A U.S. Army solider was arrested in connection with the murder of a sergeant whose body was recovered from a dumpster on a Missouri military base.
Wooster Rancy, 21, was facing court martial charges in the murder of Sergeant Sarah Roque, 23, of Ligonier, Indiana, near Fort Wayne, reported KSDK, the NBC affiliate in St. Louis. Rancy and Roque both served in the 5th Engineer Battalion at Fort Leonard Wood, an Army training installation in southern Missouri.
Roque was reported missing after she failed to show up for her unit’s morning formation on Oct. 21. Her body was found hours later, authorities have said.
Maj. Gen. Christopher Beck, commanding general of the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence and Fort Leonard Wood, said at a news conference this month that the community at the base was “devastated.”
Beck described Roque as a leader who served with “honor and distinction."
“This is something we never want to happen, we never want for the family to have to endure or the unit to have to endure,” he said.
Roque enlisted in 2020 and was decorated, receiving the Army Commendation Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Good Conduct Medal and the Army Service Ribbon, officials said.
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Rancy, who joined the Army in 2022 and attended basic combat training at Fort Leonard Wood, is from Miami, officials said. The relationship between Rancy and Roque, if any, was not clear - as was a possible motive.
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