A female Fort Campbell soldier has been found dead in her off-base home, sparking a murder investigation.
Private First Class Katia Duenas-Aguilar, 23, was found in a locked bedroom at the Tennessee residence on May 18 around 8:30 p.m. Detectives believe the young mother had been murdered.
An investigation is now underway, with the soldier’s family offering a $55,000 reward. Her killer remains at large.
On Saturday, officials with the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) said the organization stands in solidarity with the woman’s grieving mother, who hinted that someone within the military may have been responsible.
She joined the Army in 2018 and completed basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Eisenhower. She was then assigned to the Combat Aviation Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, which had been stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, for the past five years.
Private First Class Katia Duenas-Aguilar, 23, was found in a locked bedroom at the Tennessee residence on May 18 around 8:30 p.m., after which detectives discovered she had been murdered.
‘The problem is within! The problem is within and with you [the reporter she had been speaking to] know it too!’ shouted an emotional Carmen Aguilar when asked if she thought someone in the military could have killed her daughter.
‘We’re not all good. We want to believe that it is a nightmare, that we can wake up and she will still be there,” added Duenas-Aguilar’s younger sister, Cecilia Ruiz-Aguilar, as she and other members of the family addressed the crowd in the victim’s place of birth. Texas.
“We’re not doing well right now.”
The family added in an additional statement: “We want to know what happened, who did it and we want to make sure that person or people are brought to justice.”
Ruiz-Aguilar, meanwhile, hinted that her sister – a mother of one – was less than happy while stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, just across the border, telling her local CBS affiliate in Texas: “She would already telling them that they are not happy there.
“I wanted her to come back so we could make more memories.”
She provided no further details and asked for help finding the person who killed Duenas-Aguilar in her Clarksville apartment, a few miles from her base.
She joined the Army in 2018 and completed basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Eisenhower.
She was subsequently assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s (Air Assault) Combat Aviation Brigade, with Lt. Col. Tony Hoefler providing a statement to Military.com in the wake of the discovery.
Pictured is the Clarksville apartment complex where the mother of a child lived and was found, a 14-minute drive across the border from Fort Campbell
‘We’re not all good. We want to believe that it is a nightmare, that we can wake up and she will still be there,” said Duenas-Aguilar’s sister Cecilia Ruiz-Aguilar (left), as she and other members of the family addressed a crowd in the birthplace of the victim. in Texas. ‘We are not doing well at the moment’
‘We are shocked by the death of Pfc. Duenas-Aguilar,” the brigade spokesman said. “In the meantime, we will continue to cooperate with the military and local investigating authorities on this matter.”
The website he spoke to reported that Duenas-Aguilar received two Army Achievement Medals, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon during her six years of service.
During that period she also fathered a four-year-old son, but as her sister pointed out, she may also have been planning to leave the army.
Reports indicate she gave birth while still stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, a 14-minute drive from Duenas-Aguilar’s apartment on Tiny Town Road in Clarksville, Tennessee.
At the time of writing, it is still unclear who the father is. Police have not yet released a statement about a suspect.
Carmen, meanwhile, made a plea to both the Clarksville and Fort Campbell communities to help with the investigation, as she and others crowded around a stage for the Dallas news conference and implored the public to provide any information that could lead to an arrest to lead. and conviction.
“We are destroyed,” said the tearful mother, almost crying at times. ‘My heart is breaking.’
‘I ask for justice. As everyone knows, this is not the first [case]“There have been several others,” Carmen said Saturday in reference to other high-profile cases of Latina soldiers who have lost their lives, such as Vanessa Guillén, who was killed at Fort Cavazos, formerly known as Fort Hood, near Killeen, Texas. , in 2020.
There, in addition to her post at the brigade, she worked as an information technology specialist, positions she held for the past five years, the family said.
Reports indicate she gave birth while still stationed in Kentucky, at a base six miles from the apartment where she was found. The boy’s father has not yet been named and there is no suspect. The boy was not a victim of the murder, police confirmed
“She’s not the first.”
Her daughter, meanwhile, was originally from Mesquite, Texas, she revealed – and said she had been stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky since 2019.
There, in addition to her post at the brigade, she worked as an information technology specialist, positions she held for the past five years, the family said.
She was found by a friend in her apartment six miles away, with very little other information from local police.
The girl’s younger sister added that after the victim told her she was thinking about retirement, she suddenly changed her mind – citing a meeting with a counselor at the base.
The family did not go into detail about why she was unhappy and considering leaving, or whether these feelings were somehow related to the case.
Police meanwhile confirmed that her son was not a victim of the crime, nor did they provide any insight into where he was at the time his mother was killed.
They ruled the death a homicide but declined to say how she was killed.
A $55,000 reward from the family and LULAC was subsequently announced for any information that could help Clarksville police solve the case, as military law enforcement is also assisting.
Analuisa Carrillo-Tapia of the LULAC National Military and Veterans Committee said Saturday: “This is a human being. This is a Latina. This is a young lady who signed on the dotted line to serve our country.
“We want to know what happened, who did it and we want the person or persons who did it to be brought to justice.”
DailyMail.com has contacted the Clarksville Police Department for comment.