Relinquish Jurisdiction or form a Task Force for Missing Soldier Pvt Richard Halliday

On August 28, 2020, the family of Pvt Richard Halliday made a phone call that would turn their world upside down. After not hearing from Pvt Halliday for a little over a month the soldier's father, an Army veteran with over 30 years of service, called his son's command hoping to get in touch with his son. To his shock was told by the emotional battery commander that Pvt Halliday was reported as “AWOL” on July 24, 2020, but his status had changed to deserter; nobody had seen or heard from him in 36 days. The soldier's family were shocked. Pvt Halliday's sister called the El Paso police department to file a missing person's report but was denied and told that military were not in their jurisdiction. The family then called the Military Police (MP) and were told that they were keeping an eye out for him, but said nothing of an investigation or if anything had been done to find the missing soldier. The family were not quite sure what to do. However, after many phone calls with the battery commander and Military Police (MP) it was clear that the Army believed Pvt to have left on his own accord and did not intend to investigate his disappearance. Thus, the family turned to social media hoping to gain enough attention that news media would be obliged to report on the missing soldier and his family's desperate situation, as well as pressure the Army to investigate. Pvt Richard Halliday's sister's Instagram/Facebook post got 45,000 shares and along with the many likes and shares of posts from other family members. Shortly after U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) called the Halliday family and informed them that they were taking over Richard's case from the Military Police. So the investigation began.

Now over a year and 70 subpoenas and warrants later there is no evidence that he left the Ft. Bliss barracks, no evidence of criminal activity (on his part), and no sign of life, but lots of silence and unanswered questions. Pvt. Halliday is the most scrutinized soldier missing soldier and the first officially designated DUSTWUN/Missing under the Absent Soldier Flowchart (after Vanessa Guillen).
Since the investigation began the Army has changed their policy on missing soldiers and on November 25, 2020, Pvt. Halliday's unit changed his status to “Duty Status-Whereabouts Unknown (DUSTWUN)” and later to “Missing” on December 5, 2020. He is the first Continental US (CONUS) soldier to be listed as “Missing” under this new policy.