A U.S. Soldier with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division provides security during a battle drill at Forward Operating Base Lightning in Paktika province, Afghanistan, in 2013. Army private first class solider Katia Dueñas Aguilar, who was part of the 101st Airborne Division was killed in 2024. Two people have been charged in connection with her homicide. File photo UPI/ Sgt. J.A. Moeller/ U.S. Army | License Photo
Two people, including the victim’s husband, have been charged in connection to the 2024 death of a 23-year old Army soldier, police announced over the weekend.
Katia Dueñas Aguilar, a private first class who was stationed at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, was found dead at a residence in Clarksville, TN on May 18, 2024, according to the Clarksville Police Department, ABC News reported. Advertisement
Aguilar, from Mesquite, Texas, was found by police with 68 stab wounds to the neck and upper body, according to local Nashville ABC TV affiliate WKRN, which obtained an autopsy report. She enlisted in the Army in 2018.
She became an information technology specialist in the Army’s 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, the 101st Airborne Division reported.
Sofia Rodas, 35, was charged with first-degree murder and with tampering with evidence, according to ABC News. Aguilar’s husband, Reynaldo Salinas Cruz, 40, was charged with tampering with evidence in the death of his wife, police said, according to reporting by CNN.
Rodas and Salinas Cruz were already in federal custody on unrelated charges when they were indicted for their role in the Aguilar murder, police said. Advertisement
Rojas and Salina Cruz were extradited to Clarksville and taken to the Montgomery County Jail Friday.
Police did not release a motive in the killing and said the investigation, which included the Army Criminal Investigation Division, is ongoing.
