FORT HOOD, Texas — The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command offered a reward of up to $25,000 for information to find missing Fort Hood Soldier, PV2 Gregory Morales.
"What it would tell me is that they also suspect something has happened at this point, beyond him just going AWOL," Gregory's Mother Kim Wedel said.
Morales was last seen driving his car outside of Fort Hood in Killeen on the night of August 19, 2019.
"He had called and asked for some gas money. He said he had bought a new car," Wedel said.
He was driving a Black Kia Rio with Texas temporary license tags. The car was later recovered by authorities, according to U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.
The last known contact with Morales was on August 20. He has not been seen or heard from since. Morales was out-processing from the Army and was scheduled to be discharged within a couple of days when he disappeared, according to the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.
"Which is why when they said, you know, he is AWOL and sometimes people just do that, I was like that makes no sense," Wedel said.
Wedel said her son went from classified as AWOL to deserter after 30 days. According to the Army's list, Morales appears to be still classified as a deserter. His mother thinks something happened to him.
"I'm not believing my son is completely innocent in anything at all, but he still deserves to come home. I just think he just got mixed up with the wrong people and something happened," Wedel said.
Wedel said her daughter-in-law went to Carfax and tracked down his car. She said it was in Dallas in December to be inspected and then transferred back to the Fort Hood/Killeen area in January. Wedel said CID called and confirmed they had the vehicle.
She said her heart wants to believe Morales is alive, but her head thinks the opposite.
"It's real hard at this point to believe he is still alive and not contacted anybody," Wedel said.
Morales may also use the last name Wedal, which was his last name before his marriage. He was born and raised in Oklahoma and Fort Hood was his first duty station while he served in the Army. Morales was known to associate with numerous civilians in and around Central Texas, according to U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command
Investigators have no credible information that this case is in any way connected to the search for Pfc. Vanessa Guillen, who went missing from Fort Hood in April.
"All of the families of missing soldiers from anywhere need answers. We just need to find Greg and we need to find Vanessa," Wedel said.
Army CID and Fort Hood continue to seek help to find Morales. According to CID officials, they are convinced that someone knows where Morales is and encourage people to come forward for the sake of Morales's wife, stepchildren, mother and fellow soldiers.
If you have any information, contact Army CID Special Agents at 254-287-2722 or the Military Police Desk at 254-288-1170. You can anonymously submit information on the Army website.
If you would like to help locate Morales, you can sign the Find missing US Army Soldier Gregory Scott Wedel-Morales petition to help change military protocol to not assume that a soldier has gone AWOL when they don’t show up for formation.
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