers, 21, died on base. (Fort Hood contributed nearly $30 billion to the Texas economy in 2019, according to the Texas comptroller's office.). Fort Hood hurriedly put up a $25,000 reward for Wedel-Morales as well. A few days later, they spoke again, for the last time. ", When I asked soldiers at Fort Hood what they thought was the matter on base, they mentioned "toxic leadership," a catholic term that seemed to encompass all: lack of care, general command climate, and so-called toxic masculinity. Don't they care as to what happened to Elder Fernandes? Failure to comply could incur fines of hundreds of dollars or other, more severe social censure. ", "I'm 21 now, and let me tell you. Fort Worth (817) 293-8477 Laurel Land Funeral Home and Cemetery 7100 Crowley Road, Fort Worth . Thirteen killed themselves. 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. 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. (Fort Hood refused all official interview requests for this story, citing ongoing investigations. 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. The Armys own investigation found major flaws at Fort Hood, leading to the firing or suspending of 14 officials. Specialist Justen Ogdens death in July 2017 was ruled a suicide, but the suicide note Fort Hood produced as evidence did not match his handwriting, according to his mother, Toni. The ancient Greeks wrote epic poems on the subject, the most famous of which is the Iliad. Specialist Justen Ogden's death in July 2017 was ruled a suicide, but the suicide note Fort Hood produced as evidence did not match his handwriting, according to his mother, Toni. Then they tried burning the body. Ever since returning from a deployment to Iraq in February 2019shipped off two months after basic training for a nine-month tourRing had become withdrawn, developed a drinking problem, and had been arrested for drunk driving. Army investigating after soldier, 26, found dead in latest in string of unexplained deaths at Fort Hood barracks Fort Hood officials have not released the cause of death for Maxwell. There had been a few people, then it was a group run of 11. A soft October wind carried the first chill of the season. Morta's death comes amid intense scrutiny of Fort Hood in recent weeks. For nothing.. The 2020 numbers add to ongoing mysteries, including a 2016 case where a corpse's hyoid, the U-shaped neck bone typically examined to determine whether strangulation has occurred, was missing. At least 159 Fort Hood soldiers died out of combat between 2016 and last year, including seven homicides and 71 suicides, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Photo: US Army. Texas Death Records Indexes, Obituaries and Cemetery Burials by County. Fort Hood has come under serious fire in recent years, as the incident follows the heartbreaking death of Vanessa Guilln. (Marine Lance Corporal Riley Schultzs death on March 15, 2019, at Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, was also ruled a suicide, despite his hyoid being broken. It is unclear if Killeen even bothered to visit his namesake town, which, by the early 1880s, comprised 40 people living across 360 acres, mostly working in the two cotton gins, two gristmills, and two saloonsit had the most saloons, gamblers, and shootings per capita in Bell County, according to historian Martha Bowmer. Fernandes transferred to another unit where he was called a snitch and worse. On Wednesday, April 22, 2020, Guillen reported for duty at Fort Hood. 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. Soon after, the Temple police, who led the investigation, ruled Fernandes's death a suicide. On April 30, 2021, Fort Hood found that Guillen had indeed been sexually harassed by a soldier, but not Robinson.). Robinson gave Guillen the serial number for a .50 caliber machine gun that needed servicing. He ultimately murdered her when she was eight months pregnant, then set her on fire before fleeing to Mexico. 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. 5.2 (infant deaths per 1,000 live births) Life Expectancy (at Birth) 76.5 years (2020) Marriage Rate. From here, wars are launched. 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. One of the first times she stepped onto the base, a rosary she had been carrying in the palm of her hand tore apart, its beads scattering over the concrete ground. He died the evening of September 2. Traveling in the time of plague, trying to build rapport with people from six feet away, was enervating. First came the British and Germans. In 1941, Private Felix Hall was lynched by fellow soldiers, at Fort Benning, Georgia. Fort Hood announced that Stump had crashed his car while driving under the influence, though a toxicology report proved inconclusive. The back-to-back deaths come just four months after two congressional committees launched probes into the high number of deaths at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, in 2020, highlighted by the . But when Kim called the police, they dismissed her, telling Kim that her son probably just "took off." In a press statement, Fort Hood officials said Hockin, 26, was initially found unresponsive outside of the barracks and was subsequently pronounced dead. At first blush, such violence at a base that calls itself the Great Place may seem extraordinary, inexplicable even. Call (254) 287-9993 or (254) 287-0106 to request a PAO escort. "He seemed weird," Rodriguez said. Fort Hood informed Rodriguez that he had asked for this. Fernandess family told me they have never been interviewed. Hazel Buck Blackwell, whose family lost their farm, homestead, barns, orchards, and adjoining land when the base took over, said the closest thing might be the unexpected death of someone you loved very much. It was a heartrending, searing experience, central Texas historian GraDelle Duncan said, leaving lifetime marks on all, and actually killing some from the psychic devastation that followed. Nearly 200 miles away in Houston, Rogelio Guillen was entering his fourth hour of work at a nickel-plating factory when he felt a sharp spasm in his chest. In death, Guillen has become a kind of patron saint for all those who feel wronged by the U.S. military. US Army Since then, Vanessa's family and their attorney Natalie Khawam have tried to shine a spotlight on a string of deaths at the central Texas installation. A 214,968-acre installation, this is the only post in the United States capable of stationing and training two armored divisions. By. Through social media posts, court records, and other primary sources, author Kathleen Hale forensically reconstructs their lives before the crime, and the night they were killed. She has become that complicated, indelible thing: a hero. (Among 1.29 million members of the U.S. military, 65,000 are immigrants, according to The Washington Post.) Fort Hood informed Rodriguez that he had asked for this. Eric Christopher Hogan and Pfc. Fort Hood was founded in January 1942 as a training ground for tank destroyers, selected for its varied terrain. ARMY-WIDE IMPLEMENTATION STATUS. Eventually Fernandes rang from the Army hospital. On most nights, I had nightmares. Back in Houston, Gloria recalled a conversation with her daughter not long before, when Guillen had been home for the weekend. Chee, like Yazzie, was a member of the Ramah Navajo Indian Reservation community, and was new to the base. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Killeen was named after another disappointing man: Frank Killeen, an assistant general manager to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway. 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. She pleaded not guilty. Bill to attend technical school in Houston to work on wind turbines or oil rigs off the coast of Louisiana. 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. The very next day, a Fort Hood investigation concluded that Fernandes's charges of sexual assault were unsubstantiated. American military bases, once established, seldom shutter, and Fort Hood, which started operating during World War II, has remained open for business, its 218,000 acres spreading across two counties in central Texas near an otherwise unremarkable town called Killeen. 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. In 2020 alone, 31. (The police opened an investigation on August 19.) That American imperialism is imploding, and the blast force radiates inward. On August 11, a higher-up called Fernandess mother, Ailina, to tell her that her son had not shown up for work for two days. 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. His body was mostly intact but for his hyoid, which was never found. At first, Aguilar told investigators, they cut her up using a machete. Robinson himself left soon thereafter, he would testify, to spend the night off post with his girlfriend. Eleven of the deaths remain unresolvedsome legally; others for the victims'. They checked into a nearby hotel and returned at 8 a.m. the next day. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our. "Is it possible Elder was murdered? Fernandes was dropped off at his friend's house the next day, August 17, never to be seen again. At 9:30 p.m., Mayra, Cruz, Guillens other sister Yovana, and Yovanas boyfriend set out for Fort Hood. Because what the military asks of its men and women is so antisocial, it must co-opt the rhetoric of the family. And on June 19, skeletal remains were found in a field behind a cul-de-sac of a residential neighborhood in Killeen. Maxwell Hockin. 1st Class Calvin T. Rockward, 38, died during physical training Oct. 27, 2021. . (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.). One of the first times she stepped onto the base, a rosary she had been carrying in the palm of her hand tore apart, its beads scattering over the concrete ground. He died in 1879, leaving a troubled legacy that is only now beginning to be questioned. Guillens youngest sister, Lupe, made me promise to stay at the Marriott, a hotel she considered safer than the rest. Alvis Franklin Bentley. Washington CNN The Army announced Tuesday that 14 senior officers will be punished following a probe that was initiated after the murder of a soldier and several other deaths at the Army's. He told his sister there were three white soldiers who did not like him. On August 28, Chee was called into a training run. Rosecrans, shot four times, was found three miles from his vehicle. Guillen confessed that she was being harassed by another soldier. (He was found a day later.) A few hours later, Robinson, who had mostly been playing video games, escaped Fort Hood by car. U.S. ARMY INSTALLATION MANAGEMENT COMMAND Vanessa Guilln, who was missing for about two months before her remains were found. The shakeup comes after after a series of suspicious deaths and disappearances that have plagued Fort Hood. Before Guillen, there had been Private LaVena Lynn Johnson, who was found dead in a tent in 2005 in Iraq. During the run, Chee, who had no preexisting health conditions, collapsed. If he killed himself, don't they want to know why?". On August 13, Staff Sergeant Bradley Moore died during a land navigation exercise on the base. Fernandes was dropped off at his friends house the next day, never to be seen again.
fort hood deaths 2021 list