fletchermarple: A Mysterious Murder with a Bizarre Trail of CluesIn Washington D.C. there’s a famous

fletchermarple: A Mysterious Murder with a Bizarre Trail of CluesIn Washington D.C. there’s a famous landmark called the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. One of the people that helped build it was John “Jack” Wheeler III. A former military man himself, Jack was part of important companies, non profit organizations and an aide for three Republican Presidents. He was also murdered, and the still unsolved case is beyond bizarre.On December 28, 2010, Jack (66) left the condo in New York he was staying in for the holidays with his wife Kathy to head to Washington for work. The couple had fought about Jack’s trip, but he’d claimed he had something important to do. On December 31, his beaten body was found in a landfill in Wilmington, Delaware. A worker had seen it drop from a garbage truck, which meant he had been left in one of the dumpsters of the truck’s route. The cause of death was blunt force trauma.The events in between those two dates are bewildering and full of strange clues. Here’s what we know:- The last contact family and friends had with Jack was on December 28. He was communicating via text messages, emails and left a message on the board of the West Point Class of ‘66, of which he was a prominent member. Authorities confirmed he took a train and arrived to D.C. However, for reasons unknown, by 7:30 pm he was in Wilmington, Delaware. There are records he took at least two taxis there, one hour apart. The Wheeler’s main place of residence was a house in New Castle, Delaware, a 15 minutes drive from Wilmington.- At around 11:30 pm of December 28, a man in New Castle reported seeing someone tossing “balls of fire” to a house that was under construction. The alleged arsonist left before police arrived and there was no real damage done. Here’s the thing: that house was in the same area as Jack’s home, and he’d been fiercely oppossing its construction, even getting lawyers involved.- The morning of December 29, Jack sent an email to Mitre Corp, where he worked as an advisor in cyber defense, to let them know someone had broken into his house (more on this in a minute). He said his briefcase, badge and cell phone had been stolen. He also e-mailed his therapist (he had a long history of depression and bipolar disorder) saying that his fight with his wife had left him “dazed and boxed into a corner”. Later, after his death, police found his cell phone in the house under construction, which seems to point to him being the arsonist.- At around 6 pm of December 29, Jack went in a pharmacy close to his house in New Castle and asked the pharmacist for a ride to Wilmington. He declined the pharmacist’s offer to call him a taxi and was described as looking “upset” but “put together”. 40 minutes later, Jack appears on the surveillance camera of a parking garage in Wilmington, looking disheveled and agitated, with one shoe on and the other in his hand. There he said he was looking for his car, but it had been left at another garage on Christmas Eve.- So about that break in. On December 30, a neighbor of the Wheelers in New Castle noticed there was a window and a side door open in their house. Since he knew the couple had gone to New York, he checked out inside and found the place in disarray. Broken dishes, scattered spices on the counter, a chair turned upside down and Jack’s cadet sword unsheathed laying on the floor. Nothing was stolen, but the book The Long Gray Line, which talks about the West Point Class of 66 and Wheeler, was found open in the kitchen. - On December 30, he showed up in the afternoon at a law firm in Wilmington (apparently the one that was handling the lawsuit against the house under construction), asking to speak with one of the partners, but left without talking to anyone. The last sight of him was in the evening, through another surveillance camera, walking toward Rodney Square, which then leads to streets well known for their high crime rate. This was at least 13 miles away from the dumpsters in the truck’s route. In a Washington Post article about the case, they say that in this last image Jack “looks like man on the run”, and he’d changed the black suit he’d been wearing for a black hoodie he pulled up.So what happened to Jack Wheeler? A prominent theory has been that he wasn’t murdered, and ended up in that dumpster while in the middle of a mental breakdown. The “blunt force trauma” was caused by the garbage truck. It would sound plausible, especially considering the odd behavior he seemed to be showing in his last two days of life, but police say they are absolutely certain this was an homicide and not an accident. Why they are so sure, they haven’t said because it’s an open investigation, but the Washington Post’s reporter said he saw a picture of Jack’s body when found and it definitely looks like he was beaten to death. Considering where he was last seen, another theory is that he was killed while being mugged. But at that point he wasn’t really carrying much and police find it odd that some random muggers would take the time to take him to a dumpster 13 miles away, when they usually leave their victims lying there.Then there are the more sinister theories, that talk about conspiracies and murder for hire. As previously established, Jack Wheeler was a prominent person in business and politics, and not only had he worked for the White House but he was involved with a defense contractor. Some have said he was a spy, although of course there’s no real proof of this. And what about the attempted arson and the house break-in? His widow says that in the months leading to his death, he was talking about investigating officials in Delaware for possible corruption, especially connected to that infamous house in his neighborhood. He was even learning computer hacking. She thinks he was targeted for murderer, but with little information coming from the investigators it’s hard to say for sure. Hey guys! This case is being featured in the new batch of Unsolved Mysteries episodes on Netflix. Check it out! -- source link

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