Enrique Roman-Martinez’s remains were found a week after his disappearance.
Specialist Enrique Roman-Martínez’s family wants answers from the US Army about the circumstances of his death and dismemberment after he disappeared during a Memorial Day camping trip with other soldiers to the Carolina Outer Banks of the North.
Six weeks after their partial remains made landfall, their loved ones still don’t know what happened.
Roman-Martinez’s family in California said Army officials at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, have received no details about the case, leaving them with unanswered questions about the 21-year-old paratrooper who serves in the famed 82nd Airborne Division.
“What they did to him was very cruel,” Roman-Martinez’s sister Griselda Martinez said in an interview with KABC, an affiliate of ABC News, earlier this week. “Why did they have to do that to her? She’s gone. Why did they have to go one step further to do this to her?”
“It was also very difficult for us,” he added.
Roman-Martinez was camping on the South Core Banks over Memorial Day weekend, with seven other soldiers, when he mysteriously disappeared from camp.
An unidentified person made a call to 911 around 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 23, and said Roman-Martinez was last seen wearing blue shorts and no shirt around midnight, 19 hours before the call.
The paratrooper’s partial remains were found a week later, on May 29, on Shackleford Banks Island, part of the Cape Lookout National Seashore. His body was identified using dental records.
Roman-Martinez’s phone and wallet were later found at the camp, prompting his family to wonder what might have led him to leave without them in the middle of the night.
“Because my brother cannot see without his glasses, he is not likely to go out in the middle of the night without his glasses,” Martinez said. “You can’t see, where would you go?”
Martinez told the Fayetteville Observer that Army officials have not told the family much about the ongoing investigation into what happened to his brother.
“Over Memorial Day weekend we lost Enrique to a senseless act of violence,” Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said in a statement released Thursday. “We are doing everything we can to support his family and find justice for Enrique.”
“I have spoken personally to his family to assure them that we will not stop in our quest to bring those responsible to justice,” he added. “The US Army Criminal Investigation Command has offered a $ 25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person (s) responsible for the murder. I encourage anyone with information related to this case, no matter how small, to contact the Strong Bragg CID Office. ”
An Army official told ABC News that there is no suspicion of retaliation or hate crime in the case.
Donahue described Román-Martínez as “a valuable member of our team” and expressed his condolences to his family, friends and fellow paratroopers.
“The thoughts of my family, and the thoughts of the leadership of the 82nd Airborne Division, focus on Enrique’s family and his battle companions as we cry together,” he said.
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