Itzi Ortega stayed in touch with Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz through social media, where they occasionally chatted. Now she regrets that her talks with the young woman she calls her niece were not more direct.
“I saw her growing up like my own child,” Ortega said and then began to cry.
Basaldua Ruiz, 20, was found dead Monday at Fort Hood, an Army base in Central Texas. Fort Hood officials have said that thus far no foul play is evident but that her death is under investigation.
“Army CID will continue to conduct a thorough investigation and gather all evidence and facts to ensure they discover exactly what transpired,” officials said in a statement, referring to the Army Department’s Criminal Investigation Division. “Information related to any possible harassment will be addressed and investigated fully.”
Basaldua Ruiz’s death has renewed focus on Fort Hood and the Army’s handling of sexual harassment claims after Basaldua Ruiz’s mother and friends told Noticias Telemundo that she had said she was sexually harassed, including by one of her superiors.
“The comments her mother made were eerily similar to Vanessa Guillén’s mother’s comments,” said Domingo Garcia, the president of the civil rights group the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Garcia was referring to Pfc. Vanessa Guillén, who was murdered in 2020 after she complained about sexual harassment by a supervisor. Police suspect Guillén was killed by Spc. Aaron Robinson, who died by suicide as police moved in to arrest him. (Guillén was promoted to specialist posthumously.)
Fort Hood did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
Basaldua Ruiz, 20, had spent some of her young years living with Ortega’s brother and his wife, who is the sister of Basaldua Ruiz’s mother. They were a close community in the Mexican town of Tacámbaro, in Michoacán state.
Basaldua’s father, Ubaldo “Baldo” Basaldua, referred a call from NBC News to Ortega.
Ortega said Basaldua Ruiz had told…
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