Suspect arrested in cold case murder of pregnant soldier on Army base in Germany
A man was arrested in Florida Thursday in connection with the murder of a pregnant young soldier on a U.S. Army base in Germany more than 21 years ago, the FBI announced.
Court documents allege that Shannon L. Wilkerson, 42, was responsible for the death of 19-year-old Pfc. Amanda Gonzales on Nov. 3, 2001. Wilkerson has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, according to the FBI.
Gonzales was killed at Fliegerhorst Kaserne, a former U.S. Army base in Hanau, Germany, where she was stationed as a cook at the time of her death, the FBI said. Her body was found on Nov. 5, 2001, in her third-floor barracks room after she failed to report for work, and her cause of death was ruled a homicide by asphyxiation, according to the agency.
Gonzales was also four months pregnant when she died, according to a previous FBI release.
Wilkerson was in the Army at the time of Gonzales' murder, according to the FBI, but was later discharged. Neither Wilkerson's possible motive for the alleged murder, nor his connection to Gonzales, was immediately provided by prosecutors.
Wilkerson was charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which gives U.S. federal courts jurisdiction over crimes committed outside of the country by former Armed Forces members who are no longer subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted, according to the FBI.
In an interview with CBS affiliate KBTX in 2020, Gonzales' parents spoke about their continued search for justice for their daughter, whose case received renewed attention in the wake of Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillén's murder on the Texas Army base that year.
"When I saw the news, and that she [Vanessa] was murdered, I thought, 'Oh my God, this is my daughter all over again,'" Gloria Bates, Gonzales' mother, said at the time.