The body of a missing soldier at Fort Hood Army base in Killeen, Texas, appears to have been found.
Texas police said on Wednesday that they found the remains of whom they believe to be Sgt. Elder Fernandes in Temple, Texas, miles away from the base. Police are awaiting forensic confirmation that the remains found are those of Fernandes. The soldier has been missing for nine days.
Natalie Khawan, a lawyer representing Fernandes’s family, said the body was found hanging from a tree.
Police do not suspect foul play.
Fernandes’s case comes after a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances of soldiers from the base.
Officials from Fort Hood told CNN in a statement that there have been 23 deaths this year among the base’s 36,500 soldiers. Officials say that seven of those involved off-duty accidents, seven were suicides, one was a combat-related death, four were homicides, two were of natural causes, one was a drowning, and one was undetermined pending an autopsy.
Fernandes, 23, was transferred to a new unit recently because, according to officials, he was the alleged victim of “abusive sexual contact.” An investigation into that alleged abuse is still in progress.
“Our worst nightmare has happened,” Khawan said on Tuesday. “We are sickened by this tragedy that has happened one too many times.”
