Pentagon Records Missed Almost Half of Troops’ Domestic Abuse Killings

Angelina Resendiz’s voice on the phone was frenzied. She was calling a pal from the barracks space of Jermiah Copeland, a fellow sailor at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. They had actually invested the night together, kissing and consuming, and now Resendiz, 21, required to leave.

It was the last time anybody would speak with her. When Resendiz’s buddy came to the barracks 15 minutes later on, the set was no place to be discovered.

“The Navy failed her,” Resendiz’s mom, Esmerelda Castle, informed The Intercept. After her child’s disappearance, loved ones invested a week rushing to discover Resendiz. Castle discovered the Navy’s reports because time uncertain, postponed, or downright incorrect.

A first-of-its-kind Intercept examination has actually discovered important drawbacks in the U.S. armed force’s treatments for recording and protecting records of murders that arise from domestic abuse, consisting of intimate partner violenceThe Pentagon’s mandated reports to Congress appear to considerably undercount these killings, leaving out almost half of cases.

In the 6 years before Copeland’s murder of Resendiz, the Pentagon taped 41 domestic abuse-associated murders devoted by service members. The Intercept determined almost two times as lots of: a minimum of 73 prospective cases including 79 victims– practically all of them females– throughout the exact same duration. Reports for 2025, when Resendiz was killed, are due in November.

The Intercept taken a look at openly readily available news short articlesobituaries, court recordsmemorialsand other information to examine the specifics behind the Defense Department’s numbers. Press reporters likewise utilized information gotten through a Freedom of Information Act demand on Army noncombat deaths to match names, due to the fact that some news protection did not discuss the victims’ and supposed wrongdoers’ military service

An eliminating gotten approved for the dataset if it took place in 2019 to 2024; if the criminal belonged to the military at the time of the criminal offense; and if the case included a murderThe database just consists of cases where a victim of the violence had actually dated or remained in a romantic relationship with the believed wrongdoerand it consists of several females living abroad who were foreign people dating American soldiers.

In the because the 2nd Trump administration took power, The Intercept discovered a minimum of 10 service females or females working for the Defense Department have actually passed away from intimate partner and domestic violence, 6 of them eliminated by male colleagues. An extra 10 civilian females have actually been eliminated by male military workers in intimate partner violence-related murders throughout the very same duration.

A Pentagon representative acknowledged The Intercept’s inquiries about the inconsistency in murder rates however did not react to in-depth concerns before publication.

“At this minute in our nation’s history, I hesitate these numbers are going to increase even further,” stated Jacquelyn Campbell, a teacher at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Nursing who has actually been studying domestic violence in the military for years. “We require main avoidance for everybody in the military and their partners.”

The findings can be found in the wake of President Donald Trump’s August statement of a Military Spouse Commission, led by Jennifer Hegseth, the other half of Defense Secretary Pete Hegsethand other top-level military leaders. The commission’s required is to assist policy around concerns impacting military households. Intimate partner violence and spousal abuse have actually worried military household supporters for years and countless brand-new cases are reported each year, the commission does not point out the problem as one of its locations of focus.

The Navy and DoD have actually stated in public declarations and interaction with members of Congress and Castle that while “correct treatments were followed” following the death of Resendiz, they have actually recognized a number of procedures that need additional evaluation.

” What Are the Statistics?”

Copeland eliminated Resendiz on May 29, 2025. In the days after Resendiz’s disappearance, her good friends submitted missing out on individual reports and called Castle in Texas, who in turn called the Navy. None understood that Resendiz was dead.

The Navy’s main timeline of occasions states it did not begin examining her disappearance as a criminal activity up until a missing out on individual’s report was submitted on the 31st, which Castle did not connect till that day. Phone records she showed The Intercept and members of Congress reveal she began getting in touch with the 29th.

“I was informed she was discovered, which the initial missing out on individual’s report was overstated,” Castle remembered. “I didn’t believe for a 2nd that the Navy would lie to me.

Technically, Resendiz had been discovered– a Navy chief looking for her had actually seen Resendiz’s body loaded under the covers in Copeland’s bed around 10 a.m. on the day of her disappearance. They presumed she was asleep, according to proof later on exposed throughout trialAs Castle informs it– consisting of in a congressional query she composed asking for a much deeper examination– a Navy chief declared on the phone to have actually spoken to her child in Copeland’s space.

She had actually been dead for hours.

“He had Angie involved a blanket on his bed,” stated Castle. “It protested policy for her to be in the barracks. And they simply turned their backs and left.”

Intimate partner violence in the armed force has actually long been an issue with uncertain indications of development. Killings in the 1990s on bases such as Fort Campbell made nationwide headingsleading Congress to develop the Defense Task Force on Domestic Violence in 2000.

Campbell, the nursing teacher, belonged to the effort, which provided over 200 ideas for enhancement by 2003. “Most of the suggestions we made a very long time ago were never ever executed,” she stated. For one, she ‘d consistently asked for much better recordkeeping.

“One of the important things I kept asking was, ‘What are the stats on intimate partner murder in the armed force?’ We might never ever get them,” Campbell stated. “And in the armed force’s suicide reports, you can not identify the number of suicides belonged to murder– suicides, where a service member eliminated a civilian spouse or partner before eliminating himself.”

This absence of clearness sounded familiar to Priscilla Rodriguez, who invested 10 years in the Marine Corps before operating in tactical interactions for the Navy.

Rodriguez experienced domestic violence that satisfied the Defense Department’s requirements from her hubby, an active-duty Marine at the time, according to files examined by The Intercept. Her other half pleaded guilty to misdemeanor kid abuse in civilian courts, and military legal authorities advised domestic violence charges. “The command picked not to pursue military legal action,” Rodriguez stated.

The Intercept’s analysis of the rates of domestic abuse reported in Pentagon information discovered intimate partner violence amongst married military couples was at least 4 times greater than the civilian rate. The Pentagon does not report the rate of abuse including single intimate partners, like Resendiz and Copeland.

Spaces like these make it hard to have a comprehensive numeration of the issue’s scale. “When responsibility is irregular,” Rodriguez stated, “it sends out a message that abuse can and will stay surprise.”

” I Knew My Kid Was Not Coming Back”

Copeland kept Resendiz’s remains concealed in his barracks space for 4 days, till June 2, 2025, when he put her body into a satchel and disposed it in a woody location behind a neighboring primary school.

Already, he was being questioned by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service on her location, and Castle was still questioning her child’s security. She ‘d asked marine authorities to have her child provide her a call, and when it never ever came, she called the base once again.

A Navy authorities recommended her child might have absconded.

“I didn’t think that,” Castle stated. “My kid is terrified to miss out on work. She will not remove.”

Castle flew to Virginia herself.

Resendiz had actually been dead for a week. Castle felt she wasn’t getting the info she required after the Navy and regional authorities had actually put out a statewide missing out on individual’s alertShe asked for that she be let into her child’s barracks space.

“I didn’t desire anybody else touching her things,” Castle stated. “It was how she left it. There was still paint out; she had actually begun painting once again. Her yoga mat was still out. She had actually intended on returning. I understood my kid was not returning.”

She invested 2 more days in Virginia looking for her child, talking with regional news, and asking marine authorities to provide more updates.

“They didn’t state her AWOL or dead,” Castle stated. “They stated she was responsibility status unknown. I was fretted they were going to clean their hands of her.”

On June 7, Castle flew back to Texas. Authorities discovered Resendiz’s body in the knapsack 2 days later on.

A History of Violence

Jermiah Copeland was founded guilty of Resendiz’s murder on June 8, 2026. According to proof participated in court records in his murder trialhe had actually likewise been implicated of 2 circumstances of domestic violence, 3 sexual attacks, indecent recordings, and other criminal activities from throughout and before his Navy service

“He had a history of violence versus females beginning in high school,” Castle stated. “And was still permitted to accompany the charges versus him. He was implicated of raping another service member, and he was moved. There were no safeguards in location at the brand-new command.”

The lack of safeguards versus intimate partner violence in the armed force becomes part of a more comprehensive set of structural and cultural failings, professionals informed The Intercept.

“There are numerous disincentives for a couple, especially when one or both partners are on active service, to look for assistance,” Campbell stated. “Active-duty ladies who were being mistreated informed us: ‘If my commander understood, I would never ever get the next promo.’ There is significant preconception, even for the victim. That makes the violence a lot more most likely to intensify and makes it most likely that we ultimately wind up with murders.”

Research study suggests that the armed force’s hypermasculine culture and methodical mistreatment of females contribute in the increased threats of intimate partner violence. Some research studies recommend that veterans anger at greater rates than those on active service.

A previous Intercept examination discovered active-duty Army ladies were most likely to be eliminated by fellow service members than by opponent contenders and had a greater per capita threat of murder than their fellow male soldiers in between the years 2011 and 2025.

More than 70 percent of the victims had an intimate relationship with the criminal eventually. Army ladies dealt with an intimate partner murder rate a minimum of 3 times greater than ladies nationally; managing for those eliminated by service males and male veterans alone, it was double.

The armed force’s systems for recognizing and reacting to abuse, on the other hand, have actually come under duplicated analysis. A 2021 Government Accountability Office report discovered the department “has actually not gathered and reported precise information for all domestic abuse accusations got,” leaving it not able to evaluate the scope of supposed abuse.

The very same can be stated for murders.

Practically a 3rd of the 79 victims The Intercept discovered were eliminated in murder– suicidesFirearms were utilized in over two-thirds of the deaths. Twenty-five of the victims were service membersNumerous murders included corollary victims who were not partnersconsisting of kidswho research study reveals comprise a substantial quantity of intimate partner violence-related deaths.

In reaction to The Intercept’s concerns, the Department of Defense specified that information in its domestic abuse reports does not make up quotes, as it is just utilizing aggregated information from the Family Advocacy Program Central Registry, a database run by the DoD. It even more specified it did not have anymore info to share on the matter.

“Right now, unless an event is reported to the Family Advocacy Program,” stated Campbell, “no one understands about it. Those reports are just the pointer of the iceberg.”

Information tracking failures have actually had fatal effects. The Air Force stopped working to send the criminal history of a previous service member founded guilty of attacking his partner and stepson to a federal database that might have avoided him from buying guns. In 2017, he eliminated 26 individuals in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

When Rodriguez reported her own abuse to the DoD, she felt that they didn’t think about the previous info they had readily available. Installation-level committees examine reported claims and figure out whether they satisfy requirements to be input into the main pc registry. The procedure is pestered with problems, specialists who spoke to the Intercept exposed, from examination treatments to information tracking.

“I was horrified to divulge the complete degree of the abuse I was experiencing,” Rodriguez stated. “What stands apart to me now is that the Family Advocacy Program currently had access to my other half’s history. Considered that history, I think the discussion must have been much wider than merely asking whether I wished to report anything. I left that preliminary interaction without comprehending what assistance existed or how I might securely leave.”

While browsing her own case, Rodriguez was likewise enjoying the exact same issue surface area through her interactions work for the Navy.

“Headlines I kept track of included active service and Marine veterans implicated of intimate partner murder,” Rodriguez stated. “At the very same time, I examined severe event reports that rose to senior management. … The narrative frequently suggested that intimate partner violence or domestic violence was a contributing or co-occurring aspect.”

Navy criminal investigative information revealed domestic violence-related deaths increasing as Rodriguez was attempting to raise the problem in 2022. She attempted to put together domestic violence awareness resources, however she remembered being informed the requirement wasn’t there.

“I was informed there was ‘no need signal,'” Rodriguez stated. “It felt entirely detached from the truth my household therefore numerous others were living.”

Castle feels that the understanding of Copeland’s history of abuse might have conserved her child’s life.

“No one understood anything about him,” Castle stated. “The management developed an environment that enabled him to hurt females.”

Winnable Cases

Because her child’s murder, Castle has actually been at work pressing the Navy and Defense Department to reinforce their actions to intimate partner violence. Her work caused the Navy altering its policies in July on how it moves sailors with claims of sexual violence.

Her wins, consisting of possible strategies by the Navy to alter how it categorizes missing out on sailorsare the current in a long string of minimal efforts towards development.

“Records are necessary,” stated Castle. “With my child, they didn’t desire to categorize her case effectively at. For the military, if something isn’t in a database, it does not exist.”

Following the prominent 2020 murder of Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén at Fort Hood– and 2 years after domestic violence ended up being categorized as a criminal activity under the Uniform Code of Military Justice– Congress offered independent military district attorneys the power to choose which cases to bring to trial.

Domestic violence prosecutions climbed up, with charges generated 359 cases in 2015 alone, up from lots of cases 4 years previously. Pentagon information recognized at least 25,000 intimate partner and partner abuse victims, and 37,000 cases, from 2021 to 2024.

And while domestic violence prosecutions increased, military prosecutions of sexual attack– typically associated to intimate partner violence — fell by practically 60 percent in the previous 5 years, based upon information from its yearly sexual attack avoidance reports. A 20 percent drop happened from 2024– 2025 alone, and The Intercept’s analysis of military court information reveals the pattern is continuing into 2026.

“In the Pete Hegseth period, sexual attack prosecutions have actually dropped substantially. Domestic violence is basically filling that space,” stated Paul Newell, an Army veteran and activist who tracks military suicide, sexual attack, and domestic violence while engaging with members of Congress on the problem.

Newell believes the trial counsel’s workplace is “choosing what they feel are more powerful, more winnable cases,” he stated. “They’ll inform you that their conviction rates at trial are still high, which reveals that actually, they’re simply eliminating the bad cases,” he stated. “But we’re not down 60 percent in sexual attacks occurring.”

The Pentagon mentioned in reaction to The Intercept’s concerns that it does not have any extra details to share on why prosecution rates for particular criminal offenses are dropping.

The Intercept likewise found favoritism in trial results: Analyzing over 650 military court cases with guilty decisions from 2021 onpress reporters discovered less senior Navy, Marine, and Army service members had greater opportunities of losing their advantages and got more prison time after being founded guilty for domestic violence. Senior ranks closest to retirement got the very best conviction results, even compared to those of the very same rank as them who had less years in service.

Newell feels that these inconsistencies provide wrongdoers increased power over their victims. “The justice system ought to not take some time in service into factor to consider because that’s focusing on the criminal. If the penalty for domestic violence is a discharge where you lose advantages, it must be used similarly.”

In April, Hegseth directed setup leaders to enable service members to demand authorization to bring independently owned guns on bases while off responsibility. He framed the modification as a method to secure service members from attacks on military setups.

Campbell disagrees.

“I have actually evaluated far a lot of domestic violence murder records,” Campbell stated. “It is clear to me that, in a lot of cases, there may have been a battle, and someone may have been struck, however no one would have passed away if there had actually not been a weapon right there.”

Rodriguez, who is now studying public health, is requiring repeating confidential studies utilizing particular concerns to determine the frequency of intimate partner violence, standardized tracking, independent examination, and public reporting.

Castle is still grieving her child and still pressing the Navy to expose the complete information about the examination into her deathTo contribute to the insult, she kept in mind the shock she felt late last June, when the Navy sent out Resendiz home to Texas in a coffin. Naval authorities had actually informed Castle that whatever was looked after, she remembered, consisting of cleaning up the body.

The Navy acknowledges that it stopped working to plainly notify Castle of her child’s real state. She was gone back to Texas in decay, her body crawling with maggots.

“There’s absolutely nothing that can be provided for her,” stated Castle. “That’s oppression, which’s what drives me. None of these ladies offered to be broken in this method.”

How we evaluated the information

Press reporters explored several databases to determine the variety of prospective victims of intimate partner violence, utilizing meanings offered by health and policy research study along with federal government companiescomparing it to the last 6 years of offered DoD reporting from 2019 through 2024. The case of a U.S. Air Force airman who abducted and killed a Mennonite lady in 2020 didn’t fulfill requirements since proof exposed no previous or present relationship. The case of a soldier who was founded guilty a year later on of the murder of a female in Texas did, as proof showed they had a relationship before the female’s death.

Cases were broken down by the year of the offense, gender of the supposed criminal and victim, and branch of the wrongdoer and victim, if suitable.

To examine court information, press reporters from The Intercept pulled all lawsuit referring to domestic violence from the years 2021 to 2026 from the sites of the Flying force Navy/Marinesand U.S. Army Navy/Marine information was just offered beginning in 2021.

Information consisted of the offense type, rank of the implicated, and whether the cases ended in acquittal, termination, or conviction. For those founded guilty, the analysis consisted of the quantity of prison time provided and whether wrongdoers got a punitive discharge, which costs them military retirement and other advantages.

Retirement eligibility was determined based upon pay info supplied in court files, which in the military is based upon years servedFlying force information might not be utilized for this analysis due to an absence of documents and obvious inconsistencies in between the variety of cases reported to Congress and those offered on the Air Force website.

To acquire the variety of cases the DoD is prosecuting for sexual attack, press reporters used Annex B of the DoD’s Annual Report on Sexual Assault in the Military to determine the variety of unlimited reports made to military authorities and the quantity sent out to the military justice system to start the judicial procedure.

The 988 Suicide & & Crisis Lifeline deals 24-hour assistance for those experiencing self-destructive ideas or for those near to them, by chattext, or telephone. Service members can call 988 and press 1 to reach the Military and Veterans Crisis Line. Assistance is complimentary and private.