Police are now calling the death of Spc. Megan Touma a homicide, according to a news release issued this morning by the Fayetteville Police Depart ment.

The release also says that the Army’s Criminal Investigations Division has joined police in investigating the death of the 23-year-old Touma, whose decomposed body was found June 21 in a room at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott on Skibo Road. The body was found in a bathtub.

“As a result of this joint investigation, on June 27, 2008, the U.S. Army took possession of Megan Touma’s body, which has been sent to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., for a second autopsy,” the release says. “The purpose for this is simply because this Institute provides supplementary advanced technology to deal with cases of this degree.”

Police said they have not received an autopsy report from the state Medical Examiner’s office.

Police said over the weekend that they had identified a Fort Bragg soldier as a person of interest in the murder of Touma, who was seven months pregnant.