When Army Spc. Moises Gonzalez was killed on April 25 in Kandahar province, Afghanistan, the news devastated his wife.
NBC affiliate KGET-TV in Bakersfield, Calif. reports that Spc. Gonzalez married Ruth Bayona in 2010, but that the soldier had never divorced his first wife, Darlene Garcia, of Los Angeles.
The Army did not contact Bayona after her husband died from injuries sustained when his vehicle flipped over, but instead reached out to Garcia, who will receive survivor benefits and Gonzalez’s service flag.
“This woman hasn’t been in his life for years and the only reason she’s coming out right now is because of the benefits,” Bayona told KGET.
A third woman, who is the mother of Gonzalez’s second son, also attended the funeral:.
There’s a differing account that paints the first wife in a more flattering light via NBC:
It was a solemn send-off for a soldier. Army Specialist Moises J. Gonzalez died in a vehicle rollover accident in Afghanistan on April 25th. He was 29 years old, and leaves behind three sons and two wives.
“I’m sad, but I know in my heart that’s not him,” Ruth Bayona, Gonzalez’s wife. “I feel like he’s still in Afghanistan, that’s how I feel.”
