Introducing "Vanished: What Happened to Vanessa"

0:00I'm John Quinonez, ABC News correspondent. You may know me from my shows like 2020 and What Would You Do? And I'm also the host of a brand new true crime podcast from 2020 and ABC Audio. It's called Vanished. What happened to Vanessa? In this new series, I'm investigating the mysterious disappearance of Vanessa Guillen, a 20-year-old soldier who was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas. It's a shocking, heartbreaking story that eventually led to a major reckoning in the U.S. military. Keep listening to hear the first episode. If you like what you hear, you can keep listening by following Vanished, What Happened to Vanessa, wherever you're listening right now, or by clicking the link in the episode description.

0:47Now, here's episode one. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.

1:14April 22nd, 2020. Just before 6 a.m., U.S. Army soldier Vanessa Guillen is in her barracks at Fort Hood. It's a huge military base in the middle of Texas. She gets a call on her cell phone, answers, and is marked present for duty in that morning's roll call. Vanessa is 20 years old. She's a private first class. Her life as a soldier is highly regimented. Every day, there are multiple check-ins to account for her whereabouts. It's the early weeks of COVID, but Vanessa is still working in person as a small arms mechanic. She's been given a work assignment and doesn't expect it to take long. Higher-ups have been more lax about uniforms because of the pandemic.

2:04So today, she wears civilian clothes, a black T-shirt, purple leggings, and Nikes. At around 8 a.m., she texts a friend, a fellow soldier. They're supposed to meet up for a hike that afternoon. Then, just after 9 a.m., she texts her boyfriend back in Houston, Juan Cruz. They'd recently gotten engaged. The last message, she told me I have to work in a few minutes. And that was the last message she sent me. At 10.03 in the morning, Vanessa arrives at work. She sets down her bank card, her ID, and her keys. Vanessa gets to work on one of the tasks she's been assigned. And at 10.23, she sends a text confirming the serial number of a machine gun.

2:57It's the last text she sends that day. After that, Vanessa Guillen goes dark. She never comes back for her bank card or her keys.

3:12Vanessa and her boyfriend Juan usually texted and talked on the phone throughout the day. But when Juan sends Vanessa a text around lunchtime, she doesn't respond. And then he notices his texts are not being delivered, which means Vanessa isn't reading them. That seems strange. She's always so responsive. Even when her phone battery was low, she'd let him know. See, I knew something was wrong because I checked her social media. I was checking everything. I was like, man, hopefully she tweeted something or liked something. I was just checking, checking, but nothing. Juan reaches out to Vanessa's older sister, Myra, asking if she's heard from Vanessa.

3:58And I'm like, well, I haven't tried today. I've been really busy at work, but let me try. So I was like, let me call her, check up on her. And I called and it went straight to voicemail. So I was like, well, let me message her. Maybe the messages go through. And nothing. And I know she doesn't turn off her phone. Vanessa's parents haven't noticed that she stopped communicating. They don't have any reason to be worried about Vanessa just yet. But around this time, her father, Rogelio, gets a sharp pain in his chest.

4:36Rogelio says he feels like he's running out of air, like he's about to stop breathing. Later, he'll look back at this moment as a bad omen, the moment when he had an intuition something was really wrong. Myra has been waiting hours for her sister to get back to her. She decides she can't just sit around and wait any longer. So she grabs her purse, keys, and an extra set of clothes and sets out for Fort Hood with one of her sisters and Juan to look for Vanessa. It's about a three-hour drive from Houston. All night long, Myra keeps texting her sister. Her messages are short, and they get more and more desperate.

5:238.35 p.m. Hello? 11 p.m. Vanessa? 1.04 a.m. Bro? And more than 24 hours after her first text, I'm going to find you. I promise.

5:47Vanessa is one of six kids from a very tight-knit family. While Myra, the oldest, sets off in the night to look for her, Vanessa's 16-year-old sister, Lupe, is sleeping. But when Lupe wakes up the next morning, it's like a storm has blown through their small home. I mean, I was like, what's going on? Like, why did my mom and my dad sleep in the couch? Why is my little brother sleeping in the other room? Why didn't my sister leave at almost midnight? What's wrong? Then I texted my other sister. She was like, don't tell them that I told you, but we think Vanessa's missing. And I was like, how can she go missing on a military base?

6:26That's ridiculous. Go find her and better find her.

6:33Vanessa's family fears something is terribly wrong. Maybe she's been in some sort of accident. Their heads are spinning with questions. Where is Vanessa? Why aren't they hearing from her? Soon their worries go to a darker place. Had someone done something to Vanessa, who would want to hurt her? And why couldn't the U.S. military find one of its own.

7:05From ABC Audio and 2020, this is Vanished, What Happened to Vanessa? I'm ABC News correspondent John Quinones.

7:21Episode 1, I'm Gonna Find You. A few days after Vanessa's disappearance, I was talking to my nephew in my hometown of San Antonio, and he asked me if I'd seen the local news reports about this young soldier who had gone missing. She was Texan, Tejana, Mexican-American, like my own family. She looked familiar. Vanessa was 5 '3", with a heart-shaped face and long, dark hair. She often wore it pulled back in a ponytail. She had tattoos on her left arm, including one of a cross with a flower in honor of her Catholic faith. I started doing some research and quickly realized Vanessa's story had a lot of layers.

8:10It happened on a military base, and those are difficult places to get inside and report on. Her story gnawed at me. Why couldn't the military find a soldier on one of its own bases? It was just bizarre. So I started reporting on Vanessa's disappearance for 2020. And I discovered that as much as this is a story about Vanessa, it's also a story about her family's quest to find her. Her youngest sister, Lupe, was only 16 at the time, but she became a forceful voice pushing for her sister to be found. I believe she's still in there and she's suffering, but she's still alive and I want her back like that.

9:00I want her alive. And eventually the nation and even the world would take notice. People joined protests demanding more be done to find Vanessa. Artists painted murals with her face in cities all across Texas and in other places too. Wichita, Kansas, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. Vanessa! When do we want her? Now! We never saw Vanessa! Vanessa's story went viral on social media. How did one missing soldier become a movement? Well, it all starts with Vanessa's family. In the summer of 2020, a few months after her disappearance, I drove to Houston to visit them. The Guillen family lives in a working-class neighborhood in East Houston that reminds me of the barrio where I grew up on the west side of San Antonio.

10:00My father's side of the family has been in Texas for seven generations. Like Vanessa, I was drawn to the military. I joined ROTC in high school and college. I thought the military would be my way out of poverty. My dad was a janitor at my high school with a third-grade education. My mom cleaned houses in Alamo Heights, the rich part of town. In Houston, as I pull up to the Guillén's driveway, it's packed with cars. People are bringing them food and cookies.

10:38Hola, ¿cómo están? Pásale, pásale. Oh, aquí estamos. Acá estoy. Qué gusto verlo otra vez. Pásale. Vanessa's mother, Gloria, meets me at the front door holding a rosary. I walk in and smell fresh tortillas, again reminding me of home. You're Rogelio, right? Yes, Rogelio Guillén. Is it Rogelio or Rogelio? Rogelio. In my license, Rogelio Guillén. They immediately invite me to stay for lunch. Gloria and Rogelio are originally from a farming village in central Mexico. They came to Houston in 1997, a couple of years before Vanessa was born. And this is the city where they've been raising their four daughters and two sons.

11:23Rogelio works as a machine operator, while Gloria stays at home with the kids. She considered Vanessa her second daughter, her miracle child.

11:43Gloria tells me that when Vanessa was 15 days old, she almost died of meningitis. A nurse told her to give up, but Vanessa lived. Gloria believes the Virgin of Guadalupe saved Vanessa's life. She's the patron saint of Mexico. The Guillens are deeply Catholic. An altar honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe is one of the first things you see when you walk into their home. We had the same kind of altar in my home. The Guillen's altar has candles, handwritten notes, and a Mexican flag. But it also includes so much of Vanessa, her graduation sash and cap, and sunflowers, one of her favorite flowers. On the wall above the altar, you can see paintings and photographs of Vanessa.

12:37Does this make you feel good? Yes, she says. It makes me feel good because this is where she was raised, and I feel she's here with me.

12:55When Vanessa went missing, Gloria would pray the rosary at this altar, pleading for her daughter's safe return.

13:07A mother praying for the return of her strong and athletic daughter.

13:19On another day, I meet up with Gloria at a place that meant a lot to Vanessa. So this is where she ran track. Aquí andaba corriendo. Sí, ella corría aquí. Le encantaba hacer su atletismo aquí. You ran with her? Usted corría con ella? Sí. Las dos juntas siempre se nos ejercicio. Pero ahora que no está ella... We're at the running track at Vanessa's old high school. It's a rainy, overcast day, and Gloria tells me that she and Vanessa went running here together a couple of times. Vanessa, it seems, was always exercising. What kind of student was she? What kind of student was she? She was an excellent student in mathematics and writing.

14:07Vanessa was an excellent student, Gloria tells me, especially in math and writing. She studied a lot and was a varsity athlete. She hoped athletics could be her path to college. She played on no less than three soccer teams and ran cross-country. She even ran marathons. Gloria remembers on school nights, Vanessa would run laps on this track, sometimes until 7 or 7.30 at night. Running and soccer were her life. Era su vida. Era su vida. Era su vida. Fuerte, eh?

14:44Vanessa was always so strong, Gloria says. She loved going to the gym and lifting heavy weights. Squats and deadlifts were her favorite. On social media, Vanessa described herself as a gymaholic. Vanessa's father, Rogelio, would tell his daughter that she focused too much on exercise. He wanted her to take time for other things, too.

15:13Rogelio remembers how he and Vanessa would sometimes play fight, and she would beat him. Vanessa was strong. She knew how to defend herself, Rogelio says. Gloria tells me Vanessa had a dream of playing professional soccer someday. But from the time she was around 10 years old, Vanessa had another dream. She wanted to join the U.S. military. Her mother was completely against it. The military, that's not for women, she said. It's for men. But Vanessa persisted. And when she turned 18, she told her mother, I'm going to enlist. You didn't want her to go? No, you didn't want her to go? No. He knows that I never wanted to go.

15:59No, don't go, son. Don't go. Mom, I'm going to go to go because I have 18. And I'm going to go to go because I want to defend my country. Gloria says she begged her daughter not to sign those enlistment papers, but Vanessa pushed back. She loved her country and wanted to defend it. Gloria spent the rest of the day in tears. Gloria's reaction didn't exactly surprise me. In my experience, Latino families are proud to have their sons serve in the military, but daughters? That's a newer thing. Vanessa's younger sister Lupe remembers when Vanessa told her the news. And we're like, why did you sign?

16:44And then she just said, I want better opportunities, not only for me, but for my family. I want to be someone in life. I want to get a career because not only do I want to protect the nation, I want to protect y 'all because y 'all are family. Family, it meant everything to Vanessa. She was especially close to her mother. So the fact that she enlisted despite Gloria's resistance, it makes me think Vanessa was her own woman, that she was strong mentally as well as physically. If she wanted to do something, she was going to do it.

17:25Gloria says Vanessa told her, I have been given a mission and I'm going to fulfill it.

17:38Vanessa signed her papers and was placed in the Army's delayed entry program for most of her senior year. When she enlisted, the Army gave her a symbolic scholarship check for future college expenses. The amount? $114 ,000. Vanessa's sister Lupe told me this check was a really big deal to Vanessa. When they gave her her check, she put it on the room with every other medal. For her marathon medals, her honorable medals, her cross country, she just sticked it there. So every time she used to go to sleep in our house, she used to see the check. She was that proud of herself. She finished high school on a high note.

18:21Her family says she graduated near the top of her class. She went to her senior prom in a green sequined gown with her best friend, Emerald green was one of her favorite colors. In her graduation picture, she looks happy and relaxed. Her long, dark hair falls down to her waist. She wears a white sash with an emblem of Texas over her graduation robe. In blue letters, it says Class of 2018. Two days after graduation, she says goodbye to her family and leaves for basic training in South Carolina. She doesn't know it yet, but her military dreams are about to take a dark turn.

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20:28Vanessa heads to basic training. The 11-week training is intense and physically demanding. There's one video where it's pitch dark outside and you see Vanessa squatting and flipping over this huge tire. Vanessa's older sister, Myra, remembers how Vanessa loved her early time in the military. Her very first training, she didn't even want to come back. She was that happy. Even when she got home, she was like a new person. She was like, her skin was literally glowing. She was a bit chubbier than usual. She's always been skinny and she was just happy. Vanessa finished basic training in August of 2018.

21:10Myra flew to South Carolina for the ceremony. She remembers searching for Vanessa in the crowd. Eventually she saw me. I just heard her yell out my name and she just started running towards me and I felt like a mama was like, I have a baby running towards me. And she just started crying, and it was just like, it was a really beautiful moment that I'll never forget. To mark the occasion, Vanessa posted a picture of herself on social media. It reminds me of one of those class photos you'd get in high school. Vanessa in front of an American flag. She's wearing green military fatigues. her last name, Guillen, is embroidered in capital letters on her lapel.

21:53The caption she wrote with her post says, Gracias a Dios por este logro. Thank you, God, for this achievement.

22:05No one could ever imagine that less than two years later, her family and the army would use this very photo of Vanessa in her missing persons alert. And it's this portrait of Vanessa that I saw framed on the altar her family kept in their home. The one where Gloria prayed every night for her daughter's safe return.

22:34In December 2018, Vanessa gets her first official assignment. She's heading to Fort Hood in her home state of Texas. Her job is to repair and maintain small arms equipment. Now, Fort Hood is one of the largest military bases in the United States. It's roughly the size of New York City, including all five boroughs. It's the kind of place where the whole town basically exists to support the military community. Fort Hood has lots of amenities. There's a bowling alley and a golf course, seven elementary schools and two middle schools. But Fort Hood also has a troubled reputation.

23:19Its motto is The Great Place, but it's been the site of controversy as well as tragedy. In 2009, a U.S. Army major stationed at Fort Hood killed 13 people and injured dozens of bystanders. I remember being in Austin when the news of the mass shooting broke, and I immediately rented a car and headed to Fort Hood to cover the story for ABC News. I'm here at three core headquarters, very close to the processing center where yesterday's massacre took place. Today, 2020 was given exclusive access to secure areas of this sprawling base where we visited some of the wounded and their families. As it turns out, Fort Hood has faced multiple scandals around allegations of sexual harassment and sexual misconduct.