Paranormal 956
This is a podcast about the paranormal, especially in deep south Texas, including ghosts, aliens, serial killers, cults and conspiracy theories.
Paranormal 956
Vanessa Guillen: The Murder and the Questions
Uncover the chilling and tragic story of Vanessa Guillen in this gripping episode of Paranormal 956. What really happened at Fort Hood, now renamed after General Richard Edward Cavazos? We promise you'll gain deep insights into Vanessa's harrowing experiences with harassment, her mysterious disappearance, and the suspicious activities that followed. Listen as we dissect the investigation, the role of the key suspect Robinson, and the unsettling atmosphere of Killeen, Texas. This isn't just about a single case; it's about systemic issues within the military that many are still grappling with.
But that's not all. We expose the dark conspiracy involving Cecily Aguilar and her relationship with the perpetrator, shedding light on the disturbing psychological elements at play. As we scrutinize the details of this horrific crime, we also explore the significant impact of the Vanessa Guillen law on reporting abuse and harassment in the military. Finally, to balance the heavy content, we bring a touch of humor with a light-hearted discussion on gender dynamics and personal identities. Don't miss this episode that combines serious investigation with moments of levity, all while encouraging you to follow us on social media and share your thoughts!
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Welcome back to Paranormal 956. My name is David. As always, I'm here with Bianca.
Speaker 1:Hi guys.
Speaker 2:What are we talking about today?
Speaker 1:So, this was a case that kind of woke a lot of people up and, I don't know, made everyone feel some type of rage, I guess, some type of uncomfortableness it hits on a lot of levels.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it hits on a lot of levels. And it's not only that, but it leaves an uneasy feeling all over the place. We're talking about the murder of Vanessa Guillen. Vanessa Guillen was a soldier at Fort Hood. We're in deep South Texas. At the time she was in Killeen, texas, at a place called Fort Hood. I believe they changed the name.
Speaker 1:They did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I forgot what the name of it is now. But Vanessa Guillen was. What is it?
Speaker 1:it's now named after General Richard Edward Cavazos, the first Hispanic American force army general and general, I don't know so I think that guy is from Kingsville, hispanic rather than Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the original brigadier general.
Speaker 1:Brigadier yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the original Fort Hood was a Civil War general and then they made it into an American, a US general. I always thought it was weird that they would name a military base after a Civil War general, when the Civil War was the enemy of the. That always seems weird, but anyway, anyways. So we're talking about Vanessa Guillen.
Speaker 1:It's already named.
Speaker 2:She was a young, what like 22 years old, 20 year old. Yeah, she barely started. Yeah, she was a 20 year old young lady, 20 year old. I don't know why that sounds weird to say that 20 year old young lady, and she's from texas as well yep I think from like the houston area, yep, and she joined the military and was very close with her family, which isn't surprising, right?
Speaker 1:A lot of you get separated out there. You still keep in contact.
Speaker 2:Sure, and so her family had been told by Vanessa that she, she had troubles. She was dealing with some harassment. She was dealing with some harassment and I guess they were trying to convince her to go forward. She had a little bit of pushback.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That she had known of other women who had come forward. And nothing had worked out for them, and so she wasn't super keen on doing that yeah and then she goes missing and broke out of nowhere uncharacteristically right, because she wasn't a problem child and she wasn't in trouble with they weren't.
Speaker 1:Let's just say they weren't like checking her constantly for causing issues or anything like that.
Speaker 2:And so she ends up going missing and she's not answering her phone, and we do know that the person that was later suspected was the last person to talk to her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, later suspected was the last person to talk to her. Yeah, and we know that people also on the base had said that they had seen him walking around with like a big, like one of those roller boxes and that seemed like office, seems a little suspicious, right, I think they call them a tough box, where you put stuff in and you can wheel it around, but it's all in the box and so, um, here it is. The Robinson guy was the one that was carrying a tough box, a tough box, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so they end up getting his consent to search his phone and they find that he had made several calls to his girlfriend at the time and they were late at night and he had gone into work at like 6 in the morning the next day, but he's still on the phone at 3 at night and he had gone into work at like six in the morning the next day, but he's still like on the phone at three at night okay and so they originally asked him if he would take a lie detector test, and he said no, but what he was willing to do is he was willing to be interviewed by the lie detector person and the lie detector person said and the lie detector person said this guy's lying about everything and so, while all of this is going on, there's protests and the family's trying to get some eyes on this right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:They post some stuff on social media.
Speaker 1:So the thing is that they see her in the base, but they never see her go out the base right, she never leaves now like entering and leaving, it's pretty tight right cameras everywhere so it doesn't make sense. She's inside, she never goes outside right now.
Speaker 2:For those of you who have never been to Killeen or who are not familiar with Fort Hood, it is one of the largest army bases in the world. It's a gigantic place. So the city of Killeen, which is the nearest city, is not as big as the military base. The military base is bigger and has more people than the nearest city, which is Killeen. Yeah, now I have been to Killeen and I have stayed the night there and you can hear bombs going off 24 7 oh geez, because no wonder people don't live there well, because they do target practice with bombs and so it's pretty crazy to live out there, right?
Speaker 2:And so the family starts posting on social media and she kind of goes viral.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I remember we were in school at the time and I remember you talking about it and I think she's a little bit older than you, or would have been a little bit older than you, but not by much, no. And so I'm sure, like a lot of people kind of identify with this young lady, right, like she's trying to make it in this world. You know she's putting all her chips in the military, right. Yeah, you know it's got to be tough for her, but it's what she wants to do and she's hoping it pays off.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, she's. She was basically sticking it out, even though she was going through the harassment and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:She was like no, like, like I'll finish it, like I can get through this, like it's gonna work out yeah, and so she's probably thinking about her future, right, and she's gonna have military benefits and she's to be able to see the world and hopefully she gets a gi bill, and you know. So she's looking at this like a life that she's going to sacrifice right, right now and then it's going to pay off in the future and so when they've put the reward out, um, like I said, it goes viral.
Speaker 2:They start to get some of the information from the phones and they start to notice that this guy I think his name was the Robertson Robinson ends up driving I think it was like 30 minutes, 20 minutes to this river, and they notice that he was on this bridge for a long time the Leon River. The Leon River, which I had never heard of before this.
Speaker 1:Me neither.
Speaker 2:I don't know how big this river is, but they end up going out there and they find this tough box.
Speaker 1:The tough box. The tough box right.
Speaker 2:And obviously her remains are inside. They had try not to be too gross about this, but they had cut her up to fit in the box wasn't it like burn?
Speaker 2:too, and they also tried to burn it they tried, yeah yeah, and so I don't know if it was that it didn't burn or if it was making too big of a fire that they panicked. But anyway, they really start to hone in on this Robinson guy and they find out that even though he was on the phone with his girlfriend, when they looked at her phone she was at all the same places that he was.
Speaker 2:And so she was with him during all of this, and so they're starting to kind of get their eye on her too. They put this guy under house arrest in the military base, and so for those people who don't know, in the military, if you're part of the military you have a whole different justice system than we do as civilians. So we have the right as civilians in the United States to go to jury with our peers, right? So people like us, that's not how it is in the military. In the military, when you go to court, you're being judged by higher-ups court you're being judged by higher-ups. So if you're like a sergeant, you're getting captains to look at your case and usually they're educated in law, so they're not dummies. I think the idea is in our system that you could kind of pull a fast one over some people. Some people are found innocent that really aren't because the jury.
Speaker 2:He looks nice. Well, the jury doesn't understand, you know. They start talking high tech DNA. We don't know any of that, you know. And so some people get off that maybe they shouldn't Right, and I think it's designed that way because in our society I think we would rather people be free than be in jail. That shouldn't be right, and so military is not like that. And then when you are found guilty in the military, um, I don't know if they have the death penalty or not, but I know that they have really harsh punishment. So like you can go to like a work camp and have to work, work like like a slave, right, like really bad Right. And so that's what he was facing, right. And so they put him in house arrest and he disappears, right. Which again kind of to your point earlier about why nobody ever saw Vanessa Guillen leave the base. Nobody ever saw him leave either. Yeah, right, and he gets off and so fast forward, he spotted that and the police find him and he kills himself.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And all that's left is the girlfriend. And it turns out that the girlfriend was married at the time and she starts posting. I don't know if we have any of this, but she starts posting really weird stuff on her Instagram. Like starts posting really weird stuff on her instagram, right, um, that she was in love with the girl because of her dark side. Just really weird random stuff, talking like professing their love to a girl but she never said who it was.
Speaker 2:And then, um, she ends up at first obviously lying, right yeah and then slowly gives in, slowly gives in, and so the most information that we have that we've talked about so far we know because of With this guy killing himself, this Aaron Robinson. We really have an unsatisfying end to this as far as not knowing what the motive really was, and so there was speculation that because he was in a relationship with the married woman, that he could get punished for that, and then that was reason for him to kill Vanessa.
Speaker 1:And then kill himself.
Speaker 2:And then kill himself. There is speculation also that maybe he was the one that was harassing Vanessa Guillen, sexually harassing her, but then that doesn't to me make sense of why on her Instagram? Did you yeah it doesn't make sense of why the girl would kind of back him up and do all of this for him too. Another really weird part of this is they were only together for two months when this happened the married lady and Aaron Robinson. Do you see anything that is related to what I was talking about?
Speaker 1:I'm trying to look at it.
Speaker 2:And so the unanswered questions is really the worst part of this, for me anyway. I mean, obviously the murder is notwithstanding, right, that's the worst part.
Speaker 1:This one says he showed her the darkest part of him. She said black is my favorite color yeah, see, those are just weird, right I love her dark side of her. Any girl can play innocent, but her demons are what drove me wild. Her secrets, her pain, she messed with laughter, the darkness that she tries to hide, heart hard to hide, that's what made me fall for her. I think that's a girl.
Speaker 2:Girl, yeah, dang so when we fast forward to more recently, like I said, the she doesn't look like that on her mug shots no, no, she doesn't um, but, like we were, the most recent update, I guess, is the only real conclusion.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's the one, I guess she was born in fire fierce to melt the iron. You fell in love with a woman who knows how to tame the dragon. She's a char. I don't know of her soul.
Speaker 2:Okay, fierce to melt the iron. You fell in love with a woman who knows how to tame the dragon. She's the tardigan of her own soul, or targaryen. So targaryen's from um, um game of thrones, the lady that's oh, that's true has the dragons, I think. Anyway, so she ended up.
Speaker 1:Oh. So here's the way Joking.
Speaker 2:So her name's Cecily Aguilar, that lady, and she was found guilty of conspiring. Oh, she's a Gemini, this lady.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Cecily oh, she's a Gemini. This lady, yeah. So she was sentenced to 30 years for her role, accessory after the fact, and three counts of making false statements. Now I know that, since this has happened. Now I know that, since this has happened, there is also the Vanessa Guillen law. Oh yeah, which is supposed to make it easier for women to report abuse. Harassment assault In the military.
Speaker 2:I don't know anything about how that law is going or how it has affected things, but yeah, we haven't heard updates on it, but but we hope it's working yes, and so what are the parts of this for you that just don't sit right, because it feels like there's a lot.
Speaker 1:I mean the relationship-wise, where he thought she would be like, even if she told on them like what's the proof you have?
Speaker 2:Also true.
Speaker 1:She didn't have messages, she didn't have pictures.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like how is I don't get it Like, if someone is going to accuse me of cheating, I might as well have pictures of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so this is. I'm with you on all that and I don't think there's a situation where somebody is going to accuse me of cheating and I'm killing them, yeah, yeah, exactly, and like the killing inside the base. Right.
Speaker 1:How is that reasonable? No, it's not, and so I mean if you would think someone is in the military, you would think that they they do get psychologically approved or tested?
Speaker 2:I believe so yeah.
Speaker 1:Who passed this guy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a that's a good question. Who passed this guy? Yeah, that's a, that's a good question.
Speaker 1:The other thing because I'm trying to think of what are the situations? Like plan wise, like he was, like fuck it, I'm gonna kill her right now it doesn't.
Speaker 2:It doesn't make sense to me it. But if she was, if he was the abuser, maybe okay, so that would make sense. That makes more sense.
Speaker 1:I also have seen in other cases but a hammer like I want to know what was the confrontation was like, yeah, because there's rage or on where you push someone like a back the fuck up, you know shit like that, but I have to you for someone to grab a hammer and intentionally hit them on the head or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's like let's see where the details were.
Speaker 1:You go through a process of thinking like this is going to happen and I know what's, what's it going to cost, how much pain or how much, like he knew once. I'm pretty sure once he grabbed the hammer he knew she was out yeah, because you don't just hurt somebody with a hammer no right, like that's pretty excessive.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying if it was a push or something as like okay, it was confrontational, but it was a mistake yeah, not to that level, you know yeah, and I guess the other thing that's a possibility to me is if she had rejected him I. I've heard of guys losing it. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because the story that we've been told, I don't buy it.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:And I don't know why else let's say it this way, why else let's say it this way? Let's say somebody that you knew and are close to confides in you that somebody is abusing them. Right, right, maybe somebody raped them, whatever Right.
Speaker 1:And then they die in a car accident Randomly.
Speaker 2:Randomly, are you going around talking about that assault that they confessed to you? Yes, you would. Yes, I guess. In my mind it didn't seem related, but maybe the family thought it was related. I mean, it kind of is related, I guess, if you're looking at the way women are or were treated. I don't know the situation.
Speaker 1:Like on high alert type of thing. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I guess that makes sense.
Speaker 1:I mean, we all agree on the fucking fact that the story they gave us it doesn't add up.
Speaker 2:And they're taking it and they're giving us like here's a story, like you guys buy that I think the family has a story and I don't think they have all the answers, so they're kind of giving us the pieces that they know and they're hoping somebody else will help them fill in the blanks. Right, is that how you're taking this? Yeah, because I just don't see why you murder her it doesn't what I said.
Speaker 1:It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 2:It doesn't make sense. And then it doesn't make sense to me why this girl helps the guy get rid of the body when they've only been together for two months. That doesn't make sense to me either what was the conversation?
Speaker 1:that's the thing. What was the conversation like for him to ask her? And she would agree so like even if it's come over to my place. I'm gonna move a box. Don't open it. Even if it's that. What the fuck are you taking the box over there by the river?
Speaker 2:imagine me calling you with that and they'd be like no no fucking way like lend me your truck.
Speaker 1:No, no, what's this box?
Speaker 2:I got this weird box that I need to dump in the river.
Speaker 1:You don't need to open it. Don't open it, we're going to burn it and then we're going to dump it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I need to borrow your truck.
Speaker 1:No no.
Speaker 2:None of it makes sense. No, I don't know if this is enough, because the only thing that I can mentally do to kind of deal with this is he's just, they're just idiots and they just do dumb shit. And then they just do dumber shit to clean it up. And because if I had, first of all, they were in the base yeah they never left.
Speaker 1:He kind of knew there was no way out of this, but also killing himself without giving us. He could have given us the full story and then killed himself yeah, I have never met a person, and after two months ago I'll do this for you if she killed the dude and I need to bury him, I'm gonna do it. It's never happened I mean, even if angie tells you right now, like no, I'm not going to do it.
Speaker 2:Sorry.
Speaker 1:You're going to jail.
Speaker 2:You're going to jail. You know what I mean? Yeah, but like that's what, this is right. This girl was told by her boyfriend hey, I killed this chick. I need you to help me get rid of her.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying. Like what happened? I would have had questions, right yeah, like.
Speaker 2:Exactly why are you killing women? What does she do to you?
Speaker 1:Where were you? When did this happen? How did it happen? I'm pretty sure she had to ask how did it happen?
Speaker 2:And he gave her that story before everything else went viral, so he admitted to hitting her with the hammer right.
Speaker 1:Killing her with the hammer Her with the hammer right?
Speaker 2:Yes, killing her with the hammer. The way I took it, he didn't like, hit her a bunch of times which you don't really need to right.
Speaker 1:No, I mean once the hammer is in, that's it.
Speaker 2:Yeah and so, but it's just. It's maddening because there's no situation where I'm on his side and that this is justified. There's zero.
Speaker 1:It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2:It doesn't make sense, and so I'm hoping the good that comes out of this is the new law that's out. I will tell you that I dated a girl that was in the Army, and her stories that she told me about being in the Army were pretty horrible. That was in the 90s and so it's still going on, yeah. I imagine if it is getting fixed, it can't be 100% fixed yet yeah. Like maybe it's better, but not a hundred percent I feel like we still have a ways to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, is there anything else you want to add? I want the full story I do too, and I wish there was a way to get this. Maybe considering our last episode, maybe AI will be able to figure out what actually happened.
Speaker 1:Hopefully.
Speaker 2:So that's a little bit of a bummer story. However, it was really important when it came out. It was a big reason.
Speaker 1:And we're bringing it back just to see if they got any new details.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:The bill was the Vanessa Guillen, was it called bill?
Speaker 2:Whatever you, want to call it.
Speaker 1:I mean it was passed, so hopefully it is working out for the women out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and I've told women this before, this is kind of the trailblazing era for women yeah you know, women weren't allowed to do a lot of things before and then, when they were, not very many women either knew how or still weren't given the opportunities. And so with women being in the military, there's, I guess, to be expected, some growing pains, because women weren't always allowed in the military. But we need to get there, and the sooner the better. Mm-hmm, because Warren Buffett, who's like one of the world's richest men, he said he thinks the United States is in a good spot. And when they asked him why, he said for most of our existence we've only been using half of our workforce. The fact that women are now getting involved, the future looks bright.
Speaker 1:I love that idea Isn't there more women than men in the world.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there is. Yeah, feels like there is.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that's an insult, but I mean you're gay.
Speaker 1:anyways, You're considered a woman.
Speaker 2:My wife has accused me of being a lesbian. It's true.
Speaker 1:You're a lesbian man, I'm a lesbian man.
Speaker 2:Right, right, that's it for today. Thank you for joining us. Follow us on all of our socials, like and subscribe. We're also wherever you get your podcasts and tell your friends yeah we'll talk to you next time we need ideas we don't, but send them to us. We enjoy hearing from our fans bye guys bye.
