Dec. 13: John P. Wheeler III parks his vehicle at a garage on Martin Luther King Boulevard near the Wilmington train station. The car remained here until it is towed by police after Wheeler's body was discovered.
Dec. 24: Wheeler's neighbors, Robert and Phoebe Dill, 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 claimed.
(After discovery of his body, a neighbor reports that for four days over Christmas, the television in Wheeler's Third Street home in Old New Castle was blaring blaring around the clock.)
Dec 27: Wheeler's attorney, Bayard Marin, last spoke to Wheeler.
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. 5 p.m. -- Wheeler's last response to an ongoing e-mail conversation concerning West Point and college football.
11:30 p.m. -- Firefighters discover a smoke bomb in a house under construction across the street from Wheeler's. He and that home's owners had been involved in a legal dispute. Officials have not linked Wheeler's death to the smoke bomb incident. State fire officials report finding several devices commonly used to smoke out small animals. There are no suspects, but investigators had hoped to speak to Wheeler.
Dec. 29:
6 p.m. -- Wheeler enters the Happy Harry's on Del. 9 near New Castle, and asks the pharmacist, Murali Gouro, for a ride to Wilmington. Unable to give Wheeler a ride, the pharmacist offers to call a cab. Wheeler declines and leaves. 6:40 p.m. -- Wheeler enters the parking lot adjacent to the county courthouse in Wilmington holding his right shoe in his left hand. Wheeler told a parking attendant, Iman Goldsborough, that his briefcase containing his parking ticket had been stolen, and he could not find his car. Wheeler is seen on surveillance video shuffling back and forth, apparently confused and disoriented, before he leaves about 25 minutes later.
His car was not in that garage, but was still at the train station where he had parked it 16 days earlier.
Dec. 30:
3:30 p.m. -- Wheeler is spotted in the area of 10th and Orange streets in Wilmington. During the afternoon of Dec 30, Wheeler visited the 10th-floor offices of the Connolly Bove Lodge and Hutch law firm in the Nemours Building looking to speak with the managing partner. He wanted to borrow train fare to travel north. When a receptionist went to find someone to speak with Wheeler, he left.
8:30 p.m. -- Surveillance video captures Wheeler wandering through the Nemours Building at 10th and Orange streets. Several people approach him, because he appears disoriented or confused. Wheeler declines their help. He is dressed differently from the day before.
8:42 p.m. -- Wheeler is seen on surveillance video leaving the Nemours Building through doors on the 11th Street side. He then continues southeast on 11th Street, walking through the Hotel du Pont valet parking area, crossing over Market Street, and is last seen on camera walking on the west sidewalk of 11th Street, toward the city's east side.
Dec. 31:
4:20 a.m. -- A Waste Management truck starts its route through Newark, emptying trash bins, including one containing Wheeler's body. 10 a.m. -- The garbage truck that picked up Wheeler’s body arrives at the landfill after making 10 stops at various businesses, including a public library, a seniors’ complex, and a car dealership. Many of the dumpsters on this route were either locked or had surveillance cameras posted nearby. Shortly after 10 a.m., Wilmington police are called to investigate a body found at Cherry Island Landfill. Police determine the truck's route was through Newark, Del., miles away from where Wheeler was last seen. The Medical Examiner's Office rules his death a homicide.
Police say they believe Wheeler’s body was collected at the beginning of the route based on its location in the garbage truck.
The truck's 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 are in sight of several storefronts and a heavily traveled road.
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.
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-through lane.
Just down the street, a small bin is behind another restaurant, across the street from a 24-hour emergency care center. The center's 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.
Thanks for the timeline, Wolfstar, and everyone else for the info. Here's some detail that BykrBayb dropped into another thread at
Wheeler's cell phone discovered, taxi driver says #372:
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
Wheeler's home in Newcastle is about 5 miles south of Wilmington's business district where the Hotel DuPont and Nemours Building are. Newark is about 10 miles SW from there.
As for the Security videos, the only one I've seen is the one from that attached to the Nemours Building. WRT the cameras on the trash bin holding areas of the various businesses are they all active and valid for the time period?
As to the manner of death, I'm fairly certain that the coroner would not have pronounced it a homicide without some clear indication of such. Any postmortem damage done to his body after death by the trash bin/truck packing would be apparent.
Sad to say, but my belief is the longer this drags on, the more like the Colby or Foster deaths it's going to become - a homicide buried by the powers-that-be!
sounds like he was deteriorating mentally...
Forgetting where you put the car sounds like Alzheimer’s or senility, but the time line is too fast for Alzheimers etc. but I wonder about drugs/medicines or a stroke/brain tumor or brain hemorrhage from trauma.
a lot of medicines can cause this, but usually the person gets so confused they forget to take the pills, and so get better. The deterioration here sounds like it just kept getting worse...
Routine toxicology screens for alcohol and normal drugs are usually back in a few days, but in this case I’d check for weird things like heavy metal (lead, etc) and other rare toxins that can cause encephalopathy (looking for slow poisoning).