White House aide whose body was found in a dumpster died of blunt force trauma (so what - or who - hit him?)



The top Pentagon aide whose body was found in a landfill site died of blunt force trauma, a medical examiner revealed today.

But authorities have not revealed what - or who - hit John Wheeler, refusing to confirm if he was beaten to death.



The mysterious death of John Wheeler drew worldwide attention after CCTV footage showed him wandering a car park in a confused state just 48hours before his death.



'Disoriented': CCTV footage captures John Wheeler at a parking lot in Wilmington, Delaware just hours before his death

Mystery: Mr Wheeler's body was found in a dumpster just hours later. Authorities revealed today that he died of blunt force trauma

The following day he was also seen wandering around the town in the last sighting before his body was discovered dumped at the Delaware tip on New Year's Eve.



Police promptly launched a murder probe - but a four-week delay in announcing the cause of death gave rise to conspiracy theories that Wheeler, a former Bush aide, had been murdered.

The deputy director of the medical examiner's office Hal Brown told Delaware Online that 'blunt force trauma' means being struck with an object or a body part, such as a fist.

Lived to serve: Mr Wheeler, who was instrumental in the building of the Vietnam War Memorial

He said the death certificate shows that toxicology 'didn't play a role' in the death.



Newark police spokesman Lieutenant Mark Farrall would not comment on rumours that Wheeler had been beaten to death. 'I can't comment on his injuries,' he said.

Earlier this month prominent private investigator William Fleisher of Philadelphia said Mr Wheeler's disoriented state suggested he had suffered a stroke - or been struck on the head during a mugging.

Mr Fleisher, an ex-police officer in Philadelphia who runs the Keystone Intelligence Network, told the Philadelphia Daily News that Mr Wheeler's apparent disorientation could have led him to crawl inside the dumpster - either seeking shelter or in search for his lost papers.

Had the body found in the landfill been of a homeless man, he said, police would have launched an accidental death probe. Because of Mr Wheeler's prominence, he speculated, they opened a murder probe instead.



The body of Mr Wheeler, a former Army officer who was instrumental in building the iconic Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall in Washington DC, was discovered on a landfill in Wilmington on New Year’s Eve.

A Harvard and Yale graduate, he had served as a military advisor to three presidents and lived in New Castle, Delaware with his wife Katherine Klyce, 66, a silk importer.

The first of the two sightings were on December 29th at a parking lot at the New Castle County courthouse in Wilmington.

WHY WOULD SOMEONE WANT TO KILL HIM?

Mr Wheeler had enjoyed a long and distinguished career in public life and served as an advisor under presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush Senior.

His was also a special assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force during the presidency of George W Bush. The Washington Post said that, while working at the Pentagon, Mr Wheeler wrote a manual on the effectiveness of biological and chemical weapons and recommended that the US should not use biological warfare. Although critics initially blasted the design of the Vietnam memorial, which he was instrumental in creating, it has become one of Washington's most visited sites since its unveiling in 1982.

Attendant Iman Goldsborough said Mr Wheeler, who had two children from a previous marriage, looked unsteady and was looking for a car that it later emerged was parked elsewhere.

‘He really didn't look good to me.’ she said.

‘I asked him, 'Are you OK?' He was like, 'No.'

She added that he ‘just didn't seem like he was really there. He seemed like he was disoriented.’

The following morning Mr Wheeler was spotted walking in downtown Wilmington by members of the public, the last sighting of him alive.



At 3.30pm the day after that, New Year’s Eve, a garbage truck containing his body completed its run at the Cherry Island landfill in Wilmington where it threw his body out and the grim discovery was made.

He had been put into a commercial dumpster in Newark, Delaware, about 12 miles from his home and 15 miles from Wilmington, where it was picked up by a garbage truck and taken to the landfill site.

The case has left detectives with few leads and no idea why or how such a respected Washington figure could come to such an end.



They have however begun to investigate the ongoing row with his neighbour Frank Marini in Wilmington’s historic district over his ongoing project to build a home next to theirs.



Mr Wheeler reportedly tried to stop the plans in court and said that the house was too big for the area.