20-Year-Old Fort Hood Soldier Cory Grafton Arrested For 2019 Murder Of Chelsea Cheatham
KILLEEN, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/CNN) — Another Fort Hood soldier is being accused of murder. Spc. Cory Grafton was recently arrested in connection with the killing of a 32-year-old woman.
According to the Killeen Police Department, Grafton has been charged with the 2019 murder of Chelsea Cheatham.
It was on June 3, 2019, when police were called out to a Days Inn in Killeen after reports of a woman there unconscious and not breathing.
Once at the motel officers found Cheatham and tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
Later an autopsy at the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas determined that Cheatham's death was a homicide.
A witness said Grafton, 20, was at the scene of the murder. An arrest was made after Texas Rangers found DNA on Cheatham that matched Grafton.
When asked for comment on the arrest Lt. Col. Chris Brautigam said, "We confirm that Spc. Corey L. Grafton is an active duty Soldier assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood." He said military records listed Grafton's first name as Corey, but police and jail records list it as Cory.
Grafton was arrested on November 3 and is being held on a first degree felony murder charge. His bond has been set at $1 million according to Bell County inmate records.
Fort Hood has been in the spotlight ever since Spc. Vanessa Guillen disappeared in April and her remains were found buried along the Leon River in June. Prosecutors say she was murdered at the hands of a fellow soldier who took his own life as police attempted to arrest him.
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