Vietnam Veteran Memorial champion John P. Wheeler III was found in Cherry Island landfill on New Years Eve.
Photo: Fox News
The Examiner
Police initially centered their investigation into the homicide of John Wheeler, the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial champion and advocate for causes like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), at his home located at 108 W. Third Street, New Castle, Delaware.
Wheeler and his wife, Katherine Klyce, who owns a New York business specializing in Cambodian silk, actually had two established residences: one in New Castle, Delaware; the other in New York, according to Delaware Online, but they cast election votes from Delaware.
One new piece of information brought to light by Delaware Online pertains to a new neighbor of John Wheeler's named Ron Roark. This new piece of information about the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial champion is significant and adds further information for the profile of John Wheeler's murder.
Neighbor notices strange activity at Wheeler home
Ron Roark said that police had cordoned off Wheeler's home throughout the weekend. Crime scene units processed the deceased former 66-year-old Army officer's home, eventually removing the crime scene tape as well.
According to Ron Roark, who claims to have only met the former Army officer John Wheeler once in the seven months of his own residency in the neighborhood--and saw him rarely, as John and Katherine were gone more than they were home--the deceased man had strange activity at his home prior to his body being found.
John Wheeler was alleged to have been in Washington and not due to board Amtrak until Dec. 28, but Roark says that someone had obviously been in the Wheeler home four days surrounding Christmas, as an unusually loud television could be heard on constantly, although the residence occupants did not appear to be there.
"It was so loud we could hear it through the walls and we found that strange."
Homeless people will sometimes attempt to use what may appear to be a home that is not currently occupied, at least for shelter during bad weather, as law enforcement will tell you. Thus John Wheeler's alleged Christmas occupants could have been due to such an occurrence.
John Wheeler's wife Katherine Klyce may have returned to the home unexpectedly, or other family members with a key could have done as well, but Ron Roark's admission that it did not appear that the Wheeler's were home is significant, too.
Loud noise from an otherwise quiet house, for the first known time in seven months--and just days before a dead body is found of one of the homeowners--is very significant in a law enforcement investigation, as it shows an alleged timeline of activity in the home that must be substantiated and explained, especially in light of the odd and unusual loud noise level.
John Wheeler, like the Ronni Chasen murder case in Hollywood late last year, are examples of individuals who may or may not have had powerful enemies or associates who wanted them dead. But like Chasen's case, Wheeler's has the potential to be motivated by something as unexpected as a surprise mugging--but then again, maybe not...
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Police search for leads in former Pentagon official's death
USA Today
Enlarge 1994 photo by Charles Tasnadi, AP
John Wheeler III, who had a prominent role in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in the 1980s, touches the name of a friend engraved in the memorial in Washington. Wheeler's body was discovered Dec. 31 as a waste management truck emptied its contents at a landfill in Delaware
By Chad Livengood, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal
Newark, Del., police said Tuesday that they had narrowed down the last location where a murdered former Pentagon official was believed to have been seen.
About 3:30 p.m. Thursday, John P. Wheeler III, 66, was seen in Wilmington in the area of 10th and Orange streets, said Newark police spokesman Lt. Mark Farrall.
Newark police returned Monday to the Cherry Island Landfill in Wilmington, where Wheeler's body was found at 10 a.m. Friday after falling out of a trash truck.
Farrall said that the crime scene has not yet been located.
"Because of his background, we have been in contact with the FBI, but it remains our investigation," Farrall said today.
Wheeler had a prominent role in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in the 1980s and worked in the last three Republican presidential administrations.
A Newark police crime-scene unit was inside Wheeler's home at 108 W. Third St. in New Castle all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to neighbor Ron Roark.
By Monday morning, the crime-scene tape had been taken down.
"At this point ... we're still trying to locate where the crime occurred," Farrall said Monday.
Detectives also had not yet pinpointed the trash bin on the east side of Newark into which Wheeler's body was dumped, Farrall said. Tracing the trash truck driver's route, police determined Wheeler's body could have been dumped in any of 10 trash bins.
The cause of Wheeler's death is awaiting toxicology results and further forensic testing, Carl Kanefsky, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Social Service, said today.
Roark, who lives next door to Wheeler's home in a circa-1900 duplex at Third and South streets, said Monday he had met Wheeler only once and rarely saw him. But for four days around Christmas, Roark and his family heard a loud television in Wheeler's home that was constantly on, but no one appeared to be home, Roark said.
"It was so loud, we could hear it through the walls, and we found that strange," Roark said.
Because Wheeler and his wife, Katherine Klyce, worked in Washington and New York, they were frequently away from home. Records show Wheeler and Klyce were established residents and registered to vote in Delaware.
"But they were never home," said Roark, who has lived next door to Wheeler for seven months.
Klyce, who owns a Cambodian silk company based in New York, did not return phone calls or e-mails Monday, and her whereabouts are unknown.
The family released a short statement Monday evening through Newark police.
"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," the statement said.
Wheeler was known in New Castle for his failed efforts to stop construction of a 2 1/2-story house across the street from his home along Battery Park. He had sued to stop Frank and Regina Marini from building, arguing the structure would block his view of the park and the Delaware River. The Marinis' home is currently under construction, but Wheeler and Klyce still have a lawsuit pending in Delaware Chancery Court to stop the project, said attorney Bayard Marin.
"He was the kind of guy who was not subject to fear, of anything," Marin said Monday.
A 1966 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Wheeler later earned degrees from the Harvard Business School and Yale Law School.
He worked in a staff position while stationed in Vietnam as a U.S. Army officer in 1969 and 1970, according to his biography on a defense contractor's website.
Though he never saw combat, Wheeler was profoundly affected by the war, according to friends and colleagues.
In 1979, Wheeler got in touch with Jan C. Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran who started the initiative to build a memorial on the National Mall in Washington.
With the assistance of some of Wheeler's business associates and politically savvy classmates from Harvard Business School, Wheeler was instrumental in getting Congress to approve construction, Scruggs said.
"It really haunted him, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the perfect project to give something back," said Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. "He had a really ongoing interest in healing the wounds of Vietnam for the veterans and for his generation."
Wheeler spent his career in and out of government, working as an attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission in the early 1980s, and helping President Ronald Reagan create the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program. He also founded the Earth Conservation Corps for President George H.W. Bush.
Wheeler was chairman and CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving from 1985 to 1987, according to the organization.
"Mothers Against Drunk Driving is saddened to hear of John Wheeler's death. John was a tremendous public servant and an important part of MADD's early years, during which great strides were made to change our culture's view of drunk driving," the organization said Monday in a statement.
Wheeler was an assistant to the secretary of the Air Force during the last three years of George W. Bush's presidency.
Most recently, Wheeler was a consultant to a defense contractor and had been advocating for the return of ROTC programs to the campuses of Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Stanford universities.
The middle part of Wheeler's life was chronicled in author Rick Atkinson's 1989 book The Long Gray Line, which followed the lives of Wheeler and two West Point classmates after the war.
In all of his endeavors, getting his generation to reconcile over Vietnam remained his life mission, according to James Fallows, a writer at The Atlantic magazine who collaborated with Wheeler over three decades.
Fallows published an obituary column about Wheeler on The Atlantic's website Monday, calling his friend a "complicated man of very intense (and sometimes changeable) friendships, passions, and causes."
"Here's somebody who had very great privileges from all of these high-end institutions ... and he used almost all of them for causes that he cared about, which were mainly healing the social, emotional and political after-effects of the Vietnam War," Fallows said in an interview.
Wheeler and his wife, Katherine Klyce, who owns a New York business specializing in Cambodian silk, actually had two established residences: one in New Castle, Delaware; the other in New York, according to Delaware Online, but they cast election votes from Delaware.
One new piece of information brought to light by Delaware Online pertains to a new neighbor of John Wheeler's named Ron Roark. This new piece of information about the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial champion is significant and adds further information for the profile of John Wheeler's murder.
Neighbor notices strange activity at Wheeler home
Ron Roark said that police had cordoned off Wheeler's home throughout the weekend. Crime scene units processed the deceased former 66-year-old Army officer's home, eventually removing the crime scene tape as well.
According to Ron Roark, who claims to have only met the former Army officer John Wheeler once in the seven months of his own residency in the neighborhood--and saw him rarely, as John and Katherine were gone more than they were home--the deceased man had strange activity at his home prior to his body being found.
John Wheeler was alleged to have been in Washington and not due to board Amtrak until Dec. 28, but Roark says that someone had obviously been in the Wheeler home four days surrounding Christmas, as an unusually loud television could be heard on constantly, although the residence occupants did not appear to be there.
"It was so loud we could hear it through the walls and we found that strange."
Homeless people will sometimes attempt to use what may appear to be a home that is not currently occupied, at least for shelter during bad weather, as law enforcement will tell you. Thus John Wheeler's alleged Christmas occupants could have been due to such an occurrence.
John Wheeler's wife Katherine Klyce may have returned to the home unexpectedly, or other family members with a key could have done as well, but Ron Roark's admission that it did not appear that the Wheeler's were home is significant, too.
Loud noise from an otherwise quiet house, for the first known time in seven months--and just days before a dead body is found of one of the homeowners--is very significant in a law enforcement investigation, as it shows an alleged timeline of activity in the home that must be substantiated and explained, especially in light of the odd and unusual loud noise level.
John Wheeler, like the Ronni Chasen murder case in Hollywood late last year, are examples of individuals who may or may not have had powerful enemies or associates who wanted them dead. But like Chasen's case, Wheeler's has the potential to be motivated by something as unexpected as a surprise mugging--but then again, maybe not...
-----------------------------------------------
Police search for leads in former Pentagon official's death
USA Today
Enlarge 1994 photo by Charles Tasnadi, AP
John Wheeler III, who had a prominent role in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in the 1980s, touches the name of a friend engraved in the memorial in Washington. Wheeler's body was discovered Dec. 31 as a waste management truck emptied its contents at a landfill in Delaware
By Chad Livengood, The (Wilmington, Del.) News Journal
Newark, Del., police said Tuesday that they had narrowed down the last location where a murdered former Pentagon official was believed to have been seen.
About 3:30 p.m. Thursday, John P. Wheeler III, 66, was seen in Wilmington in the area of 10th and Orange streets, said Newark police spokesman Lt. Mark Farrall.
Newark police returned Monday to the Cherry Island Landfill in Wilmington, where Wheeler's body was found at 10 a.m. Friday after falling out of a trash truck.
Farrall said that the crime scene has not yet been located.
"Because of his background, we have been in contact with the FBI, but it remains our investigation," Farrall said today.
Wheeler had a prominent role in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in the 1980s and worked in the last three Republican presidential administrations.
A Newark police crime-scene unit was inside Wheeler's home at 108 W. Third St. in New Castle all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to neighbor Ron Roark.
By Monday morning, the crime-scene tape had been taken down.
"At this point ... we're still trying to locate where the crime occurred," Farrall said Monday.
Detectives also had not yet pinpointed the trash bin on the east side of Newark into which Wheeler's body was dumped, Farrall said. Tracing the trash truck driver's route, police determined Wheeler's body could have been dumped in any of 10 trash bins.
The cause of Wheeler's death is awaiting toxicology results and further forensic testing, Carl Kanefsky, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Social Service, said today.
Roark, who lives next door to Wheeler's home in a circa-1900 duplex at Third and South streets, said Monday he had met Wheeler only once and rarely saw him. But for four days around Christmas, Roark and his family heard a loud television in Wheeler's home that was constantly on, but no one appeared to be home, Roark said.
"It was so loud, we could hear it through the walls, and we found that strange," Roark said.
Because Wheeler and his wife, Katherine Klyce, worked in Washington and New York, they were frequently away from home. Records show Wheeler and Klyce were established residents and registered to vote in Delaware.
"But they were never home," said Roark, who has lived next door to Wheeler for seven months.
Klyce, who owns a Cambodian silk company based in New York, did not return phone calls or e-mails Monday, and her whereabouts are unknown.
The family released a short statement Monday evening through Newark police.
"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," the statement said.
Wheeler was known in New Castle for his failed efforts to stop construction of a 2 1/2-story house across the street from his home along Battery Park. He had sued to stop Frank and Regina Marini from building, arguing the structure would block his view of the park and the Delaware River. The Marinis' home is currently under construction, but Wheeler and Klyce still have a lawsuit pending in Delaware Chancery Court to stop the project, said attorney Bayard Marin.
"He was the kind of guy who was not subject to fear, of anything," Marin said Monday.
A 1966 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Wheeler later earned degrees from the Harvard Business School and Yale Law School.
He worked in a staff position while stationed in Vietnam as a U.S. Army officer in 1969 and 1970, according to his biography on a defense contractor's website.
Though he never saw combat, Wheeler was profoundly affected by the war, according to friends and colleagues.
In 1979, Wheeler got in touch with Jan C. Scruggs, a Vietnam veteran who started the initiative to build a memorial on the National Mall in Washington.
With the assistance of some of Wheeler's business associates and politically savvy classmates from Harvard Business School, Wheeler was instrumental in getting Congress to approve construction, Scruggs said.
"It really haunted him, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was the perfect project to give something back," said Scruggs, founder and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. "He had a really ongoing interest in healing the wounds of Vietnam for the veterans and for his generation."
Wheeler spent his career in and out of government, working as an attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission in the early 1980s, and helping President Ronald Reagan create the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program. He also founded the Earth Conservation Corps for President George H.W. Bush.
Wheeler was chairman and CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving from 1985 to 1987, according to the organization.
"Mothers Against Drunk Driving is saddened to hear of John Wheeler's death. John was a tremendous public servant and an important part of MADD's early years, during which great strides were made to change our culture's view of drunk driving," the organization said Monday in a statement.
Wheeler was an assistant to the secretary of the Air Force during the last three years of George W. Bush's presidency.
Most recently, Wheeler was a consultant to a defense contractor and had been advocating for the return of ROTC programs to the campuses of Harvard, Yale, Columbia and Stanford universities.
The middle part of Wheeler's life was chronicled in author Rick Atkinson's 1989 book The Long Gray Line, which followed the lives of Wheeler and two West Point classmates after the war.
In all of his endeavors, getting his generation to reconcile over Vietnam remained his life mission, according to James Fallows, a writer at The Atlantic magazine who collaborated with Wheeler over three decades.
Fallows published an obituary column about Wheeler on The Atlantic's website Monday, calling his friend a "complicated man of very intense (and sometimes changeable) friendships, passions, and causes."
"Here's somebody who had very great privileges from all of these high-end institutions ... and he used almost all of them for causes that he cared about, which were mainly healing the social, emotional and political after-effects of the Vietnam War," Fallows said in an interview.
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