The slaying of John P. Wheeler III, the prominent national defense consultant who helped create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, is a stone cold whodunit, with police scouring at least three states for clues. Police said Wheeler, a consultant for the Mitre Corp. in McLean, was last seen alive Thursday near the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington, Del., less than 24 hours before his body was found by workers emptying a garbage truck at a Delaware landfill. Police got a tip and confirmed that Wheeler, 66, had been near the office of an attorney who was representing him in a land dispute around 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
Previously, police said Wheeler was scheduled to board the Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington on Dec. 28. It’s unclear whether Wheeler actually took the trip.
Police said his body was tossed in a trash bin in Newark, several miles from his home in New Castle. Police said they are collecting and reviewing surveillance video from downtown Newark.
According to the News Journal of Wilmington, the next-door neighbor said he heard a loud television coming from Wheeler’s home for four days, but nobody appeared to be home.
“It was so loud, we could hear it through the walls, and we found that strange,” neighbor Ron Roark told the newspaper.
