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Ex-Bush, Reagan official's body found dumped in landfill

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Ursus:
From Forbes.com:

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Associated Press
Cameras plentiful where Del. man's body dumped
By RANDALL CHASE, 01.05.11, 04:25 AM EST

NEWARK, Del. -- Whoever dumped the body of a prominent national defense consultant into a garbage bin in a bustling college town risked being detected, either by witnesses or surveillance cameras, with some of the containers in well-lit parking lots, near restaurants and stores.

Police don't know which of the 10 bins collected on New Year's Eve in Newark contained the body of 66-year-old John P. Wheeler III, who was last seen alive the afternoon before some 15 miles away in downtown Wilmington. Where he might have been killed and what he was doing on the days leading up to his death also remain elusive, said Newark police spokesman Lt. Mark Farrall.

"We still don't know the location of the crime scene," Farrall said Tuesday.

Much is known about Wheeler's 40-year consulting career.

A 1966 West Point graduate and Army officer at the Pentagon during the Vietnam War, he later served the administrations of the last three Republican presidents. During Ronald Reagan's time in the White House, Wheeler headed the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program and helped get the Vietnam War Memorial wall built in Washington. Under George W. Bush, he helped develop an Air Force program to combat cyber attacks on U.S. weapons systems.

A tipster told police Wheeler was alive on Dec. 30 at 3:30 p.m. near an intersection about four blocks from the office of attorney Bayard Marin, who was representing Wheeler and his wife in a heated property dispute, and about a mile from an Amtrak station where Wheeler often caught the train to Washington. They found his car at the station.

Farther south along Interstate 95, The Associated Press traced the garbage truck's path through downtown Newark before it headed to the Cherry Island landfill where workers saw Wheeler's body falling out of the truck as it unloaded. Investigators have said they believe the body was in a bin early in the truck's run.

The first stop was a bank in College Square shopping center. Two trash bins at the rear of a bank are just yards away from two surveillance cameras and in sight of several storefronts and a heavily traveled road.

Inside one was a pair of white latex gloves, similar to those used by police evidence technicians.

Eddie Baker, 55, and his wife, Traci, 44, said they have been scouring the garbage around the shopping center for the past three weeks looking for moving boxes. Baker said he had not seen anything suspicious, but that he had come across homeless people searching, and sometimes sleeping in, the bins.

From the bank, the truck headed to the library, where the bin is tucked in an alley between the rear of the building and a fence that partitions the alley from nearby homes. A locked chain-link gate prevents through traffic in the alley, and a surveillance camera guards the area, alerting workers to an AP reporter's presence.

Asked whether staffers had talked to police, a man replied, "Not a lot to talk about, unfortunately," before the closing the door.

Security cameras and lights overlook bins on the truck's route behind a Toyota ( TM - news - people ) dealership. Those at a McDonald's ( MCD - news - people ) are in plain sight of a 24-hour drive-thru lane. Just down the street, a small bin is behind another restaurant, across the street from a 24-hour emergency care center whose bins can be seen by residents of a seven-story apartment building.

Behind a Goodwill thrift store, several containers are in a lighted area that, according to a sign, is under 24-hour surveillance.

Whoever dumped Wheeler's body would have found more privacy at a nearby retirement village and assisted living facility, where the bin is more hidden.

The garbage truck's route is 10 miles from Wheeler's home in New Castle. Investigators have searched the home, where yellow police tape can still be seen in the kitchen, but they have not identified it as a crime scene.

Wheeler's lawyer Marin said he last spoke with his client on Dec. 27, and did not know what he may have been doing in Wilmington three days later.

Wheeler was suing to block Frank and Regina Marini of Hockessin from continuing to build a new house across the street from his duplex. Wheeler argued that the Marini house did not comply with construction standards for new homes in the historic district. A Delaware Chancery Court judge denied Wheeler's application for a temporary restraining order on Dec. 13.

Late on Dec. 28, several smoke bombs of the type used for rodent control were tossed into the Marini house, scorching the floors, Chief Deputy State Fire Marshal Alan Brown said.

The Marinis said in a statement that they offered "heartfelt sympathies" to the families of Wheeler and his wife, Katherine Klyce. Police have given no indication whether they believe the property dispute had anything to do with Wheeler's death.

"It is one facet of the investigation," Farrall said.

In New York, police searched the condominium Wheeler and Klyce shared in a brick building on 124th Street in Manhattan, where they had lived for at least three years.

Building superintendent Jay Hosein said Tuesday that he saw Klyce last week, and that she seemed happy and cheerful.

"They were a very nice couple, very nice people," Hosein said.

Efforts by The Associated Press to contact Klyce have been unsuccessful. Wheeler's family issued a statement through Newark police Monday asking for privacy.

Wheeler had twins, a son and daughter, by his first wife. Klyce has two daughters from a previous marriage.

Elizabeth Thorp, a board member of the Deafness Research Foundation, of which Wheeler had formerly been CEO, said the circumstances of his death were "too surreal."

She said he moved in a sophisticated crowd.

"This is not a guy who would end up in landfill or be murdered," she said. "It's a gigantic loss."

Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Washington, David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., and Colleen Long in New York City contributed to this story.


Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
2010 Forbes.com LLC™

Ursus:
Posted on Wed, Jan. 5, 2011
Military expert's death still puzzling: Sightings reported, but few clues

By WILL BUNCH · Philadelphia Daily News
bunchw@phillynews.com 215-854-2957

Delaware's bizarre murder mystery involving a top U.S. military expert took more strange twists yesterday with two reported sightings of John Wheeler III in the days before his body was found in a Wilmington landfill.

One witness - an attendant at a parking lot next to the New Castle County courthouse in Wilmington who related her tale to police and then to two Philadelphia TV stations - told reporters that she saw Wheeler, 66, acting erratically last Wednesday. She claimed that the man she believes to be the former top Air Force aide was unable to find where he parked his car and looked disheveled - not wearing an overcoat and holding a shoe in one hand.

"He really didn't look good to me," Iman Goldsborough told Fox 29. "I asked him, 'Are you OK?' He was like, 'No.' " Authorities said that Wheeler's car turned up later at a different parking lot, at the DoubleTree Hotel in Wilmington.

Meanwhile, police in Newark, Del., who are leading the probe into Wheeler's murder, confirmed that he was spotted walking near 10th and Orange streets in downtown Wilmington at 3:30 Thursday afternoon, just hours before a trash truck completing a route in Newark dumped Wheeler's body at the Cherry Island landfill.

That busy intersection is several blocks from the office of the lawyer who was representing Wheeler and his wife in a contentious lawsuit against New Castle, Del., neighbors who are building a home that Wheelers claimed was blocking their view.

The killing of Wheeler - who during the final years of the George W. Bush administration was a top Pentagon expert on cyber warfare - and the strange and mysterious way it took place has become a major national story, especially among journalists who considered him a key source.

Mark Thompson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter now with Time magazine, called Wheeler "one of those outer planets in the capital's solar system, never drawing too close to the sun but riding the country's business in an elliptical orbit that would bring him closer to the heat every once in awhile."

Wheeler - a West Point grad who served in the Vietnam War and went on to Yale Law School and Harvard Business School - was probably best known for his leading role in building the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall on the National Mall, in Washington.

But he was a man of many talents and interests, who was chief executive of Mothers Against Drunk Driving for a time, a lawyer for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and an advocate for hiring Vietnam vets and banning chemical warfare.

He lately worked as a consultant to a nonprofit defense contractor, the Mitre Corp.

The police investigation - which is still being treated as a local matter although the FBI is providing some technical assistance - is dealing with an array of information made public yesterday, including:

* The statement issued by Wheeler's family - including his wife, Katherine Klyce, 66, an importer of Cambodian silk - urging reporters to "respect the family's privacy" and leave them alone.

Several reporters said they had been unable to locate Klyce, who traveled frequently for her business.

The couple reportedly owned a condo on 124th Street, in Manhattan, but had not been there for at least a couple of weeks.

Wheeler had two children from an earlier marriage.

* A report that several floorboards appeared to be missing from the kitchen in the couple's New Castle home and that several chairs in the kitchen are wrapped in yellow police-crime tape.

But much of the focus yesterday was on tracing Wheeler's movements in the days before his corpse was found on Friday, New Year's Eve morning.

Goldsborough, the Wilmington parking-lot attendant, told Fox 29 that he "just didn't seem like he was really there. He seemed like he was disoriented."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Copyright 2011 Philly.com

Ursus:
Comment left for the above article, "Military expert's death still puzzling: Sightings reported, but few clues" (by Will Bunch; Jan. 5, 2011; Philadelphia Daily News):


Posted 4:04 PM, 01/05/2011
It was a CIA hit.Must have had the goods on the Obama mob.
— dtowndestroyer[/list]


Copyright 2011 Philly.com

Ursus:
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Posted on Wed, Jan. 5, 2011
Copyright 2011 Philly.com

Video shows 'confused' Wheeler 14 hours before body was found

By John Shiffman and Kathleen Brady Shea
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

Police investigating the death of a former Pentagon aide said this morning he was last seen on a surveillance video in downtown Wilmington at 8:30 p.m. Thursday, about 14 hours before his body was found in a Wilmington landfill.

Newark police, who have classified the death of John Parsons Wheeler 3d as a homicide, said the surveillance video showed him inside the Nemours Building at 10th and Orange Streets and that he appeared "confused."

Police also said Wheeler was approached inside the building earlier in the day by several individuals who offered assistance to him, which he declined.

On Tuesday, police discovered evidence that Wheeler may have been involved in an attempted arson days before his death, a law enforcement source told The Inquirer.

The source emphasized that the evidence does not shed light on Wheeler's death, but it has helped detectives understand his state of mind before he disappeared.

Police found evidence linking Wheeler to devices planted at the New Castle home of a neighbor with whom he had been feuding, said the source, who is close to the investigation. The feud was over the size of the neighbor's house, which was under construction across the street from the residence Wheeler shared with his wife, Katherine Klyce, in the city's historic district.

Wheeler was found dead in the Cherry Island Landfill about 10 a.m. on Friday, in refuse that came from trash bins in one of 10 possible locations in Newark, Del. Police said they have been trying to retrace his movements between Dec. 28, when he left his office outside Washington, to when his body was discovered.

The case has drawn national attention - Newark police received roughly 70 media calls Tuesday - because Wheeler, 66, lived such a distinguished public life.

A Vietnam veteran who became a driving force behind the controversial memorial on the National Mall, Wheeler worked on nuclear, chemical, and cyber issues at the Pentagon. He was the first chief executive officer of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a secretary of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a tireless advocate for veterans.

On Tuesday, police said detectives verified that Wheeler had been seen Thursday near 10th and Orange Streets - close to the Hotel du Pont - but a police spokesman declined to say how this was confirmed. An executive at the nearby DuPont Corp. headquarters, which employs outdoor surveillance cameras, said that the company had "cooperated" with the police but declined to elaborate.

Police say they have no suspects and have released few details about the slaying - in part because they themselves have so many unanswered questions, including where the killing took place.

"We're still trying to [find] the crime scene," said Newark police spokesman Mark A. Farrall. "We're working a lot of leads."

Farrall has said that Wheeler died shortly before his body was discovered Friday, but has not described how Wheeler died - whether, for example, his death was caused by gunshot, bludgeoning, or some other violent act.

An official cause of death will not be released until "toxicology reports and other forensic studies" are completed, said Carl Kanefsky, a spokesman for the medical examiner.

"It's quite a mystery, and the length of time it's taking to solve it makes it more intriguing," said Bayard Marin, a lawyer who represented Wheeler in the dispute over a neighbor's plans to build a large house in New Castle's historic district.

The Wheelers tried to halt those plans in court, contending the house was too big for the neighborhood.

The incendiary devices were placed at the neighbor's home last week, police said, days before Wheeler returned from his part-time consulting job for the defense contractor Mitre Corp., located in McLean, Va., outside Washington.

Marin said he did not know if the devices or Wheeler's death had any connection to the building dispute, but he said tempers in the court case never rose to acrimonious levels.

Marin said he was interviewed by police Tuesday for 45 minutes, but he would not say what detectives asked. "I guess they are just gathering all the miscellaneous facts and hoping to tie them together to find something they can make of it," he said.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, police on Tuesday searched the condominium that Wheeler and his wife had shared in a brick building on 124th Street for at least three years, the Associated Press reported.

Wheeler's wife, Katherine Klyce, who operates an international textile company with ties to New York and Cambodia, is unavailable for comment, according to a family statement.

The FBI on Tuesday offered "technical assistance" to the police, said FBI spokesman Rich Wolf. He declined to elaborate, but in FBI parlance, the term "technical assistance" typically refers to forensic assistance. It does not mean the FBI is conducting a full investigation.

In Delaware, authorities returned to the Cherry Island Landfill on Tuesday but kept reporters at bay.

Farrall, the police spokesman, said only, "We're looking for anything that might be of evidentiary value."

Sanitation crews used an alternative site at Cherry Island on Tuesday, so that police could comb the area where the body was found without interruption, said F. Michael Parkowski, a spokesman for the Delaware Solid Waste Authority.

Parkowski said it was not surprising that workers had discovered Wheeler's body in time to retrieve it from the landfill. He said truck drivers as well as workers known as "spotters" are trained to watch garbage for suspicious items as it is dumped at the site.

The defense contractor that had employed Wheeler part time since 2009 issued a short statement Tuesday. "At this time our thoughts are with his family," Mitre said.

The statement said Wheeler's work for Mitre consisted of "providing part-time support to outreach activities aimed at promoting discussions among government, industry, and academia on cyber defense topics." Company spokeswoman Jennifer J. Sherman declined to further explain his duties.

The cause of Wheeler's death - if it has been determined - is likely driving the focus of the investigation, said Michael Carbonell, a former FBI agent who supervised the agency's violent-crime squad in Philadelphia.

"If he died by blunt-force trauma or was shot, it tells us it was probably a random street crime, but if he's strangled, that's different," said Carbonell, who emphasized that he was merely speculating on the basis of his decades with the FBI.

The biggest publicly known clue, Carbonell said, is that the killer or killers apparently tried to hide Wheeler's corpse by placing it in a trash bin.

"Guys who rob and shoot a guy do that and run," Carbonell said. "Somebody went to some extra effort to dispose of the body."

Anyone with information is asked to contact Newark Police Det. Nicholas Sansone at 302-366-7110, ext. 135 or kbrady@phillynews.com.[/i]


Copyright 2011 Philly.com

Ursus:
Comments left for the above article, "Video shows 'confused' Wheeler 14 hours before body was found" (by John Shiffman and Kathleen Brady Shea; Jan. 5, 2011; The Philadelphia Inquirer):


Comment removed.Posted 12:40 PM, 01/05/2011
Wow.
So, you did not like the comments section calling out this obvious spin piece, so , take it off the website, slap another title on it, and put it out again as if there were no comments before?
Then, when people try to comment, hit submit, nothing happens ?
Cheney must have called you himself.
Totally a murder, total spin - I might as well be listening to Fox "News"
— murphthesurf[/list]
Posted 2:15 PM, 01/05/2011
it's still there dum dum, you should have just looked before posting your asinine comment. your information is as bad as MSNBC'S and CNN!!
— meshybell[/list][/list]
Posted 12:52 PM, 01/05/2011
Sure sounds like a professional hit. This much I know: we'll never know.
— The Monk[/list]
Posted 12:56 PM, 01/05/2011
communist conspiracy for sure.
— Miss M.[/list]
Posted 1:44 PM, 01/05/2011
HERE COMES THE CIAs SMEAR CAMPAIGN IN FULL EFFECT !! NOW I KNOW IT WAS A BLACK OP !! THATS THE CIAS M.O TO GET PEOPLE TO NOT CARE AN CHARACHTER ASSASINATION !!

THE C.I.A ARE PROS AT THIS TYPE OF PROPAGANDA !! THEY THRIVE OFF OF FEAR AN SMEAR !!! AN ON A GUY WHO CANT STAND UP FOR HIMSELF ANYMORE !!!

ITS JUST LIKE BIN LADEN,HE WAS A CIA AGENT FOR 10 YEARS PRIOR TO 9/11 HES LIVIN IT UP RIGHT NOW IN DUBAI.THEY JUST SET UP A FAKE PATSY !!

THEY USED TO CALL AL QUIDA, AL CIADA !! CAUSE THEY WERE A FAKE PATSY GROUP TO USE TO STEAL OIL.THESE GUYS ARE TOTALLY SKULL N BONESMEN !!

WHATEVER MOST PEOPLE ARE SHEEP WITH EYES WIDE SHUT,WHILE THE CIAS FLIPPIN BLACK OPS WITH IMPUNITY !!! WAKE UP SHEEPLE !!
— Jax teller[/list]
Posted 2:20 PM, 01/05/2011
you're comment is as dumb as murphthesurf's, and hard to read also!
— meshybell[/list][/list]
Posted 4:06 PM, 01/05/2011
Yep you are who they will be looking for
— abbe[/list]
Posted 4:47 PM, 01/05/2011
Substitute "drunk" for "confused" and you may get a clue. We had quite a few "confused" people in the house after the New Year's party.
— DonQ[/list]
Posted 9:23 AM, 01/06/2011
He was acting like he was being chased or hunted...we all know this was a government rub out. A Harvard/Yale/West Point grad, that worked for multiple presidents and the Pentagon usually don't end up in Delaware landfills.
— Political correctness has destroyed America[/list]


Copyright 2011 Philly.com

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