Army officials have increased the reward in the case of a Fort Bragg paratrooper whose partial remains were found along an Outer Banks seashore last year.
The Army Criminal Investigation Command increased the award in the homicide case of Spc. Enrique Roman-Martinez to $50,000, according to a news release issued this week.
“We are increasing the reward in the hopes of developing new credible leads to determine exactly what happened to our soldier,” CID special agent Steve Chancellor said in the news release. “We do not want to leave any stone unturned.”
Roman-Martinez, 21, of Chino, California, was reported missing May 23, 2020, at Cape Lookout National Seashore in Carteret County. His severed head washed ashore six days later.
At the time of his death, Roman-Martinez was a human resource specialist assigned to Headquarters Company, 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division.
He joined the Army in September of 2016 and was assigned as a paratrooper to Fort Bragg in March 2017.
Roman-Martinez was last seen alive May 22, 2020, when he was camping with seven other soldiers, the Army CID’s news release states.
The release states that “agents have investigated suspected illegal drug use on the evening of May 22, 2020,” but does not indicate if any evidence was found to support that suspicion.
“Roman-Martinez’s friends reported him missing” the following evening, the news release states.
In an interview with The Fayetteville Observer in May, Roman-Martinez’s older sister, Griselda Martinez, said investigators have told the family there doesn’t seem to be a motive for the other soldiers her brother was camping with to harm him.
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