Vanessa Guillen

Chelsea Deuso
Aug 11, 2020
8 min read

Vanessa Guillen was born on September 30, 1999 to Rogelio and Gloria Guillen.

She was a smart girl who graduated just two years prior to her death in 2018 in the top 15% of her class. Vanessa was an avid athlete, according to her family. She was a cross country and track runner as well as a soccer player. She enjoyed exercising often and lifting heavy weights.

She joined the Army in June of 2018 with the job of a 91F which is small arms and artillery repair. She was with the 3rd Cavalry Regiment. The army website says this mos is responsible for ensuring all weapons from small arms, infantry weapons, and towed artillery are in proper working order.

Vanessa was very close to her family. Especially her mother, Gloria, and two sisters, Mayra and Lupe. You will see just how much her family fights for her throughout this, and it is so incredibly beautiful.

We don’t have a particular date as to when the harassment starts and when she reported it to her family, but according to her family, Vanessa confided in her two sisters that she was being sexually harassed, but she was too afraid to tell them who it was that was harassing her or exactly what was going on. She didn’t just confide in her family, either, she had told other soldiers about this as well. I’m assuming soldiers that were close friends of hers that she trusted.

It has been reported by their family attorney that Vanessa was taking a shower when someone walked in on her, sat down, and watched her.

This person who was harassing her? A superior.

Vanessa was too afraid to report it due to fear of retaliation and being blackballed.

Sadly, this was something she could handle on her own.

As we will later learn, this will cost Vanessa her life..

On April 22nd, Vanessa is going to receive a text message from Specialist Aaron Robinson that she was needed to deliver paperwork for a machine gun that needed servicing.

She arrives somewhere around 11:30am.

Robinson is going to claim that after they confirmed serial numbers of the weapon, she left and headed to the motor pool.

This is a blatant lie as she never leaves the arms room alive..

April 22nd, her fellow soldiers are going to notice that she’s missing, and she is reported missing the following day after her Captain notified the Army Criminal Investigation Command that she was last seen at Fort Hood, and her belongings were left and found in the arms room she was in. Her car keys, wallet, ID, and barracks key.

Obviously, the Army Investigators who we are going to call the CID are going to start digging through this case.

They start by going through Vanessa’s cell phone records and find that the last person she had contact with is Robinson.

When CID talks to him, he’s going to claim that he was at home all day and only went to the base one time after leaving to enroll in some training classes, and he will go back to his off-site home with girlfriend Cecily Aguilar.

But when they talk to some witnesses, they are going to claim they saw Robinson leaving his work building with something called a “tough box” it’s a big storage box with wheels and a handle. These same witnesses are going to claim they saw him struggling to load this box into his car.

Remember when he said he’s been home all day with girlfriend Cecily? Well, that was a lie. His cell records show he called her multiple times for multiple minutes during the early morning hours of April 23rd.

In June, Robinson’s live-in girlfriend, Cecily is going to be interviewed twice by the CID. She’s going to lie. Surprise, surprise. And tell them that she lost her phone multiple times, and he was just trying to help her find it..... are you forreal? But she will quickly change her tune and tell them they went to Belton, Texas to go and “look at the stars” and while we all know this is bogus, the GPS markers for both of their cell phones will momentarily corroborate this lie. The area there cells were near? Leon River.

June 21st, investigators with the Bell County Sheriff’s office and the Texas Rangers go out to search the area near Leon River. They detected the odor of decomp along with a burn site, but were unable to find any sort of remains.

But on June 30th, contractors working near Leon River found human remains. Remains that will later be identified as Vanessa Guillen.

This is so gruesome, but her skull was beaten so badly that they had to send her to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware just to be identified.

So What Exactly Happened to Vanessa?

As we discussed earlier, Robinson and girlfriend Cecily are going to claim complete innocence.

Robinson never saw her after she left for the motor pool, the cell records were of the two trying to find Cecily’s phone, and then they went for a romantic star gazing date out in Belton, Texas.

But what really happened will be revealed by Cecily.

On the day of April 22nd, Robinson did text Vanessa about the weapons needing serviced. Vanessa arrived around 11:30am where she was last seen wearing a black tshirt and purple leggings.

According to Cecily, Robinson will tell her that he bludgeoned Vanessa to death with a hammer.

Hitting her repeatedly in the head. He will then go on to claim he cleaned up the scene and put her body inside the tough box where he later will load her into his car.

The Army is going to claim that the reason for this is Vanessa found out that Robinson and Cecily were dating, and she is the estranged wife of another soldier. He got upset that she was going to report this and chose to kill her instead given he would receive punishment for this.

Here’s where I have a problem with that scenario.. Killing her and him being the last person she was seen by and had contact with, obviously police are going to reach out to him. His FIRST ALIBI is to mention he was WITH LIVE-IN GIRLFRIEND CECILY AGUILAR??? If he was sooooo afraid that they were going to find out about his relationship with her, then why is she the first thing that comes out of his mouth? That’s absolute bullcrap. There is absolutely no way you’re going to convince me that’s why he killed her.

Her family says that Vanessa had plans to report Robinson to the Army no April 23rd. I’m guessing he either found out about it or she told him on the 22nd, and he opted to kill her.

The Army is going to say in the beginning they have absolutely no evidence of her being sexually harassed, but later on are going to change that and say she had been harassed, but not sexually.. And Robinson was not her superior.

Anywho, back on track, so he puts Vanessa inside the tough box, puts it in his car, and drives away. Which... in a video I watched there was question of how he cleaned up so fast with nobody finding out or walking in, but there is evidence that his key card was used to lock the room around the same time he killed her. This would give him the time alone to get everything cleaned up and put Vanessa in the box.

Cecily was working at a gas station, and she said that Robinson had called her and told her he bludgeoned a girl to death by hitting her with a hammer then he went to the gas station she was at, picked her up, and drove her to Leon River.

I read somewhere these two had been dating for two months. Let that sink in. What kind of moron helps someone dispose of a freaking body that they’ve been dating for two months? What kind of person isn’t absolutely terrified that the person they’ve been dating for two months calls them and tells them “hey I just killed this girl. I’m on my way to pick you up.” …... like what?

They drive out to Leon River, and Cecily claims Robinson opens the box that Vanessa’s body was in. They then removed her body from the box and started to dismember her body with what she calls “an axe or machete type weapon” then that was too difficult so they dug three holes, burned her body which apparently got out of control so they had to put that out so nobody would catch onto them, and then buried her. April 26th, they went back out there to finish burning and burying her body. Cecily expressed to investigators that Vanessa never made it off base alive.

Like I said, June 30th her remains were discovered by contractors working near Leon River.

When her remains were found, Robinson starts panicking and texting Aguilar about how they’ve found the remains.

She calls him with police listening, and I’ve read that he wouldn’t admit to the stuff, but also read that he has, so that is up in the air, but he DEFINITELY texted her freaking out about how the police had found the remains so.. I mean that is pretty much a confession in my eyes.

And obviously Robinson was a suspect and held in the barracks not supposed to leave. SOMEHOW... he escaped. WITH. A. GUN. With a gun!

Killeen Police Department, US Marshals, and CID were looking for him. When Robinson was found, he immediately shot and killed himself. Like on the spot. So now it’s just Cecily left to face the music.

She is currently being held on charges of tampering with evidence and faces up to 20 years in prison DESERVED and a fine of up to $250,000.

She was also denied bail. Good on you, justice system.

Vanessa’s Family and Their Fight for Justice:

Vanessa’s family have fought so hard for her to have justice and rightfully so. Her sister, Lupe and Mayra, have been incredibly outspoken and calling out our military for how poorly they handle situations/reports of sexual assault.

They hired an attorney, Natalie Khawam who has been instrumental in helping them with their fight for justice.

They have also created multiple social media accounts of Facebook, twitter, and Instagram in order to spread the word about what happened to Vanessa both in her murder and the sexual assault. These accounts have been met with multiple people in the military coming forward with their own stories of experiencing the same issues of sexual assault and reporting it. Nobody takes them seriously or they’re too afraid. You wonder why victims don’t speak out. THIS. IS. WHY. FOLKS.

You can find posts through the hashtags: #FindVanessaGuillen, #WeAreVanessaGuillen, #IamVanessaGuillen

On June 15th, the CID and The League of United Latin American Citizens teamed together and increased the reward to $50,000 - $25k from each organization for any credible tips leading to Vanessa.

While the Army came out and said Robinson was not a superior to Vanessa, Attorney Khawam and family have said he is in fact the superior Vanessa reported having walked in on her in the shower.

They are preparing a bill that will protect soldiers who come forward with sexual assault allegations that President Trump is in support of. They have a meeting with him scheduled for July 29th. Tulsi Gabbard who is in support of this bill is an Officer in the US National Guard and said she understands completely the chain of command within the military as well as the fear that Vanessa must have felt. She’s often pushed for these kinds of crimes to be reported outside the military, but has been unsuccessful.

Her family also called for an investigation into how her case was handled, and the Army did announce on July 10th that they have opened an investigation into the command culture at Fort Hood.

And that is kind of where we are at.

I will update as you all as more updates come!

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