The mother of a soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, who was found murdered over the weekend is pleading with the public to help police find the person or persons responsible.
Pfc. Katia Duenas-Aguilar, 23, was found dead May 18 in her off-base home in the 900 block of Tiny Town Road in Clarksville, Tennessee, according to Clarksville police. Police said they are investigating the case as a homicide.
Duenas-Aguilar was an information technology specialist from Mesquite, Texas. She had been stationed at Fort Campbell since 2019 and was the mother of a four-year-old son, according to the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Duenas-Aguilar’s mother, Carmen Aguilar, appeared Saturday at a news conference hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens in Texas to announce that she is adding $30,000 to the $25,000 reward offered by the league for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of anyone. is responsible for her daughter’s death.
Through translators, Aguilar said at the news conference that Duenas-Aguilar had told her family she had planned not to re-enroll, but had unexpectedly changed her mind earlier this month after meeting with a counselor.
“We must have justice,” Domingo Garcia, president of the organization, said in a news release. “The fact that this mother committed not only her money, but her whole soul, to finding the person who did this deserves our full and unequivocal support. LULAC urges anyone with information to come forward and speak to police to help identify, arrest and convict the person responsible.”
The organization said in the news release that the case is reminiscent of that of Vanessa Guillen, an Army specialist who was stationed at Fort Hood when she was killed in 2020. More than a dozen officials were disciplined after calls for an investigation into that case.
“Since the murder of U.S. Army Specialist Guillen, LULAC has worked with the Army and the Pentagon to pass and enforce legislation that protects Latino service members and others from military sexual trauma,” Garcia said in the press release. “While we do not yet know the circumstances surrounding Katia’s death, we call for a thorough and transparent investigation so that all facts surrounding her murder come to light. This is the only way the trust of our communities can be fully restored so that our families will support sending their sons, daughters and loved ones to our armed forces.”
Anyone with information about Duenas-Aguilar’s case was asked to contact Clarksville police at 931-648-0656.
