Unsolved killing haunts family, 10 years later - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Unsolved killing haunts family, 10 years later

Ten years after Pfc. Amanda Gonzales was found strangled in her barracks, the case remains unsolved, and to her parents it still feels like a nightmare from which they might one day awaken.

“Me and my wife hope we will wake up and it’s all a bad dream,” Gonzales’ stepfather, Mike Bates, told Army Times. “We hope we get that call from CID saying they have enough evidence to make an arrest.”

In an effort to find the crucial puzzle piece in its decade-long investigation, the Army Criminal Investigation Command last month increased its reward for information to $125,000.

On Nov. 5, 2001, Gonzales, 19, was found dead on the floor of her room at Fliegerhorst Kasern in Hanau, Germany. She was four months pregnant, said Chris Grey, a spokesman for CID.

“We are confident that someone out there knows something about the untimely death of this soldier and her unborn child, and we are not giving up,” Grey said. “We strongly encourage anyone with information to contact us immediately.”

Before Gonzales died, she was a cook assigned to Headquarters and Service Company of the 127th Aviation Support Battalion. Inspired by her mother Gloria’s work as a hospital receptionist, Gonzales dreamed of changing jobs and pursuing a career as a physical therapist, Bates said.

Only a few months into her Germany assignment and just weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, she was looking forward to coming home for Christmas, Bates said. He had already purchased her airplane ticket.

Gonzales’ body was discovered after she did not show up for work and did not answer her phone, Bates said.

“It just hits you like a ton of bricks, a shock,” Bates said.

In the following months, information came out in “drips,” Bates said. Bates, a law enforcement agent in Texas, knew what kinds of questions to ask CID agents, but he told them he wanted to know “as a father.”

He said he does not know the identity of the father of his unborn grandchild. He said he has learned that the man, a soldier, was questioned extensively and eliminated as a suspect because he was on maneuvers far away at the time of the killing.

Still, CID policy has prohibited agents from sharing much information with him, even though they call nearly every month to check in with the family, Bates said. In 10 years, he said the family has spoken with at least 10 agents.

At one point, agents intending to get a fresh look at the case flew to Washington from Germany with eight binders of case files to show an FBI profiler, Bates said.

Many of the soldiers who served with Gonzales may have moved on to other posts if not out of the Army, although Bates said CID agents have assured him they are able to track down any witness or suspect.

Grey said numerous CID agents have worked tirelessly alongside forensic experts, and the reward is one of the highest in recent years. He called it “a testament to how seriously we take our investigations, especially when it involves a young soldier.”

Earlier in the year, Bates was contacted by an Alabama federal prosecutor about a possible grand jury hearing to determine whether to charge a suspect in the case, but Bates was told very little. He said there was a suspect but no physical evidence linking the suspect to Gonzales’ death.

Grey said he could not comment on the federal grand jury.

Bates said that the pain of his stepdaughter’s death initially strained his marriage and ultimately led him, his wife and Gonzales’ two siblings to counseling and a grief support group.

“Speaking with people who are going through the same thing you’re going through has helped us quite a bit,” Bates said.

But one thing he cannot fathom is how a person could live in silence with the guilt of killing his stepdaughter.

“As long as we are on this earth, if it takes 10 years, if it takes 20 years, we want the person who did this to be brought to justice,” Bates said. “It boggles that someone can take someone else’s life and have no conscience.”