Navy responds to congressional inquiry into sailor’s death

The U.S. Navy responded to a letter from congressional leaders that voiced serious concerns about the service’s handling of and investigation into a Naval Station Norfolk sailor’s disappearance and death.

Members of Congress sent a letter July 10 to Secretary of the Navy John Phelan criticizing the chain of command’s response to the disappearance and death of Culinary Specialist Seaman Angelina Resendiz.

The 21-year-old sailor, who was assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer James E. Williams, went missing May 29 from her barracks in Miller Hall on Naval Station Norfolk.

Resendiz’s body was found June 9 in a wooded area nearby in Norfolk, Virginia. A fellow sailor has been placed in pretrial confinement in connection with her death.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS, has yet to confirm that sailor’s identity.

On May 29, the day Resendiz went missing, Resendiz’s mother, Esmerelda Castle, called to check in on her daughter’s whereabouts after her daughter’s colleagues informed her of her disappearance, according to the congressional letter.

“She contacted her duty station, where Seaman Resendiz’s chain of command responded that her daughter had been located,” the letter stated. “It is imperative to know what protocols were activated and the elements by which her chain of command reached that conclusion.”

At a June 25 press conference organized by leaders of the civil rights organization The League of United Latin American Citizens, Castle recounted how the Navy had told her that her daughter was fine when she initially called after Resendiz’s colleagues alerted Castle that she was missing.

The Navy, in its response to congressional leaders, said Resendiz was on “authorized liberty” on May 29 and had no assigned duties that required her to interact with her chain of command.

When she failed to report for duty the following day, May 30, the Navy sent two members of the James E. Williams to conduct a wellness check on her barracks room, as well as on the barracks room of the sailor she was last seen with, according to the Navy memo.

The crew members were unable to locate either sailor and called the command to report them as missing. The warship listed Resendiz on the daily absentee report in accordance with the Navy Regulations and Military Personnel Manual, the Navy said.

The Navy’s memo also stated that a wellness check was conducted the day before, May 29, after a James E. Williams sailor reported he couldn’t find Resendiz after she “contacted him requesting to be picked up at the barracks.”

But during a wellness check on another sailor the same day, a chief petty officer found Resendiz in the barracks room of another sailor, the Navy said.

This is the sailor she was last seen with, according to the Navy.

NCIS began investigating Resendiz’s location May 31 after the Norfolk Police Department contacted them with a missing persons report that day.

Congressional leaders asked the Navy why so much time had passed between May 29, when Resendiz went missing, and June 3, when the Navy finally classified Resendiz as a missing person.

The Navy said that Resendiz’s unauthorized absence status began May 30 and had no bearing on the NCIS investigation commencing.

NCIS allegedly contacted Castle on June 1 and continued to speak with her every day between that day and June 11, except for June 7, according to the Navy’s memo. The Navy said it informed Castle her daughter was missing, that it was concerned for her well-being and that it was collaborating with law enforcement to find her on June 2.

This conversation happened four days after Resendiz was unaccounted for, which followed Navy policy of notifying the next-of-kin of a sailor’s absence by day five, the Navy said.

However, Castle claimed at the June 25 news conference that once NCIS became involved, she stopped receiving information regarding the investigation.

Lawmakers stated that they had received reports that the sailor being held in pretrial confinement in relation to Resendiz’s death was under investigation for separate instances of sexual harassment when he was transferred from the aircraft carrier Truman to Naval Station Norfolk. They asked the Navy to verify whether this was true and whether it was common practice to transfer a sailor who is the suspect in an active investigation.

The Navy did not address those questions in its memo.

The congressional letter also asked the Navy what steps they took to ensure Resendiz’s body was preserved before being returned to her mother in Texas on June 20.

The Navy also did not respond to that question.

Castle said during the June 25 press conference that her daughter’s body was covered in maggots and was in a shocking state of decay when she visited her in a funeral home.

“They didn’t preserve her body or prepare her to come home,” Castle said in the conference.