Pfc. Amanda Gonzales, 19, was found dead in her barracks at Fliegerhorst Kaserne in Hanau, Germany, in 2001. A former soldier, Shannon Wilkerson, was arrested Feb. 23, 2023, and charged with first-degree murder in the Gonzales case, the Justice Department said in a statement Thursday. (U.S. Army)
A former soldier who was arrested Thursday in Florida is charged with the murder of a 19-year-old private on an Army base in Germany more than 20 years ago, law enforcement officials said.
Shannon Wilkerson, 42, faces one count of first-degree murder in the strangulation of Pfc. Amanda Gonzales, the Justice Department said in a statement Thursday.
Wilkerson pleaded not guilty at a hearing Thursday, according to a court filing.
Gonzales was four months pregnant at the time of her death on Nov. 3, 2001. She was a cook at Fliegerhorst Kaserne, a since-shuttered base in Hanau.
Pfc. Amanda Gonzales, 19, shown during a trip to Paris in September 2001. Two months later, Gonzales was found dead in her barracks in Hanau, Germany. Former soldier Shannon Wilkerson was arrested Feb. 23, 2023, and charged with killing her. (Courtesy)
Wilkerson was a soldier at the time of the offense but was discharged from active duty in 2004 and from the Army Reserve in 2007, according to a grand jury indictment.
Gonzales’ body was found on the floor of her barracks room. She had been strangled, investigators said at the time.
In 2008, Gonzales’ family members told Stars and Stripes that Army criminal investigators had not given up on the case but that one lead after another had failed to pan out.
“It’s frustrating as hell. That was my first daughter, my only daughter,” Santos Gonzales, Amanda’s father, said at the time.
Gonzales’ mother, Gloria Bates, said years after the killing that she was confident justice would come one day.
“They took away my daughter and first grandchild,” Bates said in 2008.
A copy of the 2001 flyer offering $20,000 for information on the death of Amanda Gonzales that year in Hanau, Germany. The reward was raised to $75,000 in 2004. A former soldier, Shannon Wilkerson, was arrested Feb. 23, 2023, and charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Gonzales, the Justice Department said in a statement. (U.S. Army)
In 2021, when asked by Stars and Stripes about the status of the case, Army CID spokesman Jeffrey Castro said that investigative work was ongoing.
“I can tell you that our agents will never give up on this case, and they are determined to bring the person or persons responsible to justice,” Castro said.
Wilkerson was charged under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over crimes committed outside the United States by people who are no longer subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
If convicted, Wilkerson faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. A trial date was set for March 27 in Pensacola, Fla.
