John Wheeler, Former Presidential Aide Found In Landfill - Wilmington DE

[Nut44x4]

John Wheeler, Former Presidential Aide Found In Landfill

1/3/2011 3:17:15 PM  

Wilmington, DE -- Police in Delaware have identified a body found at a landfill in Wilmington.

Authorities say the victim is 66-year-old John Wheeler of new Castle, and his body was discovered on New Year's Eve as a garbage truck emptied its contents at the Cherry Island landfill.

Detectives are treating the death as a homicide , but a cause of death has not been released. Police are asking anyone with information about Wheeler's whereabouts from Tuesday to Friday of last week, to contact authorities.

http://www.digtriad.com/news/national_world/article.aspx?storyid=154154&catid=175

[Nut44x4]

Former Bush Aide Found Dead in Landfill
Updated: Monday, 03 Jan 2011, 1:42 PM CST
Published : Monday, 03 Jan 2011, 1:42 PM CST

(FoxNews.com) - A man who fought to get the Vietnam Memorial built and served in two Bush administrations was found dead in a Delaware landfill, FoxNews.com reported on Monday.

John P. Wheeler III’s death has been ruled a homicide by Newark, Del., police and they are asking the public for any leads in the case.

Police were alerted on New Year’s Eve that a body was dumped from a Waste Management truck into the landfill near Wilmington. The man’s death was ruled a homicide and he was later identified as Wheeler.

So far police have no suspects and are still unsure where the crime took place. Wheeler and his wife live in New Castle, Del., although police believe his body was left in a dumpster in Newark.

Police said he was not reported missing because his wife was out of town. The couple was well-known in their neighborhood due to a vocal battle with neighbors across the street.

Wheeler sued the neighbors in 2009 to stop construction on a new home because the proposed structure would block his view of the Delaware River and a park, according to The News Journal.

Wheeler held many high-profile government positions after graduating from West Point in 1966. Most recently, he served as an assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force under George W. Bush.

The Newark Police Department is asking anyone with information regarding Wheeler to contact them at 1-800-TIP-3333.

http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpps/news/former-bush-aide-found-dead-in-landfill-dpgonc-20110103-fc_11287694

[Nut44x4]

Body of US military expert found in Del. landfill

The Associated Press

DOVER, Del. — The body of a military expert who served in three Republican administrations was found dumped in a landfill over the holiday weekend, and investigators said Monday they do not know who might have killed him.

John Wheeler III, 66, was last seen Dec. 28 on an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington. His body was found three days later, on New Year's Eve, as a garbage truck emptied its contents at the Cherry Island landfill. His death has been ruled a homicide.

Wheeler, who served in Vietnam, helped lead efforts to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington.

The former Army officer lived in New Castle and worked as a consultant for The Mitre Corporation, a nonprofit based in Bedford, Mass., and McLean, Va., that operates federally funded research and development centers.

Police have determined that all the stops made Friday by the garbage truck before it arrived at the landfill involved large commercial disposal bins in Newark, several miles from Wheeler's home.

"He was just not the sort of person who would wind up in a landfill," said Bayard Marin, an attorney who was representing Wheeler in a dispute over a couple's plans to build a new home in the historic district of Old New Castle where the victim lived.

Wheeler, the son of a decorated Army officer, was a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy. He retired from the military in 1971.

Wheeler served as a special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force under President George W. Bush, and in the administrations of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also was the first chief executive of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

As the first chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Wheeler led the multimillion-dollar fundraising effort to create the memorial on Washington's National Mall.

Fund founder and president Jan Scruggs said Wheeler dedicated himself to ensuring that service members were given the respect they deserve.

"I know how passionate he was about honoring all who serve their nation, and especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice," Scruggs said in a statement released Monday.

In a forward for the book, "Reflections On The Wall: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial," Wheeler wrote that the beauty of the wall photos in the book comes from the black granite's reflective quality.

"Before construction of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, those of us working on the project knew the wall would be shiny and reflective," he wrote. "But no one anticipated the sharp, true, and expansive mirror quality of the wall. The high polish of the black granite surface reflects blue sky, green trees, the Washington Monument, the Capitol Dome, the Lincoln Memorial, and the expressive faces of visitors who approach the Wall."

Wheeler's military career included serving in the office of the secretary of defense and writing a manual on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons, which recommended that the United States not use biological weapons.

"He was a very humble kind of guy, actually," Marin said. "He was never the kind of person who would talk about all the wonderful things he did in his life."

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/body-of-us-military-793948.html

[Nut44x4]

Witness talks about encounter with Del. murder victim
Published: Wednesday, January 05, 2011

PHILADELPHIA - A person who says they saw former murder victim and former Bush aide John “Jack” Wheeler after he got off a train in Wilmington and before he disappeared is now talking about the experience.

Fox-29's Claudia Gomez spoke with Iman Goldsborough, a parking lot attendant who encountered a man she believes was Wheeler a day before he officially disappeared. (That woman had already spoken to police about the incident before we spoke with her.)

The encounter happened last Wednesday near an intersection in Wilmington, Del., where police said Wheeler was last seen on Thursday.

Goldsborough says a man matching Wheeler’s description came up to her looking for help finding his car, but he appeared disheveled and disoriented.

The man was wearing a suit and tie, but was also only wearing one shoe.

Goldsborough told Gomez she thought the man seemed like he was suffering from dementia.

This morning, Newark Police told Fox 29 the last time anyone spotted Wheeler was at the intersection of 10th and Orange at 3:30 Thursday afternoon.

Fox 29 tried to get a hold of the surveillance video at that intersection, to no avail.

“He really didn't look good to me. I asked him are you okay? He was like, no. He was just trying to get warm,” Goldsborough said.

“He didn't have a coat on. And it was really cold out this evening. And he had one shoe on, and he was wandering around, looking around.”

“He had on a black suit and burgundy penny loafers. And he was holding one shoe in his hand,” she said. “”He just told me he wanted to get warm before he paid for his ticket.”

Goldsborough explained why she recalled the incident

“He just didn't seem like he was really there. He seemed like he was disoriented. Actually I thought he had dementia or something.”

“Mr. Wheeler left the garage and he just kind of walked up, out the driveway and I just kind of stared at him until I couldn't see him anymore, until he was out of my sight. Then after I got off I kind of followed his footsteps and I still didn't see him anymore. So like the next morning when I got back to work I called Wilmington Police.”

Goldsborough says police told her there was nothing they could do.

Wheeler actually parked his car at the Doubletree hotel garage a few blocks away, which is closer to the train station.

Police officials tell Fox 29 that Wheeler was killed, but they haven’t said how, when or where the killing happened.

Investigators were back at a Wilmington landfill on Tuesday looking for clues.

They are also believed to be focused on the whereabouts of Wheeler’s car, which may have been left in Wilmington after he got off a train.

On Tuesday morning, police said they have now established that Wheeler was also seen in the area of 10th and Orange streets in Wilmington around 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 30.

Investigators have not disclosed how they learned of either sighting.

Anyone with information on Wheeler's whereabouts before he went missing is asked to contact Detective Nicholas Sansone at 302-366-7110 ext. 135 or Nick.Sansone@cj.state.de.us .

You can send an anonymous text message tip by texting 302NPD and your message to TIP411. Information can also be provided anonymously to Crime Stoppers at 1-800-TIP-3333, where a reward may be available.

Fox 29 has learned Wheeler’s wife was away and traveling separately at the time of his death, and didn’t file a missing persons report.

Fox 29 has learned the Wheelers have a residence in New York, where Wheeler’s wife runs her business from, and a residence in Washington.

Wheeler’s family issued a statement on Monday: “As you must appreciate, this is a tragic time for the family. We are grieving our loss. Please understand that the family has no further comment at this time. We trust that everyone will respect the family’s privacy.”

Wheeler’s body was found last Friday, New Year's Eve, at the Cherry Island landfill. Investigators say he was killed and tossed in a dumpster in Newark.

Wheeler, who also went by "Jack," was a Vietnam War veteran and served three different presidents on veterans' affairs issues. He also played a big role in getting the Vietnam Memorial built.
http://delcotimes.com/articles/2011/01/05/news/doc4d2452754ea1c856597069.txt?viewmode=fullstory

[Sister]

I've been following this case.  How horrifying!
Thanks for the updates Nut.

[Nut44x4]

You are welcome. My gut tells me this will be solved in short order.

Cameras plentiful where Del. man's body dumped
Ap
Posted January 5, 2011 at 8:57 a.m.
NEWARK, Del. (AP) — 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.

Witnesses reported seeing Wheeler acting erratically on Dec. 29, multiple media outlets reported. A parking lot attendant next to the New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington said Wheeler was unable to find his car, appeared disoriented and said he had been robbed. She said he was holding one shoe and was not wearing a coat over his suit despite cold weather.

Earlier that day, Wheeler had asked a pharmacist in New Castle for a ride to Wilmington. The News Journal of Wilmington said pharmacist Murali Gouro, who had filled Wheeler's prescriptions in the past, said the former official looked upset.

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 dealership. Those at a McDonald's 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."

http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2011/jan/05/cameras-plentiful-where-del-mans-body-dumped/

[Sister]

Nut, I hope you are right.  With all those cameras, maybe, just maybe they will find out what happened to him.  Prayers for his family and friends.

[Nut44x4]

The Philadelphia Inquirer 
January 5, 2011 Wednesday
 
Man found in landfill tied to arson attempt;
Source: John P. Wheeler 3d planted incendiary devices at a neighbor's home in Del. days before his disappearance.
 
Police in Delaware have discovered evidence that a former Pentagon aide may have been involved in an attempted arson days before his murder, a law enforcement source has told The Inquirer.

Police found evidence linking John Parsons Wheeler 3d 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 in the city's historic district.

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

Wheeler was found dead in a landfill on Friday, and the police have trying to retrace his movements between Dec. 28 and then.

On Tuesday, police said a witness had come forward to say that Wheeler had been spotted alive in downtown Wilmington on Thursday afternoon. That is less than 24 hours before his body was found in a Wilmington landfill in refuse that came from trash bins in one of 10 possible locations in Newark, Del.

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.

Wheeler left his office outside Washington on Dec. 28. His body was found in Wilmington on Friday. He was scheduled to take a Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington on Thursday.

Detectives were able to verify 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 a 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 widow, 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."
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:1333676477&start=5

[Sister]

Wow! the first twist in this case.  I wonder if there will be more?

[Sister]

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/06/police-trying-to-unravel-timeline-of-john-wheeler-homicide/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C193958
Police Trying to Unravel Timeline of Mysterious Wheeler HomicideJan 6, 2011 – 3:15
 PM
David Lohr
 Contributor
The mystery surrounding the death of former Army officer and government military consultant John P. Wheeler III has deepened as police study a timeline of events in the case as well as a newly released video that shows a disheveled Wheeler acting in a bizarre manner in the days leading up to his apparent homicide.

Wheeler, 66, was found dead in a Newark, Del., landfill on the morning of Dec. 31. An autopsy revealed the former White House official's death was a homicide, police said, although they have not commented on any details of how he might have been killed or what his killer's motive might have been.

Police think that at some point in the hours leading up to the discovery of his body, Wheeler came into contact with the person or people responsible for taking his life. In order to narrow down the pool, which could include thousands of potential suspects in a city with a population of more than 30,000, investigators are looking at the timeline of events that led up to Wheeler's homicide.

This is what they know right now:

Dec. 25 -- Wheeler's neighbor reportedly took him to the Wilmington train station. He was to ride the train to New York City to deliver a present to his wife, who was staying at their Manhattan condominium, and then go to Washington, the neighbor told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Dec. 28 -- After working at his consulting job at Mitre Corp., in McLean, Va., Wheeler made a reservation on an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington. Authorities think Wheeler was on the train but have yet to confirm it.

 
USAF / AFP / Getty Images
John P. Wheeler III was last seen on Dec. 30; his body was found the next day.Later that night, firefighters were called to Wheeler's neighbor's unfinished house in New Castle after a smoke-bomb device was detonated inside. Wheeler and the homeowners had been involved in a court battle over the construction of the home. The Wheelers were reportedly upset because it blocked the view of the river from their home, the Inquirer reported.

The state fire marshal is still investigating the smoke bombing, police said. They have yet to name a suspect or person of interest.

Dec. 29 -- About 6 p.m., a disheveled Wheeler showed up at a drug store in New Castle that he had previously frequented and asked the pharmacist, Murali Gouro, for a ride to Wilmington. Gouro apparently declined and instead offered to call a cab. Wheeler declined and left the store, police said.

"He looked a little different," Gouro later told the News Journal of Wilmington.

Roughly 40 minutes later, a dirty and disorientated Wheeler was caught on video surveillance inside the parking garage at the New Castle County Courthouse. He was carrying one shoe in his hand and told the parking garage attendant, Iman Goldsborough, that his briefcase containing his parking ticket had been stolen and he could not find his car.

"He didn't look good to me," Goldsborough told Fox News. "He seemed like he was kind of confused. ... To me, it seemed like he was almost suffering from dementia or something."

Wheeler wandered around the garage for a few more minutes and then disappeared, Goldsborough said.

Dec. 30 -- Video surveillance captured Wheeler inside the Nemours Building, at 10th and Orange streets in Wilmington, from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m.

"On this video, Mr. Wheeler appears confused. ... Mr. Wheeler was approached inside this building by several individuals who offered assistance to him, which Mr. Wheeler declined," the Newark Police Department said in a press release.

Dec. 31 -- At 9:56 a.m., authorities were called to the Cherry Island Landfill after a worker saw Wheeler's body fall out of a trash truck that was dumping its load.

Sponsored LinksThe subsequent investigation has revealed that all of the stops that the trash truck made occurred in the City of Newark, and all of the pickups were dumpsters at 10 different locations throughout the city.

"Based on information learned during the autopsy, it is believed that the body was not in the dumpster for a long period of time. ... The first pickup of a dumpster was at 4:20 a.m. ... Due to the body's position/location in the refuse truck, it appears that the dumpster [containing his body] was emptied at the beginning of the route," police said in a press release.

Roughly 14 hours passed between the time Wheeler was last seen and the discovery of his body at the garbage dump.

Authorities would like to continue narrowing the timeline of events in the case and are asking anyone who may have seen Wheeler after 8:30 p.m. Dec. 30 to contact them. Someone who had contact with Wheeler during that time might hold the key to unlocking the mystery of his death.

[Nut44x4]

Jack Wheeler's Cell Phone Found in House Being Built
Wheeler Had Filed a Lawsuit, Challenging the Zoning of the House

1.7.11
Police in Newark, Del., have recovered John Wheeler's cell phone in the house under construction across the street from Wheeler's home in New Castle. Del., reported ABC affiliate WPVI in Philadelphia.

more....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-recover-jack-wheelers-cell-phone-neighbors-house/story?id=12565551

[Sister]

Jack Wheeler's Cell Phone Found in House Being Built
Wheeler Had Filed a Lawsuit, Challenging the Zoning of the House

1.7.11
Police in Newark, Del., have recovered John Wheeler's cell phone in the house under construction across the street from Wheeler's home in New Castle. Del., reported ABC affiliate WPVI in Philadelphia.

more....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-recover-jack-wheelers-cell-phone-neighbors-house/story?id=12565551

Nut, this becomes more mysterious all the time.  I was thinking he suffered from some type of brain bleed . . . but the cell phone . . . wow, a real mystery.

[Nut44x4]

Jan. 8, 2011
"We May Never Know" How John Wheeler Died    BULLCRAP! The autopsy must show something!

Expert: Authorities May Have Been Hasty Declaring Death of Ex-Presidential Aide Found in Garbage Dump Homicide

(CBS)  More than a week after the body of former presidential and Pentagon aide John Wheeler III was found in a Delaware garbage dump, there are new, puzzling clues, few answers, and a lot of questions.

The mystery began on New Year's Eve, when Wheeler's body was discovered in the Wilmington-area dump after it was left by a garbage truck.

His death was quickly ruled a homicide, but a criminologist told "The Early Show on Saturday Morning" authorities may have moved too quickly in that declaration, and that there are other plausible possible causes of death.

snipped

He appeared unhinged in the days before his death, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller. Surveillance video caught Wheeler in a Wilmington parking garage two days earlier, looking disoriented. He wasn't wearing a coat and was carrying one shoe.

“His face was really flush,” parking attendant Iman Goldsborough told CBS News. “From the way his shoe looked, I would say it looked like somebody had done thing to him."

The next night, Dec. 30, Wheeler was seen at another building in Wilmington, dressed in different clothes and again looking confused.

Police say somehow, Wheeler's body ended up in a dumpster 15 miles away.

A neighbor who had seen Wheeler Christmas Eve says he has no idea what might have happened, and was shocked at Wheeler's condition on the tape.

"I have never seen him like that in my life,” Robert Dill told CBS News. “I have no idea. At this point, I couldn't even give you a theory.”

Wheeler's car was found parked at a train station.

Miller says investigators have been eyeing a legal battle Wheeler was having with a neighbor whose home is under construction.

In a new development that's raising even more questions, a local TV station is reporting that Wheeler's cell phone was found inside that home.

But, friends say they can't imagine that dispute would have led to Wheeler's death.

On "The Early Show on Saturday Morning," criminologist Casey Jordan. of Western Connecticut State University, in Danbury, pointed out that authorities called Wheeler's death a homicide within 24 hours of his body being found. "That's a logical thing to assume," she told co-anchor Rebecca Jarvis, "based on the fact that his body was n a dump and had been placed in a dumpster. But, we still don't know the actual cause of death. To be honest, that's a little bit of a jump. Usually, you know the cause of death before you decide the manner of death is a homicide. That was, of course, before we had seen the (surveillance) footage (and) we understood about this disoriented state that happened in the two days before he was found.

"And I wouldn't be surprised if they end up changing that after they get the toxicology reports come back. I think the autopsy isn't complete and we need more details before we decide whether or not he was murdered.

"What's confusing to me is that, usually, you know that (someone was killed) because you have something like a gunshot wound, stabbing wounds, bludgeoning -- something that clearly could not have been self-induced. But no details like that have been released.

"And the fact of the matter is that, when we see this footage, we see perhaps he was suffering from an organic brain problem? Even his neighbors say they'd never seen him like this. Was he poisoned? Did he have a brain tumor? Did he suffer from brain cancer and nobody even knew it? Something -- there's a disconnect between him being in the dumpster and that behavior we see in the hours before he disappeared.

" … There are possibly 10 dumpsters he came from that ended up in that dump truck, so we don't even have a crime scene. It is entirely possible he crawled into the dumpster himself in his demented state.

"We may never know the truth about what happened to John Wheeler."

To see the entire interview, click on the video below:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/08/earlyshow/saturday/main7225804.shtml

[MuffyBee]

Jack Wheeler's Cell Phone Found in House Being Built
Wheeler Had Filed a Lawsuit, Challenging the Zoning of the House

1.7.11
Police in Newark, Del., have recovered John Wheeler's cell phone in the house under construction across the street from Wheeler's home in New Castle. Del., reported ABC affiliate WPVI in Philadelphia.

more....
http://abcnews.go.com/US/police-recover-jack-wheelers-cell-phone-neighbors-house/story?id=12565551

Nut, this becomes more mysterious all the time.  I was thinking he suffered from some type of brain bleed . . . but the cell phone . . . wow, a real mystery.

Here's more about the cell phone...

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/08/delaware.pentagon.official.death/index.html?iref=NS1
Wheeler's cell phone discovered, taxi driver says
January 8, 2011

Wilmington, Delaware (CNN) -- Police have found homicide victim John Wheeler's cell phone, according to a taxi driver who was interviewed by investigators this week.

Athel Scott told CNN National Correspondent Susan Candiotti that police told him they found the cab driver's number in the phone of Wheeler, the former Pentagon official who was found dead in a Delaware landfill.

He said investigators wanted to know how his number got there. Scott, who goes by the nickname "Scottie," says he told the police he didn't have any idea.

"I never got a call from the man. I don't know him," he said, referring to Wheeler. "He's never been in my cab. I don't know how my number got in his cellphone," Scott says he told police.

Scott showed CNN a box of business cards he keeps at his side on the front seat of his cab. "See?" he said. "I give out these cards all the time to people looking for business. Maybe someone gave him my card."

The taxi driver says police went to his house Wednesday to ask him questions, but he wasn't home. Contrary to a published report in a local paper, Scott says his home was not searched.

They contacted him by phone and interviewed him at least twice, including an interrogation that lasted almost three hours Friday at the police station. "I don't know what's going on here. I'm just a hardworking man doing my job. It's like I'm being harassed," said Scott.

Meanwhile, a West Point classmate of Wheeler thinks it would have taken more than one person to pick the man up and toss his body into a dumpster.

Retired Col. Doug Thornblom was the freshman year roommate of Wheeler, whose murder has triggered intense investigations and widespread talk of motives.

"Jack was a big guy. He was about 225 pounds," Thornblom of Jacksonville, Florida, told CNN in an interview.

"I don't think one person could've lifted him the 5 or 6 feet off the ground, literally dead weight, and put him in a dumpster, and I don't think Jack could've crawled in there, not that he would've wanted to."

Wheeler's body was discovered in a garbage truck when it was dumping its load at a landfill in Newark, Delaware, on New Year's Eve. Police say the victim's body had been picked up by that truck from one of 10 dumpsters along a route in Newark.

Thornblom and members of an online West Point alumni message board have been shocked over the case and trying to understand the details that have emerged.

"The whole way his murder evolved is peculiar. He was out of contact for roughly 3-4 days. Apparently his briefcase, wallet and iPhone weren't with him at the time of his murder. Why would anyone hold him up or murder him brutally and then go to the trouble of lifting his body up and dumping it into a dumpster when he had nothing on him? That part does make us wonder a little bit," Thornblom said.

Wheeler, who was 66 and from New Castle, Delaware, had worked as a part-time consultant for the MITRE Corp., a not-for-profit organization that provides systems engineering, research and development, and information technology support to the federal government.

He had been working on promoting discussions about cyber-defense among governments, industry and academia, according to a company statement.

The West Point graduate was also the first chairman of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

He worked in the administrations of presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, and served as a special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force from 2005 to 2008.

Asked whether something Wheeler did could have made him a target, Thornblom speculated that it's "a low probability but I certainly wouldn't discount that."

"He was into a lot of government business and contracts. The whole cyber-security thing is very controversial and of course our enemies oppose us strengthening our defenses in that regard."

Thornblom had high praise for his late classmate. He describes him as "star man," who finished in the top 5% of the academy all four years of school, and "an all-around good guy" who was also a bit of a "prankster."

"He helped so many people because he was so smart, if folks were having problems with academics," he said.

After Thornblom started the Class of 1966 discussion forum, Wheeler participated and spoke his mind bluntly about a number of subjects. He was a proponent of defense issues and tough cyber-security.

"It sounds trite to say, but he was a true patriot," said Thornblom.

While Wheeler's body turned up at a landfill on December 31 he posted "normal sounding messages, typical Jack Wheeler stuff" as late as December 28.

"That information has been passed on and anything that we can do to help out the investigators of course. All they need to do is contact us and they have by the way. I've appealed to my classmates on the forum, if they have any recent contact with Jack where they may be able to shed some light on his state or some of the things that he was working on to please contact the investigators," Thornblom said.

Thornblom said there were "no signs of confusion" in Wheeler's posts.

"He sometimes posted stream of consciousness, and I think he did a lot of his posting via a train, and on his iPhone. From the rapidity and the changing of one thought to another, it was obvious he was in a hurry and trying to get a few points across. As far as being bizarre other than his intentionally joking manners and poking fun, no I wouldn't say that there was anything bizarre about his posts."

Thornblom said the last message was about Army football. Art Schulcz, another West Point classmate, told CNN he provided a copy of that last message to police.

"I went back and re-read it last night. There was no indication of any type of problem or anything else. As a matter of fact I re-read several of his most recent e-mails and I saw nothing that would indicate to me that there was anything physically or mentally wrong with him," Thornblom said.

Wheeler's message heaped scorn on the NCAA.

"And absolute football corrupts absolutely. NCAA is all about football money with platitudes-window dressing about values.

"To Hell with the NCAA and its corrupting Money Game.

"Who can or dares gainsay? Who can defend the money game and coach salaries and warped values and recruiting Bull..t?

"West Point should pull out of the fraud-ridden NCAA.

"All the good things can be done without NCAA.

"Jack"
One of the many issues about Wheeler is that he had been involved in a lengthy legal fight with a couple building a new home across the street in a historic district of New Castle, a project opposed by Wheeler.

The dispute may have become contentious but Wheeler's attorney, Bayard Marin, said "I can't recall a confrontation" and "Everything seemed to be kept within normal bounds."

Thornblom discounted speculation Wheeler would have been involved in an alleged smoke bomb incident at the construction site of the house.

"This is so out of character and I can tell you right now, all of us at West Point went through demolitions and mine-clearing technique training and even how to construct field expedient napalm. If Jack had wanted that house disappointed or burnt down, he would've done it. Nobody would have known about it. And he certainly wouldn't have been stupid enough to leave his iPhone there," Thornblom said.

[Fanny Mae]

This is really a convoluted scary case. To do all the good he has done in his life, and end up like this in a dump with his reputation and character in smithereens. It's just an awful case, and I don't think he climbed up in a dumpster by himself. Something is really wrong. 

[Sister]

This is really a convoluted scary case. To do all the good he has done in his life, and end up like this in a dump with his reputation and character in smithereens. It's just an awful case, and I don't think he climbed up in a dumpster by himself. Something is really wrong. 

Fanny, I totally agree.
Nut, you're right -- BS about the autopsy.  Good grief, this is beginning to smell really bad for the authorities.  Come on folks, do the right thing!  Let the chips fall where they may, but don't put out total BS! that even I can see through.

[Nut44x4]

Delaware police mum about cause of former Pentagon official John Wheeler's death
Police silence opens door to wild speculation
By CRIS BARRISH • The News Journal • January 15, 2011

How was former Pentagon official John P. Wheeler III killed?

If police know, they aren't saying.

Two full weeks after Wheeler's body was spotted tumbling out of a trash hauler into a Wilmington landfill on New Year's Eve, police and the state Medical Examiner's Office remain uncharacteristically silent.

Though officials immediately labeled his death a "homicide," they have refused to provide the cause, nor will they say whether they're sure how Wheeler died.

Law enforcement's posture runs contrary to normal Delaware police procedure in homicide cases. Police agencies routinely say how a homicide victim died, even in cases where the crime occurred in a private home rather than a public place like a street shooting, and where no suspect has been arrested or identified.

But with Wheeler, in a case that has drawn national media coverage, silence has reigned.

"At this point in the investigation, we don't want to release that information," Newark police spokesman Lt. Mark Farrall said. He would not elaborate.

Video and witness accounts of Wheeler's behavior in the 48 hours before his body was found show him disoriented, carrying one of his dress shoes, and looking in vain for his car in a Wilmington parking garage blocks from where his vehicle was located.

Hal G. Brown, deputy director of the Delaware Office of the Medical Examiner, said his agency is awaiting the results of toxicology and further forensic studies, which could take weeks. Toxicology testing is routine in all Delaware autopsies, even when the cause of death is known.

In other cases, including high-profile ones, the cause of death is quickly determined and made public.

For example, when University of Delaware student Lindsey Bonistall was found burned in her bathtub in May 2005, Newark police revealed two days later that she had been strangled. That revelation did not prevent the police from making an arrest five weeks later.

Eugene J. Maurer Jr., a prominent Wilmington defense attorney, who suspects a common criminal attacked Wheeler as he wandered the streets of Wilmington, said he's surprised by the silence from authorities.

"How did it happen?" Maurer asked. "I don't see how learning what happened could hinder the investigation. They do it all the time. They say he was shot, he was stabbed, he was strangled."





The absence of information has fueled rampant speculation and conspiracy theories, like the one making rounds on the Internet that claims Wheeler was murdered after threatening to expose a supposed U.S. military test of poison gas that supposedly killed thousand of birds in Arkansas hours after his corpse was discovered.

In part because officials have not released more details, Wheeler's former classmates in West Point's class of 1966 who participate in an online forum have been hypothesizing about his disorientation before he died.

Some believe he was stricken by a sudden and severe medical trauma. Others think an enemy drugged him for political or personal reasons, said retired Col. Douglas Thornblom, who monitors the forum and once roomed with Wheeler.

"The theories are going around and around," Thornblom said.

Thornblom said he believes it might be possible that someone poisoned his old college buddy, thinking he would die, but when Wheeler didn't succumb to the toxin, an assassin was sent to Wilmington "to finish the job."

Brown, a former New Hampshire police detective, said he realizes the silence has led many to entertain such scenarios, but stressed that Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Adrienne Sekula-Perlman, who is handling the case, needs time to complete her work.

"I can understand where those concerns lie, but I have checked six or eight times to see if anything can be released ... and she's not saying a word," Brown said. "She ruled it a homicide that day. I don't know what caused her to make that ruling, but it's obviously something she found."

Jules Epstein, who teaches criminal law at Widener University School of Law, called it "curious" that authorities won't reveal more about Wheeler's death, other than to say they don't want to compromise the probe.

"Either they are telling the truth and that means there is something interesting and peculiar about the way he died, or they are not telling the truth and there's something very embarrassing or private" about the nature of Wheeler's death.

Ralph Begleiter, a former CNN news correspondent and anchor who directs the Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware, said he's been surprised by the dearth of information.

"It adds to the mystery," Begleiter said. "Anytime you have a vacuum of any kind, there's somebody who will fill that vacuum in a news environment, whether it's a political story or a criminal case. Somebody is going to come along and speculate."

In the Wheeler case, and others that captivate the media and the public, law-enforcement officials should consider "filling the vacuum before it gets filled with crazy stuff," he said.

"Maybe authorities have a responsibility to let the public know which ones are more plausible if they have information that leads them in one direction or the other. It might be helpful to say that there wasn't an alien landing from the moon and abducting this guy and bringing him to Newark."
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110115/NEWS01/101150336/Cause-of-Wheeler-s-death-still-not-public

[Samarie]

All I can say is WOW. I don't know anything about the website where the following article came from, but thought those following this case would find it interesting. We may never know what happened to john Wheeler.


January 4, 2011

Top US Official Murdered After Arkansas Weapons Test Causes Mass Death

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers


A shocking report prepared for Prime Minister Putin by the Foreign Military Intelligence Directorate (GRU) states that one of the United States top experts in biological and chemical weapons was brutally murdered after he threatened to expose a US Military test of poison gas that killed hundreds of thousands of animals in Arkansas this past week.

According to this report, John P. Wheeler III, Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, Washington, D.C. from 2005-2008, when he became the Special Assistant to the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations, Logistics and Environment, was found brutally murdered and dumped in a landfill, and as we can read as reported by the Fox News Service:

“Delaware Police are investigating the apparent murder of a former Bush official who also championed the fund-raising effort to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Wheeler’s body was found in Wilmington on Friday.

According to police, somebody initially reported that the body was dumped out of a refuse truck, which would have been coming from Newark, onto the landfill. Newark Police spokesman Lt. Mark Farrall told Fox News that nobody had reported Wheeler missing before he was found.

The Wilmington News Journal reported that Wheeler was last seen riding an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington, Del., last Tuesday.”

Wheeler’s military career included writing one of the most important manuals on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons which led to his being hired in 2009 as a consultant to the Mitre Corporation, whose aviation system development department, the GRU reports, is at the forefront of creating the computer command and control systems used by the US Air Force in their fleet of aerial spraying planes. [photo 2nd left]

These aerial spraying planes, this report continues, are based at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas that over the past few months have been involved with ‘test dispersants’ of poisonous gasses in the Afghanistan War Theater using chemical weapons stocks obtained from Iraq and held at the Pine Bluff Arsenal, also located in Arkansas.

Important to note about the Pine Bluff Arsenal, which calls itself “America’s Arsenal”, is that it is one of the World’s most specialized munitions and chemical-biological defense products and services bases which Russia had previously accused of not fully reporting the chemical agents removed from Iraq, between 2003 and 2008, and taken to the US for testing and subsequent destruction.

According to this report, the US relocated from Iraq to the Pine Bluff Arsenal an estimated 63,000 metric tonnes of the poisonous gas Phosgene that is described as one of the most feared chemical weapons ever used due to its ability to literally cause the lungs and respiratory system to explode.

Nearly immediately after Russia accused the US this past summer of not fully destroying Iraq’s Phosgene poisonous gas stockpile the Pine Bluff Arsenal began an ‘accelerated’ disposal programme injecting it deep into the ground in central Arkansas, but which, unfortunately, since this past September, has caused over 500 minor earthquakes to occur raising the concerns of their local population. 

More frightening, however, is the claim made in this report that the Americans have also begun shipping ‘massive quantities’ of Iraq’s Phosgene poisonous gas stocks to Afghanistan where when used they will be able to say they had nothing to do with it, and believe no one will be able to prove it either. 

Important to note about Iraq’s Phosgene poisonous gas stocks are that they are no longer able to be made by any Western country, including the United States, which makes its value as a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) incalculable, especially in a war situation like Afghanistan where the enemy forces are firmly entrenched in hostile terrain.

To the direct reason for Wheeler’s murder, this report says, was this past week’s transport of Iraqi Phosgene poisonous gas aboard a US Air Force KC-767 tanker aircraft from Little Rock Air Force Base enroute to Afghanistan that shortly after takeoff had a ‘critical malfunction’ of its aerial spraying computer directed command and control system over central Arkansas causing the deaths of thousands of red-wing blackbirds.

According to US reports an estimated 5,000 of these birds were killed outright and were quickly removed by US Environmental Services workers wearing hazmat suits and gas masks.  Another US report states that cause of death to these thousands of birds was “trauma in the breast tissue, with blood clots in the body cavity and a lot of internal bleeding” which this GRU report states is consistent with Phosgene exposure.

Even more chilling than this incident is this GRU report stating that it was the second “accidental” release of Phosgene poisonous gas in as many days, as the day before, this same US Air Force KC-767 tanker aircraft also had a “critical malfunction” causing a release over the Arkansas River that killed over 100,000 fish.   

Upon Wheeler discovering what was happening with Iraq’s Phosgene poisonous gas stockpiles, this report continues, he traveled from his home in Delaware to Washington D.C. where he openly confronted and threatened to expose the Pentagon and White House Officials responsible.  Being a Vietnam Veteran who was responsible for having the famous memorial to that war erected, Wheeler was more than knowledgeable about the United States massive chemical and biological attacks in that conflict and had vowed to not let happen again.

Sadly, but all too common in the United States these days, when Wheeler threatened to go public with what was happening he was targeted for death, and as a “sign” to anyone else thinking of going against the regime, had his body dumped in a garbage pit for all the World to see.   

Today, another great American was murdered in an effort to save his country from destruction.  Sadly, his death will go barely noticed; the American people seem no longer to care as they continue to seek their solace in their propaganda media lies rather than confronting the brutal truth about the monsters they have let rule over them. 

For hundreds of thousands of other Americans they have become so disassociated with what is happening to, and around them, they have proclaimed May 21, 2011 as the day the World will end and are giving up everything in preparing to meet their God. 

The great American Revolutionary leader Noah Webster once said, “Every child in America should be acquainted with his own country. He should read books that furnish him with ideas that will be useful to him in life and practice. As soon as he opens his lips, he should rehearse the history of his own country.”

The Americans living today have utterly failed to heed these words and have, instead, become just what their masters have always intended for them to be…imbeciles.  May God have mercy on them all.

© January 4, 2011 EU and US all rights reserved. Permission to use this report in its entirety is granted under the condition it is linked back to its original source at WhatDoesItMean.Com.

[Ed. Note: Western governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagrees with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth.  Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their ‘agents’ against us has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit and which is addressed in the report “Who Is Sorcha Faal?”.]



http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1435.htm

[Nut44x4]

  mmmmm..... This is wild. Not saying it can't be true because I have learned that anything is possible, but this sounds like a 'Spoof' thingy, no? If it IS true...holy shit it is HUGE! 

[2NJSons_Mom]

I question why only red winged blackbirds were affected....but I'm no scientist.


To eliminate confusion, this is in response to Samarie's posted article above.