Posted on 01/09/2011 8:55:15 PM PST by 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...
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Coroners report: Died of blunt force trauma after being assaulted”
But they don't indicate if there were two assaults on two different days so it's still confusing.
Medical examiner: Homicide victim John Wheeler died of ‘blunt force trauma’
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20110128/NEWS01/110128028/Med.-examiner-releases-Wheeler-cause-of-death
Cherry Island is a very well run landfill.
If by chance he was alive when placed in the dumpster would the injuries caused by the emptying of the following dumpsters be considered blunt force trauma for legal purposes?
Is it possible for the ME to make a determination in regards to the place of death. IOW, would they know if he died before or after being placed in the dumpster?
I wonder if CCTV captured the assault. Trying to sort the possibilities in my brain. Was he assaulted, left for dead, managed to crawl into a dumpster in case the perps returned. Once he was in the dumspter, he lost consciousness and suffered the fatal injuries as the contents of dumpsters fell on him?
But then, it is easy to determine if injuries are pre or post mortem, correct?
2. In answer to your question about them knowing if the compacter caused his death I'll repeat what I posted on the other thread from comments on one of the news articles:
...snip...
... “This fact can generally be determined by testing for histamines in the wounds. If you're still alive, for even a few minutes after a deadly injury your body will flood the injury area with histamines to ward off infection. If a wound is totally postmortem there will be no histamines. ...”
Testing for histamines is a routine test done to determine cause and time of death according to my State Police friend.
From your article:
...”was assaulted and died of blunt force trauma”
compare to:
...”died as a result of blunt force trauma AFTER being assaulted...”
More questions:
Was he alive/unconscious when put in the dumpster?
If he fought back did he have some DNA under his fingernails?
If just a street crime, why didn’t they just leave his body where it fell?
Why drive body several miles to the dumpster in another town?
Would location of assult point finger at the guilty party?
This is an excellent article by a forensic consultant .." Estimating the time of death...
http://www.practicalhomicide.com/Research/LOmar2007.htm
Fascinating article.
“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.LINK
Based on what we learned, there are reports that police may be looking to or have talked with taxi drivers to see if they took Wheeler from Wilmington to Newark. (TAXI DRIVERS)
And Wheeler's friend, Richard Radez, told Fox News he thinks Wheeler had a reaction to prescription medication or had received the wrong medication, which caused him to become disoriented. (PHARMACIST - somewhere in this time frame something happened to Jack)
Radez thinks Wheeler found a ride to Wilmington and then ran into trouble. (TAXI DRIVERS)LINK
She thought enough to tell him to go back and close the door but couldn’t get off her ass to make sure a well dressed man who might have dementia may have wandered off from somewhere?
That’s not indifference, that’s just damned lazy.
She probably traced his path after work because that is how she left the building every night.
Well, I hope she has a real guilty conscience as well as the other those they did or did offer help. Even if he declined and they saw his condition they should have called cops or EMS.
I’m wondering if they could tell by the blunt force trauma when that happened? It’s still entirely possible the assault took place earlier than the night of the 30th and he had a brain bleed. Of course, that doesn’t explain how he got in the dumpster in Newark. All a BIG puzzle.
I brought home espresso ice cream and just made a cappuccino in addition to that - so I should be wired for a few hours
Wow I made a really ugly sentence there “Well, I hope she has a real guilty conscience as well as the other those they did or did offer help”
Should have said — guilty conscience, as should the others who did or did not offer help......
From your video clip posted on the other thread. His words - my thoughts.
McInerny video (paraphrased)
“Jack knew everybody, he was a go to it person - he had a large electronic footprint, sent 100’s
of e-mails a day... lots of connections with well known correspondents who knew him. He worked with the Secretary of the Air-force and Gen Petreus and others. Something went amiss - the way he was dumped in the landfill, somebody went out and got him. He has the highest security clearance, very sensitive air-force clearances.
Disposed of the way he was had a professionalism to it.
His latest expertise was cyber-warfare, he helped Wynn and Mosley in AirForce.
Convened a group of experts at Mitre about cyber warfare.
—
So where are all these well known DC correspondents and the General etc. now? For that matter, has McInerny been on again?
Think of the good things! Think of the good things!
Which again makes me think that the initial attackers were stalking him (He erratic behavior was his attempt to hide from them) and they finally caught up with him.
OTOH if the first attack was closer to his home the mall/pharmacy area, maybe they just waited for him to return to that area.
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