Film Review: "I Am Vanessa Guillen" (2022).

"However after telling her mother that she was being harassed at the Fort Hood military base, Vanessa Guillen was killed by a partner." This is I Am Vaness Guillen. This crime documentary film directed by Christy Wegener. Vanessa Guillen was twenty years old when she was found murdered at a US Army base. Rather than submit to silence, her family fought for justice and change.

On April 22, 2020, she was last seen in the parking lot of her unit, the Regimental Engineer Squadron Headquarters of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment (3CR). Her personal belongings were found inside the armory where she worked. Guillén's family felt she disappeared under suspicious circumstances. The case was investigated under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with local law enforcement agencies in Bell County, Killeen, and Belton. Multiple Fort Hood units began searching the area within two weeks of her disappearance. In mid June, the League of United Latin American Citizens added a $25,000 reward to the existing $25,000 reward announced by the Army for finding Guillén. In late June, Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia met with Fort Hood officials to discuss the ongoing search. The authorities said that more than three-hundred interviews and over ten-thousand hours were spent investigating Guillén's disappearance. On June 30, 2020, Army investigators were called in when contractors discovered partial human remains along the Leon River in Belton. Investigators theorized that the remains, previously buried under concrete, had been dug up by wildlife. Later that evening, authorities re-interviewed Cecily Anne Aguilar, a local woman who was reported to be the girlfriend of Aaron David Robinson, a specialist ranked enlisted soldier who was one of the last known people to see Guillén on the day of her disappearance and who had previously been interviewed by investigators. Aguilar told police that Robinson had confessed to her that he had killed a female soldier at Fort Hood. At the request of law enforcement, Aguilar placed a controlled telephone call to Robinson and texted Robinson multiple news articles, to which he never denied anything in response. According to a criminal complaint filed in the Western District Court of Texas, Aguilar allegedly helped Robinson dismember and dispose of Guillén's body on April 22, 2020, after Robinson told her he had bludgeoned Guillén to death with a hammer inside the armory. On June 30, Robinson escaped the custody of an unarmed guard from his unit and fled Fort Hood after hearing the news of the discovery of remains. He had been detained by his unit at the request of a CID agent under the pretense of violating COVID-19 quarantine rules. Aguilar was later arrested by Texas Rangers and held at the Bell County Jail.

It's not a perfectly made documentary, but it's important. The content was great, and it's very worth seeing for that. A lot of pain is shown in the film, but there is some encouraging progress shown by the end.

Simon says I Am Vaness Guillen receives: