Ongoing FR Analysis: Jack Wheeler Murder

cnn.com ^ | January 9, 2011 | Susan Candiotti and Ross Levitt

[Albion Wilde]

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... 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's never been in my cab. I don't know how my number got in his cellphone," Scott says he told police...

[angcat]

What energy this man had. Bless his soul. It’s really a puzzle and we are left to figure it out because the authorities won’t give us the details.

[EDINVA]

Burials at Arlington, where I imagine Wheeler will be buried, are running around 2 months (or more) behind the deceased’s dying. I think both the chapel and admin building where services are held handle a dozen or so funerals a day each.

[hoosiermama]

More from comments at above link:
...snip...

... Two points of interest. The body was taken to the medical examiner who rule the death a homicide after the autopsy was performed. Also the article noted that the body was found among much medical waste and personnel had to undergo procedure of being clean up afterwards

ALSO

...snip...

Gardens at White Chapel is an assisted living/Alzheimer/Memory Care facility. They would generate medical waste.

So would Newark Emergency Center, further down the list.

[hoosiermama]

Thank you...It makes sense.

[Sacajaweau]

One would expect that you clean up after going through garbage at a dump...no matter what it was composed of. It's kind of a duh....

Found among Medical waste?? Two places in the dumpster list. Another duh....

And what constitutes Medical waste?? Most of it gets incinerated.

I think whoever is writing that stuff is making inferences but is saying nothing....just an exercise in English 101.

I believe the Medical Examiner called it BEFORE the autopsy...which is why speculation was bullet, knife, strangled....

[Sacajaweau]

Here's a different thought....

What proof do we have that the dumpster driver climbed into the cab of the dumpster and that there was absolutely nothing in the dumpster.

In other words, where was the dumpster from 8:30 on December 30th until the driver hopped into the cab about 4:00 AM on December 31st???

[cornfedcowboy]

Please add me to your Wheeler ping list. Thanks in advance.

[Sacajaweau]

I'm going to photograph my dumpster as they pick it up and dump it into the truck etc...and listen for sounds, too. I'm into whirrrr

Then I'm going to hang around our refuse folks lot...where they park the trucks overnight....

Then I'll send you the name of the jail where you can write me.

[hoosiermama]

Just a thought: Did they ID him quickly because he had a “medical alert” tag on him? We know he was taking prescription medicine.

IIRC,The trucks are kept in a locked fenced facility even further away from any of the scenes. ALSO: Body came out in the middle of the "dump, not at the end or beginning.

[PGalt]

Thanks to all posters, linkers, researchers, educators, sleuths and speculators. Very interesting.

BUMP for John Wheeler.

[WestCoastGal]

I just read a while ago that, as we know he was found the morning of the 31st, but the identification was on Jan 2nd. So, I’m guessing he had no id or they just didn’t release it right away, I’m guessing the first scenario.

[BykrBayb]

I can't keep up with the postings, so please forgive me if this has been covered.

Is it possible his body was put directly into the truck, and not into one of the dumpsters? What route did the truck take?

Refresh my memory; When and where was he last confirmed to be alive?

One of the articles we've read gives details about the ten dumpsters. (John Wheeler 10 trash bin sites: Delaware sleuth provides photos, commentary) It lists them in the order listed by the State, and suggests that must be the order in which the truck picked them up. I plotted them on a map, and I don't think it would make sense to pick them up in that order.

http://i55.tinypic.com/119qkyh.jpg
Click photo for larger image

The following image shows the dumpsters (left) in relation to the landfill (top right) and Wheeler's home (bottom).

http://i56.tinypic.com/selwdt.jpg
Click photo for larger image

His home does not appear to be along (or even near) the route the truck would have taken. But I've forgotten where the train station and hotel parking garage are located. And I don't remember where he was last seen alive. It might be interesting to see those locations in relation to the dumpsters and the landfill.

Also of interest, what route did the truck take? Did it start out at the landfill, or some other location? It seems likely to me that it would have started out at the landfill, but I don't think we can assume anything.

We've all questioned how Wheeler could have gotten from his last known location to one of the dumpsters, a few miles away. Maybe he didn't. Maybe he was dumped directly into the truck, on its way to the dumpsters.

[WestCoastGal]

Did you read it all? I have to apologize because I think I posted way too much today :(

I find myself wanting to solve this even though I have to ability to do so.

As someone on his West Point eulogy page said “Jack, rest in peace, requiescat in pace; you gave much, you deserved better.
Well done.”

[WestCoastGal]

Very nice pics - thanks. Last sighting -- 8.30 pm - Captured by surveillance video wandering through different parking lot at Nemours Building on 10th and Orange; several individuals approach him as appears disoriented but help declined (authorities have not made video public).

* Exits Nemours building from entrance adjacent to 11th Street; wearing dark-colored pants and navy blue hooded sweatshirt.

8.42 pm - Last seen on video, crossing Hotel du Pont valet area, on western sidewalk of 11th Street, then walking southeast toward Market Street and Wilmington's East Side. -- Someone on another site surmised it was a hit and the garbage dump was intended to send a message fwiw. Probably could use those type of pics of the area he was in the two days before he was found dead.

[Sacajaweau]

Is it possible that body was put directly into the truck and not into one of the 10 dumpsters.

We're kind of on the same page....and thinking out of the box.

I just went to 300 Harvey Street in Newark...owned by Waste Management. Big trucks parked all over the place.

I now think it is VERY, VERY possible that his body was driven AWAY from the scene of the crime (in Wilmington) and dumped into one of the trucks at 300 Harvey Street BEFORE IT TOOK OFF FOR ITS' 4:00 Run. I'm sure there's a lot less surveillance at the Harvey Street site.

Just plug in 300 Harvey Street Newark Delaware.

[Sacajaweau]

Whoops...Plug in 300 Harvey DRIVE...Wilmington Delaware

[WestCoastGal]

Also from the Examiner comment section post by someone from the area “I thought I had read that it was WM for the hauler - and that the trucks were up in Elsmere in a locked secured lot.”

[hoosiermama]

Have been re reading the earliest news releases. His body was found in the middle of the truck. Closest to the first locations (But not at the bottom of the truck) Medical materials were close to the body. Which cuts it down to two. One of those were in another two we had speculated on early in this thread.

Don't want this one to become a “cold case” JACK deserves so much more.
WCC your links to earlier articles and their links and comments have answered many question. There are comments from local people who are/were listening to local broadcasts that add much to knowledge of the case.

We can only surmise, since the FBI has been called in (Not just using their labs) expect a solution when all their lab works come back. This is a case for CSI.

[WestCoastGal]

How would someone unfamiliar with the area ‘hitmen’ know which trucks were going out?

[WestCoastGal]

JERRY BRUCKHEIMER is on Twitter - I wonder if this is on his radar?