Newark police have identified the body discovered on New Year’s Eve at the Cherry Island Landfill as 66-year-old John P. Wheeler of New Castle.
Wheeler, who lived part time in Old New Castle, worked as a defense consultant and had a long and decorated military career that involved working in the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.
Wheeler also served as chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which built the wall in Washington, D.C.
His death has been ruled a homicide.
Newark police have had a crime scene unit at Wheeler’s home at 108 West Third St. in Old New Castle all day today, with crime-scene tape roping off the prominent three-story brick home with black shutters.
Friends and neighbors were shocked to learn Wheeler had been murdered.
“This is just not the kind of guy who gets murdered,” said Bayard Marin, a Wilmington attorney who represented Wheeler. "This is not the kind of guy you find in a landfill.”
Wheeler worked in Washington, D.C. and investigators have determined he was on an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington on Tuesday, said Newark police Lt. Mark Farrall.
“The last place they can put him is getting off the Amtrak train in Wilmington,” Farrall said.
Neighbor Jeanne Thomas, who lives around the corner from Wheeler’s house on South Street, rented storage space from in a big old red barn behind his house.
“He was wonderful,” Thomas said. “We’re just shocked. He was very humble.”
Wheeler graduated from West Point in 1966 and served in Vietnam. He had a law degree from Yale and a business degree from Harvard, Marin said.
During the Reagan administration, he founded the Vietnam Veterans Leadership Program, an effort to link war veterans with employment opportunities.
In 2009, Wheeler and his wife Katherine Klyce, filed a lawsuit to stop construction of a home near the parking lot of Battery Park in Old New Castle.
Wheeler and Klyce opposed construction of a new home being built by Frank and Regina Marini. The Marinis wanted to build a two-and-a-half story home across the street from Klyce and Wheeler on the 100 block of West Third Street. It would have blocked Klyce's and Wheeler’s view.
Though the home is under construction, Wheeler and Klyce have ongoing litigation against the Marinis in Delaware Chancery Court, said attorney John Tracey, who is representing the Marinis.
On Tuesday, firefighters discovered a smoke bomb that had been thrown inside the Marinis' home. The state fire marshal is investigating the incident, but officials haven't linked the two events.
"Mr. Wheeler and his wife have been obviously opposing my client's plans to build a house on her property and I would just leave it at that," Tracey said Sunday. "It is a nice location and one could understand why she'd like to build a house on it."
Wheeler, who went by "Jack," had gained some notoriety for fighting the Marinis. "He was a stubborn, principled guy, but at least with my acquaintance he was well-regarded," said Dr. Bryan McCarthy, an anesthesiologist from New Castle.
Because Wheeler's body was discovered in Wilmington, city police and the Delaware State Police were initially involved. New Castle city police are assisting Newark police, which is the lead agency because the body was dumped in Newark, Farrall said.
And what a view, from 108 West 3rd, New Castle, CL. The disputed “view” and properties are clearly visible in Google Earth. I hope this distinguished American wasn’t done away with over the range of someone’s bundle of property rights. Then again, maybe I’m not looking at this right. After all he’d been through, it seems comparatively silly. But maybe it only seems that way.
Geez, Frank Marini??? It sure sounds like a mob hit, but would they be so blatant about?