The U.S. Army has closed an investigation into the killing of a paratrooper from California whose head was found severed from his body, according to Rep. Norma Torres, who is asking the Pentagon’s inspector general to examine whether the military’s probe was flawed.
Enrique Roman-Martinez, 21, was stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina when he went missing in May 2020. Roman-Martinez, of Chino, had gone camping during the Memorial Day weekend with seven fellow soldiers on an island off the North Carolina coast. His partial remains later washed ashore near the camp.
In a letter Tuesday to Sean O’Donnell, acting inspector general of the Defense Department, Torres (D-Pomona) said the Army “regrettably” closed the investigation this summer “with no justice for Roman-Martinez or his family.” She requested a “full and independent examination of the response to and investigation of Roman-Martinez’s murder.”
“As we look forward to the holiday season, Spc. Roman-Martinez should be with his family. He should have been already discharged from the military and settling into his new life,” Torres wrote. “Instead, his family has spent over 16 months painfully waiting for justice with no end in sight. During this time, the family has lost all confidence in the Army Criminal Investigation Command.”
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