https://time.com/5862245/missing-fort-hood-soldier-vanessa-guillen-remains-found/
Guillen’s family allege that the 20-year-old was sexually assaulted
before her disappearance, and said Wednesday that a man they believed to
be the perpetrator of that assault had recently killed himself. Fort
Hood officials announced
separately on Wednesday that one military suspect is dead after killing
himself in Killeen, Texas; authorities said that as law enforcement
agents, not including the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command Special
Agents, tried to “make contact with the suspect, the suspect reportedly
displayed a weapon and took his own life.” The deceased man’s name has
not been released.
Natalie Khawam, the family’s lawyer, said they believe that the man
had sexually harassed Guillen by walking in on and watching her while
she was taking a shower in a locker room.
“How can this happen on a military base?” Lupe Guillen, Vanessa
Guillen’s sister, said through tears.”They didn’t keep my sister safe.”
Khawam explained that Guillen did not report the sexual harassment to
an internal agency because she indicated that “she was afraid to
because the sexual harassment was coming from her superiors” and she
worried about potential retaliation. “She wanted to have a career in the
military and she didn’t want [this] to ruin her career,” Khawam said.
(Guillen did, however, disclose the incident to her sisters, her mother,
her friends and other soldiers on the military base, she said.)
What Vanessa experienced “was not an isolated incident,” Khawam says.
“They are brave soldiers protecting us, and especially now, we need
legislation.”
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who is an Iraq war
veteran, also spoke at Wednesday’s event, saying that Congress has
pushed the Department of Defense to adopt necessary for reforms for
years, and while “some changes have been made,” they “have not gone
nearly far enough.”
“What is happening here today is evidence of that,” Gabbard said.
