Two people were charged in the murder of a soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., who was found dead last year after being stabbed 68 times, the authorities said. One of the people charged was the woman’s husband, they said.
The soldier, Pfc. Katia Dueñas Aguilar, 23, was found dead on May 18, 2024, in a residence in Clarksville, Tenn., about 15 miles south of the base, the Clarksville Police Department said in a release on Saturday. After an investigation by the police and the Army’s criminal investigation division, her death was ruled a homicide, the release said.
A grand jury in Montgomery County, Tenn., charged Sophia Rodas, 35, with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, and Reynaldo Salinas Cruz, 40, Private Dueñas Aguilar’s husband, with tampering with evidence, the police said in the release. The document did not give details about a possible motive or further details about Ms. Rodas’s relationship with Private Dueñas Aguilar or her husband.
Mr. Cruz and Ms. Rodas, who were already in federal custody on separate charges related to conspiracy and marriage fraud, were extradited to Clarksville on Feb. 7, the police said. They were served with the sealed indictment at the Montgomery County jail, the police said.
Roger Nell, a public defender for the 19th Judicial District, said by telephone on Monday that a public defender had not been appointed and that an arraignment date was not yet on the books, although one would probably be set for March.
Private Dueñas Aguilar, from Mesquite, Texas, enlisted in the Army in 2018 and a year later arrived at Fort Campbell, which is along the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
She was a member of the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, The Associated Press reported. The Montgomery County Medical Examiner’s Office said that Private Dueñas Aguilar was found with 68 stab wounds to her neck and upper body last year.
“I just want justice,” her mother, Carmen Aguilar, told a local news station, WSMV, after the arrests, adding that it was painful to care for Private Dueñas Aguilar’s 4-year-old son, because the child did not know where his mother was.
In October, Ms. Rodas and Mr. Cruz were indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee for conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, and Mr. Cruz was given an additional charge of marriage fraud for the purpose of evading immigration laws, according to court documents.
The indictment related to those charges said that the conspiracy and the marriage fraud had taken place between September 2023 and May 17, 2024, the day before Private Dueñas Aguilar was found dead.
Ms. Rodas and Mr. Cruz were planning to leave the country after Ms. Rodas obtained a life insurance payment of $100,000 from her husband’s death, and the two knew they were suspected of involvement in Private Dueñas Aguilar’s murder, according to court filings.