I'm John Quignanis, ABC News Correspondent. You may know me from my shows like 2020 and

what would you do. And I'm also the host of a brand new true crime podcast from 2020 and ABC

audio. It's called Vanished. What Happened to Vanessa? In this new series, I'm investigating

the mysterious disappearance of Vanessa Guyan,

a 20-year-old soldier who was stationed at Fort Hood in Texas.

It's a shocking, heartbreaking story that eventually led to a major reckoning in the U.S. military.

Keep listening to hear the first episode. If you like what you hear,

you can keep listening by following Vanished.

What happened to Vanessa, wherever you're listening right now, or by clicking the link in the episode description.

Now, here's episode one.

April 22nd, 2020.

Just before 6 a.m., U.S. Army soldier Vanessa Guillen is in her barracks at Fort Hood.

It's a huge military base in the middle of Texas.

She gets a call on her cell phone, answers, and is marked present for duty in that morning's

roll call. Vanessa is 20 years old. She's a private first class. Her life as a soldier is highly

regimented. Every day, there are multiple check-ins to account for her whereabouts.

It's the early weeks of COVID,

but Vanessa is still working in person as a small arms mechanic.

She's been given a work assignment and doesn't expect it to take long.

Higher-ups have been more lax about uniforms because of the pandemic.

So today, she wears civilian clothes, a black t-shirt, purple leggings, and nikes.

At around 8 a.m., she texts a friend, a fellow soldier.

...