New Details Revealed in Case of Sailor Who Vanished from Navy Base and Was Later Found Dead: ‘Betrayal of Trust, of Duty’

New details have been revealed in the case of Angelina Petra Resendiz, a sailor who disappeared from her Navy base in Norfolk, Va., in May and was later found dead.

As the 21-year-old’s body made its final journey home to Texas, another Navy sailor has allegedly been named as a suspect in the case. His identity was announced by Marshall Griffin, an attorney who represents Resendiz’s mother, per NBC affiliate WAVY.

“The Navy confirmed that Jermiah Copeland is the person being detained or confined, on suspicion in this case,” Griffin told the outlet after an initial review officer’s hearing at the Naval Consolidated Brig in Chesapeake.

The news comes as the body of Resendiz, who was last seen alive at her barracks at Naval Station Norfolk on May 29, was returned home. Resendiz’s body was found on June 9 — over a week after she was last seen — in an off-base wooded area in Norfolk by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. 

Resendiz’s remains were transferred from Virginia to the Valley International Airport in Harlingen, Texas, and she was returned home by military personnel, KVEO, a local NBC and CBS affiliate, reported on Friday, June 20. She was also given military honors, the outlet reported.

Attorney Marshall Griffin and a spokesperson for the U.S. Navy did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment on Saturday, June 21.

The June 16 hearing, which Griffin did not attend, determined whether the alleged suspect will stay in pretrial confinement, per WAVY.

Specifically, the lawyer said, hearings like this one determine “whether the individual is a flight risk, or they’re likely to engage in other misconduct, and consider the government’s evidence whether a crime actually occurred.”

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Copeland will remain in pretrial confinement, because of the seriousness of the charges, Griffin told WAVY. The attorney said the exact charges are not yet known and have yet to be determined by the ongoing investigation into Resendiz’s death.

After someone officially enters pretrial confinement, the attorney told WAVY, “the government has 120 days to arraign them.” And, within that period, “they need to hold an Article 32 hearing if they’re going to take him to a general court martial, which is the most serious.”

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“Angelina was a kind and compassionate young woman who brought light into our lives,” the late sailor’s mom, Esmeralda Castle, said in a statement following her daughter’s death. The grieving mom also said the loss has left “a void in their hearts.”

During the review officer’s hearing on June 16, Castle shared another statement by phone, stating that “the person responsible for this horrific loss made deliberate choices that ended Angie’s life,” per WAVY.

“Their actions were not a mistake,” she continued. “They were a betrayal of trust, of duty, and of basic human decency.”