That was less than 14 hours before Wheeler's body tumbled into a Wilmington landfill from a garbage truck. Police have called his death a homicide, but have refused to disclose how they believe Wheeler, 66, died.
"I knew something wasn't right," said Iman Goldsborough, a parking-lot attendant who encountered Wheeler on Dec. 29, "but I never thought it would end up like this."
Also this week, police found evidence that Wheeler may have been involved in an arson attempt at the home of a couple he had been battling in court, a law enforcement source has told The Inquirer.
It all runs counter to the burnished public image of Wheeler, who served in Vietnam, successfully pushed for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall, advised presidents and Pentagon brass, and served as the first chief executive of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and as secretary of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Phoebe Dill, a friend and neighbor of Wheeler and his wife, Katherine Klyce, in New Castle, Del., said she last saw Wheeler on Christmas Eve when her husband, Robert, drove him to the train station.
"He was going to New York with his wife's Christmas present," she said. Wheeler and Klyce have a condominium in Manhattan.
Dill said she assumed Wheeler then took a train directly to Washington, near his consulting job at Mitre Corp., a defense contractor in McLean, Va.
The news that Wheeler appeared disoriented in Wilmington several days later greatly distressed her and her husband, she said.
"It's a terrible thing to happen to anyone," she said, surmising a medical problem had occurred.
