The family of a 101st Airborne Division soldier found dead in her home a week ago is offering a $55,000 reward for information that leads to her killer. Pfc. Katia Duenas-Aguilar’s mother, Carmen Aguilar, has committed $30,000 to the reward with a national Latino non-profit adding $25,000, according to a press release from the organization.
Duenas-Aguilar was 23 when she was found dead in her Clarksville, TN home on May 17. Police came to the home for a welfare check. Aguilar was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, which abuts Clarksville. After enlisting in 2018, Duenas-Aguilar had been assigned to Fort Campbell since 2019.
Police have not released any information about her death except to confirm the case is being handled as a homicide. The Army has not released any information on the soldier’s death.
But in a press conference held with the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, in Dallas, Carmen Aguilar — speaking in Spanish — told reporters that she believes her daughter’s killer was a member of the military, and compared Duenas-Aguilar’s death to the murder of Vanessa Guillen by a fellow soldier at Ft. Cavazos in 2020.
“She’s not the first one. The problem is inside. It’s inside. Not outside. Everything is inside. They know and you know too,” said Carmen Aguilar.
LULAC played a prominent public role in highlighting the plight of Guillen’s family after her death, as details of her murder trickled out from the Army.
“This is a human being. This is a Latina. This is a young lady that signed on the dotted line to serve our country,” said Analuisa Carrillo-Tapia of the LULAC National Military and Veterans Committee. “We want to know what happened, who did it and we want the person or people who did it brought to justice.”
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