CLARKSVILLE, Tennessee — A Fort Campbell soldier found dead in her home earlier this year died of nearly 70 stab wounds, according to an autopsy report.
No arrests have been made in the death of 23-year-old Pfc. Katia Dueñas Aguilar, whose body was found in her Tennessee home in May near the Army post.
An autopsy report from the Montgomery County Medical Examiner’s Office said Aguilar, of Mesquite Texas, suffered 68 stab wounds to her neck and upper body, The Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle reported. Dueñas-Aguilar was a 2018 graduate of North Mesquite High School.
The medical examiner ruled the cause of death a homicide as a result of sharp force injuries to the neck.
Dueñas-Aguilar, an information technology specialist, enlisted in the Army in 2018 and a year later came to Fort Campbell, on the Tennessee-Kentucky border. She was a member of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division.
Her family and The League of United Latin American Citizens have offered a reward of $55,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Clarksville Police and Army criminal investigators are working together on the investigation.
During a news conference in May in Texas, Aguilar’s family asked for justice for her family. They said she was a mother with a 4-year-old son.
DueñasAguilar's mother previously told WFAA that her daughter had told her she planned to come home in May after six years in the Army, but had suddenly stopped communicating with her over the course of the last month.
“She was always happy, that’s why I don’t understand. What happened?” Aguilar said in Spanish. “I just ask God to give me strength. I feel so weak, and the worst is coming. I haven’t seen my daughter, and to think I’ll see her for one last time… sometimes I feel like I don’t want to live.”
Duenas-Aguilar’s mom and sister said as soon as they learned of the 23-year-old's murder, it immediately reminded them of Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old Hispanic Army soldier who was murdered in the Fort Hood Army base in Texas by another soldier in 2020.
“We’re holding on because we’re her voice right now. She’s no longer here to tell us anything. I feel like we’re heartbroken because we never expected it to be us. This is horrible,” her sister, Cecilia Ruiz-Aguilar said. “I wish she would've been more open to me, maybe I would have figured something out. Cause to me she was always strong.”