CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Finally, the family of Pfc. Katia Duenas Aguilar is getting answers about the Army soldier's stabbing death.
Two people are facing charges in connection to her brutal murder in her Clarksville apartment in May, according to Clarksville Police.
Police believe that Pfc. Aguilar was stabbed nearly 70 times by Sofia Rodas, of El Salvador, and Reynaldo Salinas-Cruz, from Mexico, tampered with the evidence.
Rodas, the owner of an ice cream shop in Houston County, also faces an evidence tampering charge in this case.
When we first learned about Aguilar's death, a source told reporter Hannah McDonald that Aguilar was married, but the man was never around, and Aguilar didn’t live with him.
In their press release about the murder charges, police revealed that Aguilar was married to Salinas-Cruz.
According to marriage records, Aguilar and Salinas-Cruz obtained a marriage license in Montgomery County in October 2023.
Almost exactly a year later, Salinas-Cruz was indicted by a federal grand jury for committing marriage fraud. It’s believed that the marriage between Aguilar and Salinas-Cruz was for immigration reasons.
We had questions about marriage fraud so we asked an expert. We discovered the benefits of a marriage like this can be mutually shared. In the case of Salinas-Cruz, the benefit would've been Aguilar's citizenship status and her military benefits, which the spouse would have received. As for the soldier, when a member of the military gains a dependent, money is given to them to help pay for housing, including some utilities.
As for the relationship between Rodas and Salinas-Cruz, they were married in 2020. And later that year bought a house in Cumberland Furnace, which they still own.
But by 2022, Rodas was married to someone else. The marriage was brief. Her second husband, Jeffrey Thompson, a Fort Campbell staff sergeant, died by suicide in October 2023, three days after buying them a house. As of May 2024, the house belongs to Rodas.
Aguilar was just 23-years-old when she was killed. She'd been stationed at Fort Campbell for five years and was also the mother of a little boy.
Both suspects were extradited to Clarksville over the weekend.
Police say this complex case remains open and active and the suspects now await prosecution. Likely, there is still much more to uncover about this tangled and sad situation.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at hannah.mcdonald@newschannel5.com.
My friend and colleague Carrie Sharp had a lot of fun last week, on an adventure to a country more than three thousand miles away! She’s back now – sharing her Adventures in Iceland through stories, and incredible images of this remarkably beautiful and unique island nation (kudos to Chief Photographer Catherine Steward)! But did you know Nashville has something very important in common with Iceland? Tourism! Here, Carrie explains how a volcanic eruption decades ago helped save the country’s economy from collapse!
-Rhori Johnston
