EP. 189: TEXAS - The Murder of Vanessa Guillén: A Complete Failure At Ft. Hood

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Murder In America 1h 57m 23 speakers 8 chapters transcribed
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What happened to Vanessa Guillen?

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Narrator 0:32
Trigger warnings from the stories we cover may include violence, rape, murder, and offenses against children.
This podcast is not for everyone. You have been warned.
Narrator 0:43
The year 2020 was memorable to say the least. There was the COVID-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, the Me Too movement, and it was an election year. There was a lot of division, death, and unrest. With everything going on in the United States, many news stories from around this time didn't get a lot of attention.

Why did Vanessa join the military?

Narrator 1:04
But there was one that took the media by storm, and that was the story of Vanessa Guillen. Vanessa was a soldier at the Fort Hood military base in Killeen, Texas. She had wanted to join the army since she was a little girl, but her time at Fort Hood was not at all what she expected. For months, her family watched as Vanessa's smile slowly disappeared. And eventually, they found out why. During her time at Fort Hood, Vanessa had been sexually harassed by fellow soldiers. But then in 2020, Vanessa mysteriously disappeared while working a shift at the base. Her family immediately alerted the army of her disappearance, but for months, There was no sign of her. So with nowhere else to turn, her family started sharing her story with the media.
Narrator 1:53
And soon enough, the I Am Vanessa Guillen movement began. A movement that not only uncovered secrets at Fort Hood, but of the U.S. military as a whole and how they handle cases of sexual harassment and assault. So this is the powerful story of Vanessa Guillen. I'm Courtney Browen. and you're listening to Murder in America.
Vanessa Guillen was born on September 30, 1999, at the Bentob Hospital in Houston, Texas. Her parents, Rogelio and Gloria, had moved here from Zacatecas State in Mexico, shortly after they got married. They wanted a better life, more opportunities. so they settled down in Houston and started their family. Rogelio had been working since his childhood in Mexico, quickly found a job as a machine operator, and Gloria was a stay-at-home mom to their six children, Mayra, Yovana, Guadalupe, Manuel de Jesus, Roger, and Vanessa. The Guillen family were Catholics, so they grew up going to church, and they were all baptized as children. Throughout their whole life, they always turned to God in their struggles.
and they also turned to each other. The Giants were a tight-knit bunch. Vanessa's childhood was spent running around having fun with her siblings, and according to everyone that knew her, Vanessa loved to run. There was just something about being outside, feeling your heart rate rise as you jogged for miles and miles. Vanessa loved it, which eventually led her to another passion, Soccer Vanessa started playing soccer when she was just 11 years old. And from the start, she proved herself to be a talented athlete. But not just on the field. As Vanessa grew older, she loved any and all physical activity. And she was strong. Her brothers would later say that they would sometimes wrestle her, and even though they were much bigger, she knew how to defend herself.
Once she started high school, at Cesar E. Chavez High, Vanessa also began lifting weights. She ran track and cross country, and she joined their soccer team, proudly wearing the number 20 on the field. One of her best friends, Frida Hernandez Lopez, said that Vanessa always tested herself physically to see how far she could go, and even after intense soccer practices, she would go lift weights in the school gym. Now, outside of athletics, Vanessa was also very sociable and well-liked by her peers.

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