Fernando Cota’s final resting place is no longer among the nation’s heroes.
Cota, a convicted rapist and alleged serial killer, had his remains disinterred from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in Texas earlier this week, according to a press release from Sen. John Cornyn’s office.
Cota’s removal comes after a federal law was passed last December allowing for the Vietnam soldier’s remains to be disinterred from the cemetery. The legislation was introduced by Cornyn (R-Texas) and co-sponsored by fellow Texas senator Ted Cruz. The bill was signed into law by President Donald Trump as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026.
The law gave Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins the directive to remove Cota’s remains.
Cornyn was pleased to hear that his legislation worked, and a violent criminal would no longer be buried in the same cemetery as other veterans.
“Because of the law I authored, the remains of Fernando V. Cota, a convicted rapist and alleged serial murderer, have been disinterred from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio,” Cornyn said in a press release. “I appreciate Secretary Collins and the VA for swiftly executing the law to bring closure to the victims’ families and restore honor among our nation’s heroes on the sacred burial grounds of Fort Sam Houston.”
According to federal law 38 U.S. Code § 2411, the internment or memorialization of veterans who committed heinous crimes through the National Cemetery Administration or Arlington National Cemetery is prohibited, however the law was not adopted until 1984, shortly after Cota’s death.
Cota isn’t the first veteran to have his remains removed from a national cemetery. In 2023, former Lt. Andrew Chabrol’s remains were disinterred from Arlington National Cemetery. Chabrol, a Navy officer, was convicted of the 1991 murder of Petty Officer Second Class Melissa Harrington. He was executed in Virginia in 1993.
Silka, an Army veteran, was killed in a firefight with Alaska State Troopers in 1984. He had been on the run after killing nine people in a remote Alaskan village two days earlier. At his father’s request, Silka’s ashes were interred in a national cemetery in Sitka, Alaska, but there’s been momentum in recent years to have his remains disinterred.
Cota’s Violent Past
Born in 1946, Cota was drafted into the Army in the mid-1960s, serving in the Vietnam War.
In 1984, he died by suicide after being pulled over by police along a California highway and was buried at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. Investigators believe Cota took his own life to spare him from a lifetime in prison or the death penalty.
He had already spent time behind bars, convicted of attacking, bounding and raping a nurse in 1975. While he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, Cota was released on parole in 1983.
Following his death, detectives linked Cota to more sexual assaults and identified him as the main suspect in the murders of six young women in San Jose, California.
Scoping out the back of his van, police discovered a young woman’s corpse, the body of Kim Marie Dunham, 21. She had been reported missing a day earlier. A search of his home would lead to more ghastly findings. Police found a small closet that appeared to be a torture chamber. The closet’s walls were covered in fingerprints, which were collected for examination to hopefully identify Cota’s other alleged victims.
Finding the bizarre closet was only the tip of the iceberg.
Police discovered false ID cards, a bogus police badge, several women’s blouses, six pairs of women’s shoes, and ads Cota produced and distributed around the San Jose State University Campus, hoping to attract students to live in his apartment.
Investigators determined Cota likely murdered the six women by strangulation, stabbing or savage beatings.
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