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Inset: Katia Duenas Aguilar (U.S. Army). Left: Sofia Rodas. Right: Reynaldo Cruz (Clarksville Police Department).
Two people, including the husband of a soldier found stabbed nearly 70 times at her Tennessee home, have been indicted for her murder, authorities say.
Army Pfc. Katia Duenas Aguilar was discovered dead at her Clarksville home on Tiny Town Road on May 18. She was stationed at the nearby Fort Campbell in Kentucky. On Saturday, the Clarksville Police Department announced that a Montgomery County Grand Jury indicted her husband, 40-year-old Reynaldo Salinas Cruz, and 35-year-old Sofia Rodas on charges relating to her death.
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Rodas stands accused of first-degree murder. Both her and Cruz are charged with tampering with evidence. Authorities have not released a motive for the brutal slaying.
An autopsy revealed that Duenas Aguilar was suffering from 68 stab wounds, mostly to the neck, Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN reported. According to the outlet, she also had a blood-alcohol content of 0.161 and had GHB, known as a date rape drug, in her system. The death was ruled a homicide. Prosecutors presented their case to the December session of the Montgomery County grand jury. At the time of the indictment, the suspects were already in federal custody on charges “not directly associated with the homicide investigation,” police said. The military news publication Task & Purpose reports that the federal charges are related to marriage fraud.
Duenas Aguilar was the mother of a 4-year-old son.
“He misses his mom,” her father Carmen Aguilar told local NBC affiliate WSMV. “He started missing her because the last time when I talked to him, he said, ‘I want Katia to come back.’”
Aguilar said as his grandson grows older he’s becoming more aware that his mother is not coming back.
“They took away the best part of his life,” he said. “I’m in pain because [of] my little boy, I’m in pain because of my daughter, and those persons never think about that.”
The victim’s sister, Cecilia, told the TV station that she was bright like the sun.
“So, every day I just look up at her and I just feel like she’s still there,” her sister said. “I just try not to feel alone because she wouldn’t let me be alone whenever she was still here.”
Aguilar said he wants justice for his daughter.
“I’m unsure why they killed my daughter like that,” he said.
Duenas Aguilar hailed from Mesquite, Texas. She 101st Airborne Division’s Combat Aviation Brigade and joined the Army in 2018.
Rodas and Cruz are at the Montgomery County Jail.
