MESQUITE, Texas — She was a friend to all who knew her.
That’s how 19-year-old Cecilia Ruiz-Aguilar described her older sister, 23-year-old Katia Duenas-Aguilar.
“She made you feel important,” Ruiz-Aguilar said.
Duenas-Aguilar, a 23-year-old decorated Army soldier from Mesquite, was a dedicated mother to her four-year-old son, Ruiz-Aguilar said.
Police are investigating Duenas-Aguilar’s sudden death and calling it a homicide.
Duenas-Aguilar was stationed at Fort Campbell on the Kentucky-Tennessee border in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division.
At about 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 18, an ambulance call led police to a Tennessee apartment complex seven miles from the base, where they found Duenas-Aguilar dead.
Duenas-Aguilar’s mother, Carmen Aguilar, said back in February, her daughter told her she planned to return home in May after six years in the service. They had great communication for two months and planned to move into a new house, Aguilar said.
Aguilar said her daughter 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.”
Aguilar told WFAA she hadn’t seen her daughter’s body. Duenas-Aguilar, a graduate of North Mesquite High School, had a four-year-old son. Her son is safe and away from Tennessee.
Aguilar said she has no idea who would hurt her daughter or why.
“She sometimes told me about circumstances within the base, but she wouldn’t tell me much or go into detail,” Aguilar said. "She covered what was on the inside, but she smiled."
Local police and the Army's criminal investigation division are investigating what happened to Duenas-Aguilar.
“We are stunned by the death of Pfc. Duenas-Aguilar,” said Lt. Col. Tony Hoefler, spokesperson for the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and Fort Campbell. “In the meantime, we will continue to cooperate with Army and local investigative authorities on this matter.”
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, 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.”
Now, the family is doing their best to keep each other strong amid their fight for answers and justice for Katia.
"The truth will come out," Aguilar said. "To the person who did this to my daughter, I say: my daughter wasn't a bad person. Why?"