John Wheeler seen day before body found in landfill

By Chad Livengood The (Wilmington, Del.) News JournalNEWARK, Del. — Police said Tuesday that they had narrowed down the last location where a slain former Pentagon official was believed to have been seen before his body was found at a landfill on New Year's Eve.John Wheeler III, 66, a military consultant who served three Republican presidents, was last seen in Wilmington about 3:30 p.m. Thursday by a member of the public, said Lt. Mark Farrall, the Newark police spokesman.

Farrall said police were able to verify the tipster's information but would not say how.

Wheeler's body was uncovered Friday when a garbage truck emptied its contents at the Cherry Island landfill in Wilmington. The truck had collected the trash from about 10 commercial disposal bins in Newark, several miles from Wheeler's home in the historic district of New Castle, but police said they aren't sure which container his body came from.

Farrall said the crime scene has not yet been determined. The location where Wheeler was last seen is about six blocks from the office of an attorney representing Wheeler and his wife in a property dispute, and about a mile from the Wilmington Amtrak station.

Wheeler had been scheduled to take an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington on Dec. 28, but it's not clear if he ever made the trip, said police, who labeled Wheeler's death a homicide. Family members may not have reported him missing because they were out of town, Farrall said.

A Newark police crime-scene unit was inside Wheeler's home in New Castle all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, according to neighbor Ron Roark.

Roark, who lived next door to Wheeler for seven months, said he had met Wheeler only once and rarely saw him. But for four days around Christmas, he said he and his family heard a loud television in Wheeler's home that was constantly on, but no one appeared to be home.

"It was so loud, we could hear it through the walls, and we found that strange," Roark said.

Police do not consider the home a crime scene, Farrall said.

Wheeler attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After graduating in 1966, he served five years in the Army, including as a staff officer at the Pentagon. He retired from the military in 1971.

Wheeler served as special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force during the George W. Bush administration. He also worked in the administrations of Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

He had a prominent role in getting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial built in the 1980s.

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