Vanished: Setting the Trap

is Deborah Roberts here with another weekly episode of our latest series from 2020 and ABC Audio, Vanished.

What happened to Vanessa?

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Tuesday, June 30th, 2020.

It's early afternoon, and the Guillenne family is checking in at a hotel in Washington, D.C.

They've driven 1,400 miles from Houston to meet with congressional leaders.

The family wants Congress to investigate Fort Hood's handling of Vanessa's disappearance.

It's now been more than two months since Vanessa went missing.

It's also Myra's 22nd birthday.

The Guillennes have plans for a celebratory dinner that evening.

But as soon as they arrive in D.C., their phones are flooded with texts and news alerts, all showing the same headline.

A break in the search for missing soldier Vanessa Guillen as human remains were found during a search near her base in Texas.

The remains were reportedly found.

Right away, the family is afraid this could be Vanessa, and they're shocked and angry that they're hearing about this discovery on the news.

Soon, Myra gets a call from military investigators.

The Army Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, tells her what she already knows, that partial remains were found by the Leon River, about 20 miles from Fort Hood.

But it's too soon to know for sure whether it's Vanessa or not.

They didn't say it was her, but they also didn't tell me it wasn't.

So...

Of course, I.

I started thinking the worst.

Her little sister, Lupe, refuses to believe that the remains could be Vanessa.

They can't really tell me personally that

they're saying that it may, but I mean, do never lose hope.

Like, just keep waiting until if it's a positive or negative result.

This is the second time authorities have discovered human remains in the past month.

But when the first set of remains were found, officials immediately reassured the Guillennes that it wasn't Vanessa.

They appeared to be male and too badly decomposed to be her.

Those earlier remains were later confirmed to be from another missing Fort Hood soldier, Gregory Morales.

Solupe is initially hopeful that maybe this is also someone else, that Vanessa could still be out there, still alive.

She takes a moment away from the TVs and the social media updates.

I didn't lose hope.

I mean, me and my aunt went to the other room and we're doing a roastry.

But she also starts to consider that maybe this time is different,

that it could be Vanessa.

We're asking, like, I mean, if it's her, I mean, it's for a reason, but she's in a better place.

Myra finishes her call with CID.

It's short, and she says investigators didn't go into much detail.

But as soon as she hangs up the phone, Myra gets another call from EquaSearch founder Tim Miller.

He was part of the initial search by the Leon River where these remains were found.

You know, I choked up now.

I remember that day.

And

when I called, and

I remember I asked her, I said, No, have you heard anything?

He always spoke to me with the truth.

He would never hide anything from me.

And he did ask me, are you by yourself?

Are you in a private area?

And

I said, you know, whatever you have to say,

you can tell me already.

I'm not going to go hide or anything.

Myra tells Tim that she just got off the phone with CID.

She knows human remains remains were found and she's ready for whatever Tim has to tell her.

He hesitates and then starts to describe the long dark hair they found at the scene that led Tim to believe one thing.

And

I said Vanessa's been found.

There's a lot of silence after that one.

A lot of silence.

I just dropped my phone and

there was like a panic attack and

I was literally right outside the hotel that I was going to stay in.

And my mom was in the SUV

and

I felt like I was just going to fall to the ground.

And

when he confirmed to me that it was her, it was just like everything came to an end.

Authorities wait for an official autopsy.

Six days later, they confirm the human remains belong to Vanessa.

But Tim's call is enough of a confirmation for the Guillens to know Vanessa wouldn't be coming home the way the family was praying she would.

And so, after months of searching, Vanessa Guillen is finally found.

the discovery of her body that morning sets off a series of breakthroughs in the case.

Breakthroughs that would lead investigators to close in on a suspect that very same day.

From ABC Audio in 2020, this is Vanished: What happened to Vanessa?

I'm John Quignones,

episode four:

Setting the Trap.

Vanessa's remains are found in an area that had already been extensively searched, and search coordinators say that whoever killed her went to great lengths to make sure no one would ever find her.

Remember, search teams had been looking along the Leon River in the small city of Belton, Texas.

That's where investigators say specialist Aaron Robinson's cell phone data placed him in the early morning hours of April 23rd, the day after Vanessa went missing.

It's where they found a mysterious burn pile and parts of a burned tough box lid.

EquaSearch Coordinator Coy Murphy says, it was a promising lead.

At that point,

We never want to say knew, but we knew.

We knew she was in that area.

They dedicated more time and resources to surveying the area.

They sent more people and cadaver dogs to search on foot.

They had boats, ATVs, and even drones searching up and down the river.

But after about five days searching the area, nothing.

We suspended the search because we were just running dry again.

Even though we really felt that that area was something, you know, there's not much you can do.

Then, on June 30th, a fencing contractor doing some work in that same area notices something strange.

Around 11 a.m., the Bell County Sheriff's Department received a phone call from a citizen who was actually doing some work out

on the road on FM 36, putting up a fence line.

That's Major T.J.

Cruz with the Bell County Sheriff's Department.

He knew that there was some searching going on for the missing Fort Fortune soldier.

He stated that he had smelled a foul odor.

So, two detectives and myself went out there and met with him.

Major Cruz and the detectives are driving toward a pretty remote area in Bell County.

There are no traffic lights.

It's a place where you can easily pull off the highway.

When they arrive, the contractor shows them where he smelled the odor.

They start searching for the source.

And that is when the contractor makes a gruesome discovery.

He followed the smell and he actually located something that he believed was some kind of remains.

They're in a shallow grave.

The contractor finds a long clump of hair.

Major Cruz and his team also find bones and some kind of concrete substance.

He alerts his office and calls the Texas Rangers and the FBI to let them know what they found.

It's now around 1 p.m.

Authorities take over the area, and the site is now an active crime scene.

Soon, media outlets flood the quiet country road.

Reporter Olivia Leveda is there for local news station KXXV as authorities search the site for more evidence.

Human remains have been found during a search for missing Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guien.

Army CID confirmed

chaos.

Authorities everywhere, reporters everywhere, cameras everywhere, and we were all trying to find answers, trying to figure out what was going on.

And you could only get so close because they had the crime scene tape up.

We had to stay behind the crime scene.

There was a lot of authorities on the other side.

collecting evidence, doing their investigation.

It was just a lot going on.

A lot going on.

Major Cruz says they start canvassing the area to see if they could find more remains.

We started digging in other areas, you know, close by where we located the first remains.

We worked until nightfall.

The next morning, early at daybreak, we started again.

And then we were able to find two more.

The next day, authorities find two more sites in the area with human remains.

They're also buried in shallow holes and covered over with a cement-like substance.

Investigators carefully chip away at the concrete to see what might be enclosed, and they uncover a human skull.

By the end of the search, authorities find a total of three graves.

Here's Steve Campion.

He was a reporter covering the story with ABC News-owned Houston station, KTRK.

We later learned that the volunteers were essentially walking over the area where these remains were found because they were so buried, they were so encased in cement that no one could tell any difference.

EquiSearch coordinator Coy Murphy says these graves were incredibly well hidden.

They had done a very good job, they, the suspects,

of

creating

burial spots to blend in with the environment.

And I would say it was sophisticated because of the way

they

hit her so well.

So it just looked like everything else.

Now, how do you do that?

Well,

he had to go to some trouble.

Whoever buried the remains had dug three separate holes and filled each one with a mixture of concrete and rock.

The area is surrounded by fallen trees and tall grass, and the graves were hidden under dirt, twigs, and other foliage.

If you're looking for somebody and they've been buried, you can tell.

You can tell the ground's been disturbed, or you can tell that the ground has caved in because of the digging.

None of that.

We have any of that.

So they did a really good job job of blending her in.

So that makes it very, very difficult.

But once the remains are finally discovered, investigators turn back to what led them to search that area along the Leon River in the first place.

Specialist Aaron Robinson's cell phone data.

They decide to pay him and his girlfriend, Cecily Aguilar,

another visit.

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Specialist Aaron Robinson was one of the last people to see Vanessa the day she went missing.

When he was first interviewed, he told investigators that he opened the arms room for Vanessa, she completed her assigned task, and then she left.

After he finished work, Robinson said he went home and spent the night with his girlfriend, Cecily Aiguilar, who corroborated his story.

But as the investigation into Vanessa's disappearance continued, cracks started to show in what once looked like a solid alibi for Robinson.

Investigators say his phone data showed Robinson was not actually home like he said.

Instead, he was in Belton, 20 miles east of Fort Hood.

That's what led military investigators to search along the Leon River where they discovered Vanessa's remains.

Former FBI agent and ABC News contributor Brad Garrett was closely following the case.

He's led a number of high-profile investigations.

So, investigators have reached a point in this investigation where they have multiple inconsistencies, both in statements and actions of Aaron Robinson and also of his girlfriend, Cicely Aguilar.

But at this point, they still don't have enough information to suggest that they've actually harmed or done anything with Vanessa.

So on June 30th, the day Vanessa's remains are discovered, authorities decide it's time to revisit the couple's statements, starting with Cecily.

From an investigator standpoint, you want to go to the lesser culpable person

to start with, if you can, to fill in exactly what did happen, because then that becomes very powerful if you have that information when you confront the primary suspect.

While authorities continue their recovery efforts along the Leon River, Cecily Aguilar is working a shift at a gas station convenience store.

Investigators alert the U.S.

Marshals Service to put Cecily Aguilar under surveillance.

Sometime around 7.40 p.m., Cecily clocks off work and a friend comes to pick her up.

The U.S.

Marshals follow closely behind her and eventually turn their sirens on to pull the car over.

They tell her she's not under arrest, but ask if she could come with them to the CID office on Fort Hood to be interviewed.

Cecily says yes.

Officials take her phone and they tell the friend they can leave.

They take Cecily in immediately and start questioning her about the inconsistencies they say they found in her previous statements, like how Robinson's cell phone data indicated the couple weren't home like they said.

Brad Garrett again.

And she realizes that the investigators know that these phone calls were in or near Belton, Texas.

She then tells them,

yes, in fact, they did leave their residence and drive up to a park in or near Belton, Texas to look at the stars.

And so, Cecily admits to lying in her previous interviews.

They did leave their home that night to go for a long drive toward Belton, but other than that detail, Cecily says her past statements were all truthful.

As investigators are speaking with Cecily, CID directs Fort Hood officials to confine Robinson and keep him under close watch.

He's not under arrest, but investigators want to make sure he remains on the base while Cecily's being interviewed.

So, officers bring Robinson in.

They tell him that he's being confined for breaking COVID-19 quarantine protocol.

Former reporter Steve Campion.

Specialist Robinson is brought into a room, a conference room, and soldiers are supposed to be there around the clock watching him just to make sure that he's there in that room, kept under 24-hour surveillance as this investigation is unfolding into the remains and how they got there.

Robinson is to be escorted and watched at all times.

The supervisor on duty sends out a critical group text message to the officers assigned to watch Robinson.

The supervisor tells them if Specialist Robinson tries to leave, tackle him, immediately call military police, because there is a real sense of urgency in keeping him there in the conference room.

Robinson spends the evening in the conference room with at least one soldier at all times.

It's 8.30 p.m.

In another another building on base, investigators are still talking to Cecily.

She remains adamant that her previous statements are true.

The investigator questioning Cecily asks her if she's willing to die for Specialist Robinson.

Sure, she says.

But when he asks if she's willing to go to jail for him, she responds, no.

That's when the conversation hits a turning point.

The investigator goes on to tell Cecily,

I know that you're lying to me again.

He then reveals for the very first time that human remains were found by the Leon River.

And in that moment, Cecily breaks down and starts talking.

She tells investigators that Robinson had confided into her that on April 22nd, he bludgeoned another soldier to death inside the arms room with a hammer and then enlisted her help to dispose and dismember Vanessa Guin's body.

Cecily Aguilar recounts what she says happened that night, and she goes into excruciating detail.

ABC News correspondent Stephanie Ramos helped cover Vanessa's story for the network.

According to investigators, Robinson goes to Aguilar's place of work at a gas station, and that's where he tells her her what he had just done.

He just killed another soldier and placed her in a tough box.

And somehow, he convinces Aguilar to help him get rid of the body.

Cecily says in the middle of the night, Robinson drove her to a remote area by the Leon River.

A big black box with wheels was already there.

Remember, witnesses say they saw Robinson loading a similar box into his car earlier that day.

Cecily then says Robinson revealed what was inside.

A fully clothed, dead woman.

She was wearing fitness clothes.

Her hair was in a bun, and she had a gold necklace on with a pendant of the Virgin Mary.

In a report filed by the Texas Rangers, here's what they say Cecily told them in her interview.

The details are tough to hear.

Again, Stephanie Ramos.

They then use a tool like a hatchet or an axe and dismember Vanessa's body.

Cecily goes on to say that they tried to burn the body with gasoline and then dug several holes to bury the remains.

They left the gravesite, but Robinson wanted to be absolutely certain that no one would ever find what they had done.

So, three days after they first buried Vanessa, the couple went back to the Leon River.

This time, they came with gloves, hair nets, water, and cement that Cecily had recently purchased on Facebook Marketplace.

She says she got the idea to buy the cement from watching the crime dramas, CSI, and Criminal Minds.

Authorities say Cecily told them she and Robinson then exhumed the remains and tried to burn and break them down even further.

Again, former reporter Steve Campion.

They then mix the cement and place it on top of the three shallow graves to try to encase the remains so that they don't produce an odor that somebody passing by might smell or that it wouldn't stick out if people were searching the area.

They want to hide it so that even if somebody goes looking, nobody's going to find it.

And they were almost successful in that.

After the couple returned home, Cecily says they burned their clothes and any other remnants of what they did that evening, including Vanessa's gold pendant necklace, which they flushed down the toilet.

Cecily ends her statement by saying she's a victim in all of this and claims that Robinson held her against her will.

Robinson and Cecily's plan to get rid of the body was gruesome and methodical.

They spent two nights trying to make sure no one would ever find Vanessa.

You don't see murderers spend that kind of time, not typically, with their victims to get rid of the remains.

That's Mary Ellen O'Toole on what she thinks of Robinson's actions after the murder.

She's the director of the Forensic Science Program at George Mason University.

She was also a behavioral analyst for the FBI for 15 years.

In 2020, ABC asked her to review court documents of Cecily's interview with investigators.

Based on what she's read, O'Toole says Robinson was on a mission to get rid of the body.

Assuming the crime was not premeditated, it's unusual behavior for someone who just committed murder.

That really goes to the personality of that offender who now has taken this young woman's life.

And now most people would be in such an emotional state if they had done that, but not in this case.

He's now able to start thinking strategically.

In other words, he's able to put together cogent thoughts about

what do I do with the body.

That's not typical.

No matter what you see on television or in the movies, that's not typical.

She says Robinson is strategic and stealthful.

He's been able to evade evade authorities for two months, but they're closing in on him.

Based on what Cecily has told investigators, they're confident that Robinson is their perpetrator.

And he's sitting in a conference room somewhere on base, just waiting for them to make the arrest.

So as Aguilar is giving this confession, the focus really shifts to specialist Aaron Robinson and getting him in custody and questioning him because, at this point, he's the prime suspect in Vanessa's murder.

But investigators want more evidence before they officially detain Robinson.

With Cecily now fully cooperating with authorities, they ask her to call her boyfriend and let them listen in.

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According to investigators, Cecily Aguilar says she helped her boyfriend Aaron Robinson dispose of Vanessa's body by the Leon River the day she went missing.

And now, Cecily is going to help law enforcement set the trap.

People many times are never consistent in their behavior.

Former FBI agent and ABC News contributor Brad Garrett.

And it ends up being contradictory at some point where you have Cicely admitting a dismemberment and burying parts of a body.

You then have her turn around and basically work with the FBI

to trap Aaron.

And so I think

at the very end of the day, it comes down to self-preservation.

I shouldn't have done it, but I did do it for whatever reason.

And now I'm going to try to do the right thing.

And the right thing is to tell the truth and help the FBI and other law enforcement agencies catch the person who ultimately killed Vanessa and brought her her into this equation.

Cecily says investigators told her that helping them could mean the difference between spending 20, 30, or 40 years in prison.

She agrees to call Aaron Robinson and let investigators record their conversation.

They give Cecily her phone back and she's overwhelmed with text messages from Robinson, ABC News correspondent Stephanie Ramos.

He continues to use his cell phone to communicate with his girlfriend Cecily Aguilar, all under the watchful eye of investigators.

He sent Cecily messages saying he loved her and begged her to help him.

He also asked her to retrieve his gun from her apartment.

It's late in the evening, and Robinson has been sitting in this conference room for hours.

He made escorted trips back and forth to his barracks to retrieve some clothes, a blanket, and whatever else he needed to spend the night in that room.

And the entire time Robinson was confined, he still had full access to his phone.

When Cecily calls him, he doesn't know that she's already been talking to authorities for hours.

He has no idea that she's told them what she says happened that night and

that she's implicated him.

Investigators direct Cecily to tell Robinson that she was scared and thinking about turning herself in.

At first, Robinson doesn't believe her.

Investigators are listening closely, waiting to hear what Robinson will say.

They're feeding Cecily questions to try and get him to confess to Vanessa's murder.

At some point in the conversation, Robinson learns that human remains were found earlier in the day.

During these calls, Robinson actually texts Ahilar news articles about those remains recovered by the Leon River.

Cecily talks about what they did the night Vanessa went missing.

And Robinson, he doesn't deny any of it.

She asks him, what are we going to do if we get caught?

I don't know, Robinson responds.

I'm going to tell them the truth, she says.

I can't keep doing this.

And all Robinson says in return is,

okay.

He sounds upset.

In one of the calls, Robinson tells Cecily, I trusted you.

He goes on to say that she has betrayed him.

Behavioral analyst Mary Ellen O'Toole.

It's very likely that he understood he was was going to be arrested.

And at that point, he only has so many things that he can do to control the situation.

It's now 10 p.m.

One of the last calls Robinson has that night is with his mother.

An officer overhears him telling her, don't believe what you hear about me.

He starts pacing the room.

The soldier on watch notices Robinson inching closer and closer to the door, so he orders him to sit down.

After a few warnings, Robinson complies.

But then, with Cecily, his closest ally, wavering, Robinson makes a move toward the door again.

Former reporter Steve Campion.

So as she's helping investigators narrow in on Robinson, he does something that I don't think anybody saw coming.

That's next time.

Vanished.

What happened to Vanessa is a production of ABC Audio and 2020, hosted by me, John Quinones, produced by Sabrina Fang, Shane McKeon, Nancy Rosenbaum, and Nora Ritchie.

Fact-checking and production help from Audrey Most Tech.

and Annalisa Linder.

Tracy Samuelson is our story editor.

Our supervising producer is Sasha Aslanian.

Music and Mixing by Evan Viola.

Special thanks to Katie Dendos, Janice Johnston, Denise Martinez-Ramundo, Natalie Carvenas, Rachel Walker, Brian Mazurski, and Michelle Margulis.

Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming.

Laura Mayer, our executive producer.

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