The Trail Went Cold - Episode 262 - Jack Wheeler

The Trail Went Cold

Robin Warder

True Crime, Tv & Film

4.5 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

December 31, 2010. Wilmington, Delaware. The body of 66-year old Jack Wheeler is discovered in a trash heap at the Cherry Island Landfill and his cause of death is determined to be blunt force trauma. Days earlier, Jack had left his residence in New York City to travel to Delaware and numerous eyewitnesses would report seeing Jack at numerous locations, displaying erratic behaviour which may have been caused by his struggles with bipolar disorder. It is believed that Jack’s body was transported to the landfill after he wound up inside a dumpster which was picked up by a garbage truck, but even though investigators think his injuries are consistent with a homicide, the exact circumstances of how Jack died are unclear. Was Jack Wheeler actually the victim of foul play or was his death a tragic accident brought on by a mental health crisis? We shall explore both sides of the case on this week’s episode of “The Trail Went Cold”. If you have any information about this case, please contact Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333. Additional Reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_P._Wheeler_III https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/he-helped-build-the-vietnam-veterans-memorial-but-his-2010-killing-remains-unsolved/2017/05/23/91442c74-2927-11e7-b605-33413c691853_story.html http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/01/03/Prominent-veteran-found-in-landfill/UPI-74381294097675 https://web.archive.org/web/20110112023109/http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/01/03/general-us-federal-official-landfill_8234629.html https://www.foxnews.com/us/witnesses-wheeler-appeared-disoriented-disheveled-prior-to-death https://abcnews.go.com/US/presidential-aide-jack-wheelers-body-found-landfill/story?id=12532638 https://www.dailypress.com/military/dp-nws-john-wheeler-day1-20110409-story.html https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-04-29-pentagon-official-wheeler-buried-arlington_n.htm https://screenrant.com/unsolved-mysteries-jack-john-wheeler-murder-leaves-out/ https://www.thewrap.com/unsolved-mysteries-netflix-jack-wheeler-pharmacy-wilmington-delaware/ https://unsolved.com/gallery/washington-insider-murder/ “The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon! Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content. “The Trail Went Cold” is now doing a weekly livestream show on GetVokl every Thursday from 7:00-8:00 PM ET as part of their “True Crime Thursday” line-up. For more information, please visit their website. The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote. All music is composed by Vince Nitro.

Transcript

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0:00.0	December 31st, 2010, Wilmington, Delaware.
0:05.6	The body of 66 year old Jack Wheeler is discovered in a trash sheep at a landfill
0:10.2	and his cause of death is determined to be blunt force trauma.
0:13.4	Days earlier, Jack had left his residence in New York City to travel to Delaware
0:18.1	and numerous eyewitnesses of reports seeing Jack wander through the area
0:21.9	and displaying erratic behavior, which may have been brought on by his struggles with bipolar disorder.
0:27.0	It is believed that Jack's body was transported to the landfill after he wound up inside a dumpster which was picked up by a garbage truck, but even though
0:34.9	investigators believe his injuries are consistent with a homicide, the exact circumstances
0:39.8	of how Jack died remain unclear.
0:42.6	After that, the trail went cold. Oh, uh, uh, uh, uh, right, uh, and uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, yeah. Oh, uh, uh,
1:04.0	uh,
1:05.0	so uh, uh, uh, uh,
1:08.0	uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, Hello everyone and welcome to our latest episode of The Trail Went Cold.
1:24.0	I'm your host Robin Warder and on today's episode we're going to be exploring the case which was the subject of episode one of the second season of the Unsalled Mysteries reboot on Netflix, the unexplained 2010 death of Jack Wheeler.
1:37.0	The victim in this story led a particularly interesting life as he served as a White House aide for no less than three U.S. Presidents
1:45.1	and was involved in a number of impressive achievements, including the creation of the Vietnam
1:49.6	Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. But unfortunately, Jack's life would end in a very tragic fashion
1:56.0	as his body was discovered in a landfill in Delaware
1:59.0	after he had spent the past few days frequenting a variety of different locations doing a number of things
2:04.5	which did not seem to make much logical sense. Now before this case was even
2:09.1	featured on Unsol Mysteries I had actually received a couple of requests to cover it on the trail and cold, and while my knowledge about the story was limited, I did know that Jack's death had officially been ruled a homicide, and because of his government connections, there were a number of conspiracy theories surrounding his death.
2:25.7	However, once the Unsolved Mysteries episode came out, the consensus from many viewers seemed to be that Jack was the victim of a tragic accident brought on by his struggles with bipolar disorder,
	...

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