A Mexican-born soldier, Ana Fernanda Basaldua Ruiz, 21, was found dead last Monday, March 13, at the Fort Hood military base in Texas (United States), where she spent the last 15 months, according to the local television network KWTX.
Basaldua was a combat engineer with the 1st Cavalry Division. According to information provided by the military base, the causes of her death are still under investigation, the same one where Private Vanessa Guillén was reported missing and later found dead in 2020.
The Army indicated that they had communicated the death to the soldier’s parents and provided psychological support resources to the family and fellow soldiers who served with Basaldua at the barracks.
“The Army Criminal Investigation Division and the chain of command are actively investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding her death. The chain of command contacts her family to keep them updated and provide any information that can be disseminated. In addition, it is providing support and resources to the family and the troopers who served with her.”
“We are deeply saddened by the irreparable loss of the soldier and extend our condolences to her father, mother, and brother,” read the Army statement under the rubric of Maj. Patrick Sullivan.
The soldier was a naturalized U.S. citizen, as she would serve three years with the Army. However, her father, Baldo Basaldua, who lives in California, indicated that “she was no longer comfortable, that her whole life was bad, that she wanted to die.”
He further noted he last spoke to her last Saturday, March 11, on Saturday; but the next day, she no longer answered his messages.
“The next day [Monday, March 13], I sent her messages, and she did not receive them. The delivery did not appear, and I went to look for her [satellite] location, and it appeared that she was in a park inside the base, and that was it. I just told her I would die of anguish for not knowing anything about her.”
For her part, Alejandra Ruiz Zarco, mother of the young woman, told Telemundo News on Wednesday that her daughter had told her a few weeks ago that an Army superior “was harassing her” and that she was allegedly receiving constant sexual advances from other people on the base.
“She told me, ‘mom, everyone wants me to sleep with them, but they are well id*ots.'”
Ruiz said she last spoke to her daughter last March 8, International Women’s Day. “She told me that she was very sad, that many very strong things were happening, that things were not as normal as I thought, that she couldn’t tell me much, but that there was going to be a moment when we were going to be together, and she could tell me everything,” she added.
Her case adds to a long list of deaths and violent events at Fort Hood in recent years, most notably the murder of Pvt. Vanessa Guillén, in 2020, uncovered a scandal about sexual harassment and abuse in the military; that year alone, 23 deaths were recorded at the base, with 36,500 soldiers.
According to 2021 data, the Army’s criminal investigations division (CID) has investigated more than 50 suicides and 11 homicides at Fort Hood in the past five years.