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 ...
IMO he couldn't use his phone therefore put it in the stolen briefcase. Which again places the theft close to the neighbors’ house.
Check the video. Does he appear clean shaven or does he have a “five o’clock shadow” If he’s clean shaven I’d say he went home between time getting off train and video.
Was he diabetic. Sugar reactions are often confused with drunkedness. As I said last night if he had a med ID on him because of it, he would have been easily IDed when found.
We have come up with some pretty good theories based on what we know (regardless of the version). They all fall within the realm of possibilities.
Nothing we have come up with seems to account for the veil of silence thrown over this case. It was as if a switch was turned off. It may have remained a local story, but the national media outlets dropped it and dropped it hard.
The degree of secrecy goes above and beyond not alerting the perps. I can't get past that.
National media would drop if the FBI told them to.
My son fished commercially for a couple of summers off Kodiak. Before they went out for the first time, they were fishing with poles along a river, laughing about catching the bait for the next day at sea...IOW Keep the small fish on the line hoping to catch the bigger ones.
What an incredible statement.
IMHO, this is key to the investigation.
If the deputy director of the medical examiner’s office doesn't know this, and makes such a disinterested statement, then who, pray tell would know? My hairdresser? The guy in the bar down the street?
Sheesh, at least make a pretense of a thorough investigation!
Fill in the blanks
Timeline
Dec. 13: John P. Wheeler III parks his vehicle at a garage on Martin Luther King Boulevard near the Wilmington train station. (Someone here posted it was DoubleTree Hotel - but their address is 700 N. King Street, Wilmington, DE. although MyFoxPhilly reported Doubletree / bad reporting by someone)
A neighbor reports that for four days over Christmas, the television in Wheeler’s Third Street home in Old New Castle was blaring around the clock. (which 4 days - I have yet to find that and who turned it off?)
Richard Radez, a longtime friend who also graduated from West Point and Harvard Business, said he exchanged e-mails with Wheeler on Christmas. On the day after Christmas, Wheeler sent Radez an e-mail expressing concern that the nation wasn’t sufficiently prepared for cyber warfare.
James Fallows from Atlantic Magazine, an old friend received a surprisingly short e-mail from Jack — Jim, Merry Christmas, Old Friend. Onward and upward. Jack
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/01/john-p-wheeler-iii/68755/
Dec. 26: Wheeler posts a photo of Manhattan snowstorm that he took from his condo on an electronic forum for 1966 graduates of West Point.
(between here and the train info below he was reported to be at Mitre working ? yes or no? - if so, they are located in Maryland - Newark, where he ended up dead is in that direction, - but, Jack wanted to go to Philly (per unsubstantiated report) which is north of Delaware. There would have to be train records for him from NYC to Maryland and back to Wilmington)
Dec. 28: Wheeler is believed to be on an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington. (Taxi driver disputes this using his memory and a sloppy book saying he picked Jack up the morning of the 29th at the train station, taking him to corner 11th and Orange near DuPont Hotel)
5 p.m. — Wheeler’s last response to an ongoing e-mail conversation concerning West Point and college football.
Dec. 28.
It was “classic Jack”, Schulcz said.
On a conversation thread about West Point and college football, Wheeler wrote:
“And absolute football corrupts absolutely. NCAA is all about football money ... To Hell with the NCAA and its corrupting Money Game ... West Point should pull out of the fraud-ridden NCAA.”
Schulcz said it took focus and dexterity to compose and send it, meaning he was in control at the time.
“Jack was passionate about certain things, like right and wrong and honor,” Schulcz said, adding he has shared the final posting from Wheeler with police.
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 low-powered devices — commonly used to smoke out small animals. There are no suspects but investigators had hoped to speak to Wheeler. (Jack’s phone found there supposedly)
Dec. 29:
8:48 a.m. — Cabbie Roland Spence picks up Wheeler outside the Wilmington train station and drops him off at the corner of 11th and Orange streets. (secondary scenario and a long expanse of time with no sighting of Jack)
He says John Wheeler got into his cab at the Amtrak station around 9:00 the morning of December 29th.
It was a cold day and Wheeler was wearing just a sportcoat and an open collared white shirt. He wanted to go the Hotel du Pont.
“‘You can take me to the Hotel du Pont, but I’m not staying there because it’s not worth the money’ and he had me drop him off at 11th and Orange,” Spence said.
And that’s where Spence last saw him, looking lost, just standing on the corner.
“He was just a lonely sort of guy. He just started walking,” Spence said.
Spence says Wheeler was holding a small briefcase at the time.
6 p.m. — Wheeler enters the Happy Harry’s on Del. 9 near New Castle and asks the pharmacist for a ride to Wilmington. Unable to give Wheeler a ride, the pharmacist offers to call a cab. Wheeler declines and leaves. Pharmacist Murali Gouro, who had filled Mr. Wheeler‘s prescriptions in the past, said Mr. Wheeler looked upset, the News Journal of Wilmington reported.
6:40 p.m. — Wheeler enters the parking lot adjacent to the county courthouse in Wilmington holding his right shoe in his left hand and telling a Colonial Parking attendant his briefcase has been stolen (reported somewhere he said “THEY’ stole my briefcase and alsosaid “‘I’m not drunk, I’m not drunk,’” Goldsborough quoted Wheeler as saying.). He is seen on surveillance video shuffling back and forth, apparently confused and disoriented, before he leaves about 25 minutes later.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/04/delaware.pentagon.official/index.html
A security guard at the courthouse said Wheeler’s eyes were bloodshot, but said he did not smell of alcohol and that his speech wasn’t slurred.
Iman Goldsborough “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.”
Dec. 30:
3:30 p.m. — Wheeler is spotted in the area of 10th and Orange streets in Wilmington. (police have not released how they know that - this is probably the video of Jack in the navy hooded sweatshirt.
Wheeler visited the 10th-floor offices of the Connolly Bove Lodge & Hutz law firm in the Nemours building and asked to speak to a managing partner. He also asked for train fare before leaving. (reported elsewhere he left when receptionist went to back to find someone)
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 picked up 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 walking on the west sidewalk of 11th Street, toward the city’s East Side.
Dec. 31:
4:20 a.m. — A Waste Management refuse truck starts its route through Newark, emptying trash bins, including one containing Wheeler’s body.
10 a.m. — Wilmington police are called to investigate a body found at Cherry Island Landfill.
Medical Examiner’s Office rules the death a homicide.
2 p.m. — Newark police are contacted after it is determined the body came from there.
Jan. 2:
Newark police identify the 66-year-old Wheeler as the victim.
Newark police crime-scene team spends the day at Wheeler’s home.
Jan. 4: Wilmington detectives ask Sunday Breakfast Mission workers if Wheeler has stayed in their shelter. He has not.
Jan. 5: Newark investigators are spotted near several bins near Newark Shopping Center. Police also ask at least one business there for security video of parking lot.
A City Cab driver is questioned by police as to why Wheeler’s cell phone contains his phone number. Other cabdrivers have been questioned through the 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.
Jan. 28: The state Medical Examiner’s Office said Wheeler’s death was a result of blunt force trauma after being assaulted.
So I want to know, if those little surveillance videos of Wheeler are genuine, did the blunt force trauma occur before or after he was wandering around clueless?
ML/NJ
If that's true, toxicology testing indicates no drugs, no over/under medication to be included in cause of death. However, that he doesn't know what meds or chems, if any were in his system is either irresponsible or a cover up because one sentence is the opposite of the other. IMO
If this is true then he had a head injury causing his condition on the 29th.
If he had a stoke one would think the ME was smart enough to know that by autopsy and it wouldn't be giving up a BIG secret to say that. BTW I doubt this scenario totally.
Add: On the 29th. Before he went to the pharmacy,he called for a cab to come to a location ????away from his house. Said he wanted to go to Philly.
Something happened between that phone call and the time he went to the pharmacy to make him change his mind about taking a cab to Philly into going to Wil to pick up his car. (driveit to Philly)
ALSO:
Think it is significant that the police were immediately pointed to Jack when the fire bombs were ignited. By whom the family? Note in the tree report the trees were suppose to be planted in the fall when the house was completed. Looks like the house was behind schedule. Did they run out of money and plan a little arson for insurance? When smoke was sighted (or smelled remember primary ingredient was sulfur/rotten eggs) the plan didn't work....Had to point the finger at someone else...Insurance pays for vandalism not personal arson.
How aabout the last twenty years?
I thought the body was found in a land fill.
IMHO, this is key to the investigation.
This could possibly be on of the peices of evidence they want to hold back. We do not know if he had smoke in his lungs or evidence of whatever the smoke bomb stuff was in his bloodstream/tissues. (Not sure how it metabolizes.)
We do know the ccps took floorboards. Perhaps because someone (NOT a workman) entered the house and washed at the kitchen? What was going on at his house between the time he went to NYC and returned home? When did the noise from his house stop? Upon his return or before he returned?
Just a few rambling questions....
Great minds (and all that), although you write it much better than I. :-)
Those two statements contradict each other. Either someone actually saw it tumble out of a specific garbage truck or it was already in the pile and a compacting machine just happened to see it before driving over it. So, which statement is true? One is a garbage truck and the other is a compacting machine.
It could have been placed there. Or it could have come from who knows which truck meaning they have no clue which dumpster it might have come from.
And cameras would have picked it up.
Only LEO has this other information routinely. As it's like contents on stomach, size,shape and/or place of injury may actually be part of the evidence that leads them to the culprit.
If waiting helps them catch the perps and some bigger fish, I'll wait.
Just want the creeps to pay! ALL of them.
That's been my question all along. It's not like he's got a street thug record and would want to avoid police involvement so why didn't he just ask anyone he talked to to just call 911 for him?
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