Army increases reward for missing Fort Bliss soldier to $50,000 A banner for missing U.S. Army Pvt. Richard Halliday is displayed at a rally Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020, at Gateway South Boulevard and Cassidy Road in El Paso near the Cassidy Gate to Fort Bliss. (Daniel Borunda/El Paso Times/TNS)
The U.S. Army has increased its reward for information about Pvt. Richard Halliday, who has been missing from Fort Bliss, Texas since July 2020.
On Wednesday, the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) raised the reward to $50,000 for information about Halliday’s whereabouts. In the weeks immediately following his disappearance, Halliday’s parents had raised an $11,000 award for information on his whereabouts.
“Army CID, along with partnered law enforcement agencies, remain committed to pursue all available and credible leads in the search for Halliday, who was last seen July 23, 2020,” CID said in a press release. “More than 240 interviews, 71 subpoenas and six search warrants on numerous financial institutions, emails, telephone numbers and social media accounts associated with Halliday have been conducted in the 18 months since his disappearance.”
Halliday is a 22-year-old caucasian male standing at 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighing approximately 162 pounds. He is a dual citizen of the U.S. and Ireland and has passports for both countries, though the passport for Ireland expired in May 2020.
Halliday is assigned to D Battery, 1-43rd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, 32nd Army Air Missile Defense Command at Fort Bliss.
The soldier was last seen on July 23, 2020 wearing either gray or turquoise cargo shorts, a gray t-shirt, and a charcoal gray zip-up hoodie and dark gray running shoes that had red, yellow, and white paint stains on them.
“We want to find Private Halliday and bring him home to his family,” said SA Marlon Soto, the Resident Agent-in-Charge of the Fort Bliss CID Office. “We continue to ask for the public’s assistance in providing any credible information that might lead to finding Private Halliday.”
Halliday had reportedly been a top performer in basic training and had been doing well in the Army, but his mother told Stars and Stripes that things began to change in November 2019 after a deployment in Qatar. According to jail records, Halliday had been arrested by El Paso police on Jan. 25 on a DWI charge. Two months later, Halliday was also disciplined for accidentally crossing the border into Mexico.
Halliday’s disappearance also came around the same time Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén disappeared from Fort Hood, Texas. Guillén’s remains were found in late June of 2020 after she had been missing for more than two months, and investigators determined she had been murdered. Guillén’s family said she had complained about sexual harassment from a coworker prior to her death. Spc. Aaron David Robinson, who was suspected of killing Guillén, fled the base and fatally shot himself on July 1, 2020 as police attempted to find him.
