Crime Junkie - MURDERED: Enrique Roman Martinez

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

A young soldier vanishes during a camping trip. His partial remains wash up on the beach 10 days later.  If you have any information on this case, contact Army CID Special Agents at 910-396-8777 or submit a tip anonymously online HERETo sign the petition, visit HERETo donate to the Martinez family’s GoFundMe, please visit HERE For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/murdered-enrique-roman-martinez/ 

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And later this week is Veterans Day here in the U.S., a day to honor the commitment and sacrifices of those who serve our country and the armed forces. And for some people, military service is a family tradition. For others, it's a lifelong career. But for a lot of Americans, joining the military is a stepping stone,

a way to learn some skills and make some money while planning for the next thing. And the story I have for you today is about a young man who at just 21 was just months away from starting his next thing when the unthinkable happened, leaving an endless list of unanswered questions. This is the story of Specialist Enrique Roman Martinez. It's almost 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 23, 2020, a day into the Memorial Weekend, when a call comes into 911 Dispatch in Carterette County, North Carolina. It's from a young man camping out on the islands of the Outer Banks.

We are on Cape Hook Island between mile marker 46 and 47 by the Jetties. We lost our friend. We don't know where he had gone. We were kind of worried that something happened to him. Where's the last spot you saw him at? We all went to bed last night and when we woke up he was not here and we've been looking for him all day. We were trying to find the park ranger or their offices or anything. We went all the way to the ferry and we found that we needed a dial number one.

We weren't sure if that's what we had to do out here. We can get Park Service in contact with you, sir. Are you on Corbanks or Shackleford? Are you close to Cape Lookout? We're on Cape Lookout. I'll see where you're at. How long has he been missing? I woke up at 8.30 and we've been looking for him all day. We weren't sure if he might have hurt himself, but we're really not sure.

Hold on one second. You said between mile marker 36 and 37? No, 46. When was the last time you saw him? We all went to bed at 12.03. That's when we all decided to go to bed and that is the last time he saw him. Hold on one second, sir. I'm sorry about that. What's the phone number you're calling from? Okay, what's your name?

Alex. And how old is he? He's 22. 22? 21, I'm sorry, 21. Okay, does he have any physical, medical or mental conditions that we need to be aware of? He wasn't diagnosed, but he did have suicidal tendencies. Okay.

Okay, I just need a description of him. What's his race? He is Mexican. Okay. He has black hair, brown eyes. And what's his name? His Roman Martina, or Enrique Martinez. Okay. Sorry, it's actually, I'm sorry.

Let me just factor it. Enrique Roman, I'm sorry. Enrique Roman, is his name? Yes. Okay, do you know what kind of clothing he was wearing at all? So he was just, when we locked on, he was just wearing blue shorts. Do you know his height or weight at all? I would say he's around 185 and he's probably 5'6", 5'7".

Okay, and was anybody last seen with him or do you think he went off by himself? Oh, he had to have gone off by himself. Okay. Like I said, we all went to sleep. Okay, and he would have left on foot? Yes, that's the only way he had to. We only had two cars in there, both still here. Okay. Do you know of anywhere he may have gone on my island at all?

No clue. This is our first time being here. So we have no clue. Do you know if he took any personal items with him? We searched his tent and everything is still there. He even left his phone in his wallet. Okay, so he doesn't have any trackable technology? No, sir. Do you know if he might have any weapons with him or anything? Negative.

Okay. And did he leave any notes, letters, or threats or anything? We have looks through everywhere and it's not his phone. We don't have the password, so we can't look on that. Okay. All right, sir. If you're able to, just try to find a recent photograph of him. We are getting in contact with Park Service to come in contact with you. If he does come back, just give us a call back immediately.

Yes, sir. And that's it. I'm sorry, sir. That's okay. Thank you. But just let us know. And we are getting contact Park Service. They may give you a call before they come out there and talk to you.

So it may come from a block of restricted numbers, so just make sure you answer it. Yes, sir. The Ranger arrives a few minutes later at 7.15 p.m. And according to Jessica DeNova's reporting for ABC 7, the Ranger finds a group of seven people, six men and a woman, all of them soldiers from the Fort Bragg Army base near Fayetteville, which is about four or so hours away. They had taken the ferry from the mainland over to Cape Lookout the evening before with plans to camp on the beach for the long weekend.

I'm not sure how much information the friends provide during this conversation, but based on media reports, I was able to piece together a few details about their time on the island up to the point that they were talking with the Ranger. Heather Leah and Brian Mims reported for WRAL that the first night of the trip, which was Friday, a tropical storm came through the area. And at some point before midnight when they all went to bed, Enrique's tent got knocked over. And so the other members of the group helped him set it back up.

And the group says that they last saw Enrique at 12.03 a.m. when they went to bed. Okay, that's actually something that stood out in the 911 called me. Like, 12.03 is a very specific time. Like they didn't say around midnight, a little bit after midnight. They said exactly 12.03. Yeah, I thought it was a little weird too. But besides the exact time, I can't figure out from the source material whether that's the point they all like, went their separate ways for the night, or if they actually saw

him walk away. My gut says it's the former like they all are just went into their tents and apparently looked at their watches at that exact time. But either way, the campers say they didn't realize that their friend was missing until they got up the next day at like 8.30 in the morning. Wait, didn't you say the 911 call came in like that evening? Yes, Saturday at 7 p.m. But they knew he was missing at 8.30 in the morning.

What took them so long to report him missing? Yeah, it's a great question and one I wish I could answer for you, but his friends really don't say why, not publicly anyway. Now remember, the guy who made that 911 call told the dispatcher that their group had to spend the entire day searching for Enrique themselves and looking for park authorities because they didn't know that they were supposed to just call 911. Honestly, I don't think I would know I was supposed to look for park authorities. That would be like my initial go to.

Yeah. But even beyond that, something about that doesn't line up for me because according to WITN TV in Greenville, around 2 o'clock that day, the group actually ran into park rangers who had approached them and asked them to move their vehicles away from the sand dunes. And during that interaction with the people they say they'd been looking for all day, no one said a thing about a missing person. But there's no time to question this now when the deputies on scene. They need to start searching ASAP if they're going to make any progress at all before the

sun goes down. The upside for the search team is that geographically, the area is pretty contained. Actually, let me show you a map so you know what we're working with. You can kind of describe it for everyone. Okay, so the islands form kind of a wishbone, like a V shape around the mainland with South Corp banks on the right side and Shackleford banks on the left. And Cape Lookout, where Enrique and his friends had been camping, is basically the very bottom of that V. And it's connected to South Corp banks, almost like a check mark.

But the Shackleford side is its own landmass. Like, you couldn't get from one to the other without a boat. Right now, at this point, they're thinking if Enrique is somewhere on this island, it shouldn't take them long to find him. A Park spokesperson told a reporter from WITN that it's very rare that someone stays lost at Cape Lookout for long. They usually find their way to one of the beaches before too long. The search team starts at Enrique's last known location, his campsite, and they move

outward from there. But there's no sign of Enrique. That same day, Park officials post a picture of him on their Facebook page, along with a written description hoping somebody out there remembers seeing him. On Sunday, Coast Guard boats and helicopters join the search, but they too come up empty. Monday, the North Carolina Marine Patrol joins in, and on Tuesday, the Army sends in soldiers from Fort Bragg to help. And all this searching, by the way, is happening in the rain and wind and rough seas, which

must have had an impact not just on their ability to physically search for Enrique, but also could have destroyed any potential clues to tell them where he might have gone. Well in a piece for the Army Times, Kyle Remford wrote that, quote, very few clues were found by those scouring the island, end quote. Which I realize says that they didn't find much, but very few clues, isn't no clues? So it sounds like maybe they found something, but what exactly, I have no idea. But I'll give this search team one thing. They don't let up, wind, rain, choppy waters, they trudge through it all.

But they're running out of areas to search, and the longer Enrique is missing, the more worried everyone gets. Park officials make a new plea for information on their social channels, asking anyone who may have seen Enrique to come forward. And at this point, since he hasn't turned up anywhere on the island, they're looking for anyone who might have given him a lift off the island. Yeah, I was just going to ask, is it possible he left the island? I mean, that's a possibility they're considering for sure.

Enrique's sister, Griselda, spoke to our team a few weeks ago and mentioned that the Army's knee-jerk reaction when a soldier goes missing is to assume they've gone AWOL. Army investigators had called Enrique's family back on Sunday to ask if they'd seen him, like had he come by home by chance, but he hadn't. He couldn't have, even if he wanted to, because Enrique's family is in Chino, California, on the literal other side of the country, and he didn't even own a car, nor did he have any identification with him to board a plane. He'd brought his wallet on the trip, but his friends found it in his tent the morning

they couldn't find him. So if he left the island, he did it A on foot and B with no phone, no ID, no wallet, not even a shirt. Not to mention no glasses, and he needed his glasses all the time for everything. I mean, I can definitely identify with that, and I guess I wouldn't say those are impossible circumstances for making yourself disappear, but they definitely aren't ideal. Walking away from a campsite with no shoes, glasses, ID, starting a new life someplace else, you'd have to do some serious advanced planning, at least get a second set of glasses

and hide them in the woods somewhere or something, and that kind of planning. Yeah, I don't think that's what's happening here. Griselda told our team that Enrique even going on this trip was totally spur of the moment that he had to buy a pair of swimming trunks and attend on the way to go to this trip. So this didn't feel like part of some grander plan to go AWOL. Anyway, the park services call for information doesn't bring anyone forward to say, yeah, I gave this kid a lift. But someone does come forward on the Cape Lookout National Seashore Facebook page with

a tip. And here, Brett, I'm going to get you to read this for us. So it looks like this was posted as a comment on the park's missing person notice about Enrique, and the comment says, quote, he looks like the guy I saw Saturday standing on the step rails of a silver Jeep Wrangler with other people flying down the beach as they passed us. We were just past the last set of bathrooms on the south end, end quote. Wait, this was on Saturday?

Wasn't Enrique already missing on Saturday? Well, at least after 8.30 in the morning. And listen, the tipster doesn't say what time this happened. But Enrique's friend's story has always been that they never saw him after they woke up. So if this is him riding, like, who the heck is he riding with? Now, internet people jump on that right away saying it couldn't have been Enrique. He was already gone by Saturday. This guy must be mistaken.

But he says he's sure it was Saturday. It's like burned into his mind because the Jeep was driving so fast along the beach. And he says that one of the people riding on the outside of the Jeep rails looked just like Enrique. So do these guys drive a Jeep like the campers that Enrique was with? Yeah, so they do actually. And that's probably why Park Service actually pays attention to this. Because normally I wouldn't even mention a random Facebook comment if it wasn't a confirmed

sighting, except in this case, two days later, park rangers make yet another request to the public, asking specifically for anyone who saw the exact same thing, the Jeep roaring down the beach with this guy hanging from the side rails. And they want anyone who saw that to come forward. And they specifically say that the Jeep would have been followed by a bright blue Ford Ranger pickup. So maybe the Park Service was vetting that tip during those two days. Yeah, that's what I was wondering too.

But if that tip generates any new leads in the search for Enrique, it doesn't appear anywhere else in the source material, like it never got reported on. And really, any updates may have gotten swallowed up entirely when news comes out later that same day that partial human remains had washed up on Shackleford Banks, the very beach just across from Cape Lookout. According to an army news release, it's not the first time this has happened. They say Shackleford Banks is an area where, quote, the prevailing tides have unfortunately washed ashore remains in years past, end quote.

While investigators have a pretty good hunch from the start that the remains belong to their missing soldier, it's not until the next day, Monday, that they're able to confirm through dental records that the remains belong to Enrique. Now the medical examiner performs an autopsy, but unfortunately isn't really able to give investigators very much insight into what happened to Enrique. Why not? Because all they had to go off of was his head. The rest of his body wasn't found.

Griselda shared the autopsy report with our team, and while the Emmy wasn't able to determine cause of death, his report does note several injuries that speak to manner of death. In particular, he talks about seeing several chop injuries, a broken jaw, cuts, and a fractured cervical spine. What do you mean by chop injuries? I mean, exactly what it sounds like, injuries caused by chopping. And actually, I'm going to get you to read straight from the autopsy report here.

It says, quote, while decapitation is, in and of itself, universally fatal, the remainder of the body in this case was not available for examination, and therefore potential causes of death involving the torso and extremities cannot be excluded, end quote. So does the Emmy have a guess as to how these chop injuries happened? Like I'm wondering if it could have been something like a shark attack to cause something like that to happen. Well, the Emmy found evidence of some postmortem animal activity, like for example, the eyes are missing along with other soft tissue consistent with scavenging, but the so-called chop injuries,

those were for sure not caused by animals. The autopsy did reference some things like accident, a shark attack, maybe even something involving a boat propeller. So it seems like the Emmy must have considered those at some point for them to like make note of it. But in the end, he determined that, quote, the findings in this case are most consistent with death due to homicide, end quote. Okay, but what does most consistent with even mean?

Like we can't rule it out or it's for sure a homicide? Well, you're not the only one asking that question. When Enrique's family learns about the ruling, which they do by the way, not from officials at Fort Bragg or any officials or the Emmy, but from the media, Griselda actually called up the Emmy's office and it's like, are you sure it was a homicide? And the Emmy told her absolutely 100%. The only way Enrique could get those injuries is from a person with a weapon. Now the moment Enrique's death is ruled a homicide, the Army's Criminal Investigation

Division, who'd been involved from the onset, they actually take over the investigation completely, which means it's also the point where the flow of information to the public pretty much stops. That same month in June, the Army offers a $15,000 reward for information, which actually raises to $25,000 in July. That's also around the same time that the FBI announces it's joining the investigation. In August 2020, Enrique's remains are released to his family so he can be laid to rest. And then silence, September, October, November all come and go with nothing.

No updates, no news, nothing. In early December, the details of Enrique's autopsy report hit the news for the first time. Up to this point, the only thing the public knew was that his death was a homicide. They knew nothing about the decapitation or the fact that the remains that washed up in Shackleford Banks was just his head. But on the same day people find this stuff out, Cape Lookout National Seashore announces that they're closing the beaches and the waters in this area for the next six days for, quote, joint training exercise with the National Park Service, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the

U.S. Army, end quote. And where they're doing these joint training exercises, is this relevant to Enrique's case? According to Mark Price's reporting for the news and record, it's near one of the park's camping areas and is directly across from Shackleford Banks. So basically the area where Enrique and his friends were camping. So yeah. Now, on any other day, a closure like this might not have caught people's attention.

But because of the timing, right on the heels of this autopsy report hitting the press, it takes exactly zero minutes for people to start asking questions. Like, what do you mean joint training exercise? What does this have to do with the murder investigation? And more importantly, what are you looking for? Right. Eventually, several days into this so-called training exercise, authorities finally fess up that like, oh wait, yeah, no, actually the FBI's dive team is out here looking for

evidence in that case, evidence and body parts. And do they find anything? Not that I'm aware of, but maybe. Because after this search, the radio silence comes right back. And to those of us watching this investigation and waiting for news, it sure seemed like nothing was happening for months, all of 2021 practically. But things were happening behind the scenes. Things like in late February 21, when the Army quietly exhumed Enrique's remains and

sent them to the Army's medical examiner's service in Delaware for a second autopsy. Oh, do we know why, like what changed to make them want to do a second autopsy? No idea. As far as I know, the second autopsy report has never been made public. I don't think the public even knows the autopsy happened, let alone what it said, but we know because we have a copy. Britt, I'm going to have you read a couple of sections from the report. Okay, it's a during decomposition of the human body in a natural aquatic environment.

It is extremely rare for the human head to separate from the body slash post cranial skeleton with the cervical vertebrae column remaining in an articulated state. The aquatic recovery of the head and entire cervical vertebral column of the deceased in addition to the incised slash cut marks to the base of the seventh cervical vertebrae are the result of decafitation by a sharp cutting instrument. Examination of the head and neck tissues as well as the cervical vertebrae exhibit no injury pattern that would be consistent with that of a propeller strike from a powered watercraft nor from an aquatic predatory attack by a large fish such as a shark.

Fracturing of the mandible is the result of blunt force trauma. Then it goes on to say there is clear evidence of trauma to the skull and the cervical spine. Due to the absence of the remainder of the body, determination of the specific cause of death cannot be determined. The opinion of this office is in agreement with the findings of the original autopsy that the manner of death is homicide by undetermined means. So all that to say, heads don't just come off like that on their own. It wasn't a shark, it wasn't a boat.

He 100% was decapitated by a human using some sort of weapon. So I guess the end of this is hard yes to homicide but still TBD on how he actually died. Yeah, army officials didn't make a peep about this when it happened and not because they didn't have a chance to. There's actually another blast of media interest on the first anniversary of Enrique's death in May 2021, but they say nothing. Not just about the second autopsy, but like they say nothing about anything. In her coverage for the Fayetteville Observer, Rachel Riley wrote that, at the one year anniversary

of Enrique's murder, the army would only say that the investigation is ongoing and no further details will be released. The only hint that a second autopsy happened is buried in a news release Army CID issues in early August 2021. In it, they list like a bunch of other agencies that they've worked with on this case. The Park Rangers, the Coast Guard, the FBI, local police, and the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, the end. But I don't think anyone really picked up on that reference at the time or if they

did, the army didn't comment any further. In that media update, the army officials say that over the last year and a bit, they've executed 100 warrants and subpoenas, conducted 400 interviews, and chased leads all the way to Michigan, Texas, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and California, not to mention all those searches, seven in total in North Carolina's outer banks. Their searches, which include cell phones and vehicles, have turned up more than 130 pieces of evidence and five terabytes of digital data, and they examined all of it. Yet despite all of that, they haven't found a single thing, not one single thing that

connects anyone to Enrique's murder. No physical evidence, no digital evidence, no testimony, nothing. They say they've considered all the logical theories or suspicions about what happened that night and disproved or discarded every last one. Clearly, at this point, they're desperate for leads, so the army increases the reward for information again to a practically unprecedented $50,000, and this is where I notice a shift in the way investigators talk publicly about this case. Up until now, their official statements have been brief for starters, but also include

messages like, this was a senseless act of violence and we're gonna find the people responsible. But it's at this point just a couple of months ago, starting in August 2021, that they suddenly start saying something else. CID Special Agent Steven Chancellor, the lead investigator on Enrique's case, is quoted in their news release saying, Please understand that homicide basically means that someone's death was caused by someone else. That means that the death could have been intentional or it could have been unintentional. For example, in this case, someone running over someone with a boat while the person

was in the water, etc. End quote. But I thought the medical examiner, two medical examiners actually, said that this was definitely not the result of a boat. Well they said the decapitation definitely was not from a boat. So are they thinking that Enrique's death was actually accidental and the decapitation was, I don't know, a way to try to cover it up? They aren't saying that because they aren't saying anything.

The closest they come to presenting a theory is the paragraph I just read you. Usually in every news release, which is still only like three in total for this entire investigation, the army includes this like boilerplate paragraph basically encouraging people to come for with information. It's really vague. But in this same release, this August 2020 release, the one where they upped the ante to $50,000, start talking about homicide as a possible unintentional incident, the request for information also becomes very specific.

They say, quote, if you were operating a boat in that area the night of May 22nd, 23rd 2020 and recall possibly hitting something in the water, or if you have any other information, regardless of how trivial it might seem, we want you to come forward. End quote. So how is that not a theory? Sure reads like a theory to me. Yeah. And there are other hints too that point to other potential scenarios that the army has

at least considered in their investigation. For instance, there's a reference to drug use on that camping trip, which is the first time officials have addressed this as far as I can tell, though they knew it since the early days of the investigation. The release itself only has this one line that says that they investigated suspected illegal drug use on the evening of May 22nd period, not that they confirmed it or found anything or think drugs may have been involved, just that they investigated suspected illegal drug use.

Now, Enrique's sister told our team that she knows the group was drinking and using drugs on that trip. But in her mind, it was like typical 20 something stuff, nothing more. Now, I'm not sure what comes to your mind when you think of typical 20 something stuff, but it could have been LSD. In a feature story for Rolling Stones, Seth Harp wrote that acid is actually one of the most commonly used substances on army bases because there's this misconception out there that it can't be detected through your analysis, which is apparently wrong by the way.

It totally can be. But that's what Griselda says. She thinks that they were using that night, acid. Here's the problem, though, according to Mark Price's reporting in the Daily Press, the medical examiner found no evidence of drug use in Enrique's tissues. Not only were there no drugs found in his tissue, but when I go back to the original autopsy report, it doesn't even indicate that Enrique had been drinking. There is alcohol found in his system, but the report says just quote, toxicological testing

performed on brain tissue detected ethanol at 90 mg percent. This is attributed to postmortem bacterial metabolism, end quote, which I'm pretty sure is saying no booze, just decomposition. So we know, or at least reasonably sure, that the group was drinking and using drugs at night, but actually Enrique wasn't doing either of those things. Well in our interview with Griselda, she told us that Enrique was the guy who supplied the group with drugs. He was the one who brought the LSD on this camping trip.

Like as a dealer? Well, not as a dealer, no, or at least Griselda doesn't think so. She said that her brother actually shared a bank account with her, and so if he was making money selling drugs, dealing drugs, like there's no evidence of that. But he did have a personal interest in psychoactive drugs, though. Not for partying or just to get high, but like the whole micro dosing thing, using really small doses of drugs like LSD to treat mental illness. And that's the kind of work he wanted to get into when he left the army, actually.

But apart from what seemed like more of a philosophical interest in LSD and other drugs like it, Enrique's family says that he really wasn't a part of that world, at least not to their knowledge. So is this one of those I know a guy kind of situations, like he just happened to be the one with the hookup? Yeah, more like that. Like his sister thinks Enrique acted as sort of a go-between, maybe like he had a source and he would pick stuff up for friends.

If it wasn't to make money, though, why do it at all? Again, in that conversation with Griselda, she said that first of all, he really believed in the potential power of LSD, that it could be used for good for people, but also he did it just because, like as a way to be a good friend or make friends or whatever. Be a good friend or make friends with the seven people who waited, I don't know, an entire day to even bother reporting you missing? Well, so that's the other thing, actually. When you read the coverage about this case, you'll often hear references to this group

of friends who went camping together for the weekend, but actually, I don't know that they were really that good of friends or at least maybe not with Enrique. What makes you think that? Well, I mean, again, if you go back to that 911 call, it's clear that the caller basically doesn't know anything about Enrique. I mean, first he gets his age wrong, then he says he's not even sure of his name, like it's Roman Martinez, then Enrique Martinez, then finally he settles on Enrique Roman when his full name is actually Enrique Roman Martinez.

I mean, he even gets the physical description wrong. Now I realize he's estimating and maybe I shouldn't read that much into it, but the caller says that Enrique is around 180, 185, and like 5'6 or 5'7, but the physical description of him that goes with the missing person poster puts him at 5'4 and 120. Which is a significant difference. Right? I mean, it's interesting to me, but in one very short text exchange that our investigative team had with one of the campers, they said like he was our friend, we lost our friend.

So at least from their perspective, from these exchanges we had, there seems to be a claim of like a deeper friendship. And do we know if other campers were investigated? Sort of. I mean, it's not in the official media coverage or anything, but that camper who texted us, they said, quote, I loved the man as a brother, but I was a number one suspect and now I've been proven innocent, end quote. But I'm not sure that they actually have been proven innocent because right after that,

this person says that the army is quote, trying to push article 15 stuff to court-martial things and now I might go to jail for my friend dying, end quote. Now take it all with a grain of salt, of course, it's text after all, I would have loved to tell you more, but this person that we reached out didn't want to do an interview on the record, they didn't want to have their identity revealed, they just sent these two texts in response to ours and that's it. Now we talked a couple of weeks ago about a geofencing warrant, and I wonder if that's an option or even something they considered here, I mean, I know they got all that terabytes

of data, but like I can't stop thinking about that as like a potential lead. Yeah, because that would kind of narrow down who was and wasn't on the island that night. Yeah, I mean, it limits you to people with cell phones, but I have to imagine there aren't a ton of towers where they were camping or where this potential boating accident might have happened. To me, it's a process of elimination. You have basically an eight hour window in a small area when a guy for sure is murdered, so who was there?

Right, and I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been more of a public investigation into the people he was with. Like, I know authorities said that they looked into them and I'm not saying they are responsible, but you always start with those closest to the victim and then move outward. So usually we see so much more release to us as to why they are ruled out or what loose threads are still out there. I mean, besides that 911 call, I feel like we don't really know anything. I mean, you're right.

I mean, all we have is that 911 call. And the 911 call actually brought up a lot of questions for me, so our team actually reached out to Mark McClish, a former US Marshal and a statement analysis expert, and we asked him to review the call and give us his findings. Britt, do you want to tell everyone what he said? Like give us a little synopsis. Sure. So in his analysis, Mark noted several points where the 911 caller started to say something,

but left the thought unfinished. And that happens like five or six times during the call. And in Mark's opinion, quote, I believe the caller is being truthful and that they do not know what happened to Enrique. Because there were several unfinished thoughts, more may have been going on than what the caller told the 911 operator, end quote. And maybe investigators already know the things that the caller left out. Okay, but it sounds like based on everything, investigators do have a pretty good idea of

what happened to Enrique and maybe even who might be involved. Maybe they just don't have the evidence they need to close the case. Maybe. I mean, I would say I 100% agree with you if we were talking about a regular old police investigation, but we're not. We're talking about a US Army investigation. In that Rolling Stone piece, Seth Harp wrote that the Army's MO in situations like these is to quote, shut out the public, decline to answer questions, apprehend no perpetrators,

end quote. So if you're a cynic like me, you'll think that is what's happening here. Because the real, unvarnished truth is that Enrique's death was not a one-off. This is one of at least 44 Fort Bragg soldiers who died by homicide or suicide in 2020 alone. One of 44. I mean, last year around this time, I told you the story of Vanessa Guillen and about the staggering number of unexpected and unexplained deaths at Fort Hood. When we released that episode, there had been 26 at Fort Bragg, and now we're talking

about 44 dead by homicide or suicide in one calendar year from one military base. It's almost unfathomable. Before his mother signed the papers allowing Enrique to enlist in the Army at just 17 years old, she had asked the recruiter a question. Will he be safe? And the recruiter said yes. They said there are some dangers with deployments, of course. But here, at home, he'll be safe.

But he wasn't safe. He wasn't on deployment. He didn't die in action. He wasn't the victim of a tragic accident, even though his literal job as a paratrooper was to jump out of airplanes. Somebody killed him, and somebody out there knows who and how and why and what happened. And we need that somebody to come forward and tell the truth. It's the only way to give Enrique and his family the justice they deserve.

Just last month, in October 2021, Congresswoman Nora Torres told the Los Angeles Times that the Army closed the investigation into Enrique's murder in the summer. Now no one from the Army has officially confirmed or denied that, but she's requesting that the case be reexamined by the Inspector General of the Department of Defense. In that same story, an Army spokesperson told reporter Nolan McCaskill that quote, we welcome an outside view and will follow up on any investigative leads that the IG identifies, end quote. If you're looking for a way to get involved, you can sign the Justice for Enrique Roman

Martinez petition at change.org. We're going to put that right in the show notes. Adding your name helps Enrique's family as they work to keep his case front and center and to ensure law enforcement knows that it's still a priority. You can also donate to a GoFundMe that the family has set up to cover the family's legal fees in their fight for justice. Again, we're going to put both of those links right in the show notes and on our website. And don't forget, there is a $50,000 reward for information in this case.

If you know anything, if you even think you might know something but aren't sure, please say something. You can call Army CID Special Agents at 910-396-8777 or submit a tip anonymously at cid.army.mil. That contact information will also be in the show notes and on the website. Again you guys, please check the show notes for everything you can do to help. There is action you can take to make a difference. You can find all of the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And be sure to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast.

We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Crimejunkie is an audio chuck production. So, what do you think Chuck? Do you approve?