June 26, 2020 • 35 mins
A West Virginia husband reports his wife as falling from a gorge overlook in Grandview State Park while looking for an earring. A massive search begins with dogs, drones, and a helicopter, but nobody is found. Once police find out the woman is facing a healthcare fraud charge, the investigation takes a huge right turn.
Joining Nancy Grace today to discuss:
- Jim Elliott - Attorney with Butler Snow, legal counsel for various Georgia municipalities and other governmental entities
- Dr. Angela Arnold - Psychiatrist, Atlanta Ga.
- Cloyd Steiger - 36 years with Seattle Police Department, 22-year homicide detective & author of "Seattle's Forgotten Serial Killer: Gary Gene Grant"
- Levi Page - Investigative reporter, CrimeOnline
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Did a West Virginia woman plummet to her death. Her
name is Julie Wheeler. She goes hiking or looking at
scenery with her husband and her teen son, apparently looking
for a missing earring, falls to her death, but nobody
(00:32):
can find the body. Crime stories with Nancy Grace, I
mean Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories. Thank you for
(00:53):
being with us. What happened to Julie Wheeler? First of all,
take a listen to our friends. At Fought fifty nine, Paris, Dunford,
multiple search and rescue teams joined together to look for
the missing woman after a sixty foot drop. These men
are repelling down the steep cliff searching for a woman.
(01:14):
He had a call coming yesterday evening that a woman
had fallen off of the main overlook in the Grand
View areas of park. The call came into dispatch around
eight thirty Sunday night. Rescue teams joined together with the
National Park Service at the Grand View Overlook to search
for the missing woman between multiple fire departments, in law
enforcement agencies. Definitely inter agency. The National Park Service here
(01:37):
at the New River Gorge has has lots of resources,
but we also as far as staff and yoes, but
we also depend a lot on our partner agencies. Park
officials say that the local forty three year old woman
was with her husband and son when she fell off
the overlook. Now, if it had just been the husband,
I would think, oh, wait, push her, But she's there
with her husband and son out. You know, Jackie was
(02:02):
very curious about why I wanted to take the children
across the country in an RV. Didn't sound really fun
to her to be cooking and parking lots doing for
a Dutch oven, cooking that we learned with a Scouts,
sleeping in tents out in the badlands. That kind of
thing didn't sound fun to HERMS five star luxury resort.
You may wonder, why would a woman even want to
(02:23):
climb up and down the sheer face of New River Gorge.
It's a cliff, but you know what, to each her own.
I like RV. I like camping out. I like building
a fire and cooking over the fire and pitching a
tent looking up at the stars. That's just me, Jackie.
(02:45):
You stick to the ritz, Okay, So don't even start
asking why Julie Wheeler wanted to climb a sheer face
of New River Gorge, Eric grand View State Park straight
out to our all Star panel. Jim Ellie, attorney with
Butler Snow. He's a legal counsel for multiple jurisdictions, governmental entities.
(03:06):
Doctor Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrists joining us out of Atlanta.
Cloyd Steiker thirty six years Seattle PD, twenty two of
those as homicide detective all the Seattle's Forgotten serial killer
Gary Jean Grant. You can find him at Cloyd Steiger
dot com. But right now to Crime online dot com.
Investigative reporter Levi, Paige Levi, this woman is a lot
(03:29):
of people may judge her if she had been out
all on her own, but that's not the case. She's
out with her husband and her son. Tell me about
this area, New River Gorge, Grandview State Park, Nancy. This
is in Beaver West, Virginia and Grandview State Park. It's
absolutely stunning if you pull it up on Google. It
(03:49):
has beautiful mountain views. There's a river that runs through there,
and there these overlooks that you can just get these
amazing views of at Grandview State Park. And Julie Weaver,
her husband Rodney Wheeler, and seventeen year old son were
hiking in this area and she missed an earring. She
(04:12):
was looking for it, and her husband said she fell
and they couldn't find her. She fell off one of
the overlooks. Okay, so original reports that she was scaling
the side of a cliff and lost her footing and fail,
that's not correct. She was looking for a lost earring.
As he said that she was missing her earring, She
was looking for it and fell off one of the
overlooks at Grandview State Park. And you know, to Cloyd
(04:36):
Steiger again thirty six years Seattle, PD twenty two of
out on Homicide, the first thing you want to do
when a woman goes missing is you want to find
out where the husband is, the boyfriend, the ex, the lover,
any romantic and just a spurned boyfriend from five years
ago that keeps texting her and emailing her. That's where
you look first, right Kloyd, Yeah, that's right. But again,
(04:58):
as she said, in this case, closely her was with her.
You know, I want to interview the sun see what
he knows. But that doesn't seem to be the key
that changes everything, that changes the whole dynamic. When you've
got the team's son there he's not got to stand
by and watch dad murder mom and not say anything.
But I do find this very curiously. By page she
(05:18):
falls off the cliff, but they can't find her body.
It's the New River Gorge, so she's looking down at
a river. She wouldn't have just fallen straight down and
hit the ground and her body lie there. There's a river.
That's the whole point. You're looking down and a river.
Her body obviously would have been taken away by the river.
(05:39):
So was that the problem? That is the problem, Nancy.
And there were searching rescue missions, there were helicopters that
were deployed. People were really searching for her, thinking that
she may have fell into this river. That's right, guys,
take a listen again to our friend Paris Dunford at
Fox fifty nine. The Bay County Vertical Rescue Team first
tried repelling on the mountain and continue to do that
(06:03):
for the rest of the day. West Virginia citate police
who's a helicopter and a drone to get a better view.
Raley County Sheriff's Department brought in a canine that detected
a positive scent of the woman on the overlook fence.
You take one step at a time. We'll have another
briefing once this operational periods over to decide on a
plan for We'll reconvene tomorrow and the rescue crew will
(06:25):
continue to exhaust all of their resources looking for the
pink shart you may have been wearing when she fell.
A search will be going on till they find, you know,
find a person. So the incident is still under investigation.
The woman's name has not yet burned release. The ground
search here has been suspended, but the National Guard is
still taking a helicopter that you might be able to hear,
to search the end of the cliff Man. That costs
(06:45):
a lot of money, time and effort to find this
missing woman. Julie Wheeler. She's out hiking with husband and
teen son. She loses an earring, goes over the side
of New Gorge Overlook. They're at Grand View State Road.
You know, I never put a price a price tag
(07:08):
on a search, Chloyd Seiger, because if it's my child,
or my husband or my mom, I want every resource possible.
That's why I pay taxes. So they can get out
there with their helicopters and their drones and their dogs.
That's what they're paid to do. Everybody always makes a
big deal about the price tag. That's why they're sitting
(07:32):
there to come out at moments just like this. So
suggesting that somehow she fell over because she's looking for
an earring and then all these resources were used. I
disagree with that. Yeah, that's right. When these things happen,
you have to pull out all the stops and you
can't worry about money or how much things cost, because
how much as a person's life worth, right, you have
(07:54):
to you have to do that. It's very important to
their family. And suppose she's injured and not dead, and
because you didn't, you can't I know that happened. Crime
(08:15):
Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about the
disappearance of a mom. Her name is Julie Wheeler. Take
a listen again to our friends at Fox fifty nine, Paris.
Done for this cut. Three Multiple search and rescue teams
(08:36):
joined together to look for the missing woman. After multiple techniques,
they were still not able to locate her. Take a
look a sixty foot drop. These men are repelling down
the steep cliff searching for a woman. He had a
call coming yesterday evening that a woman had fallen off
of the main overlook in the Grand New areas of park.
(08:57):
The call came into dispatch around eight thirty Sunday. Night
rescue teams joined together with the National Park Service at
the Grand View Overlook to search for the missing woman
between multiple fire departments, in law enforcement agencies. Definitely inter agency.
The National Park Service here at the New River Gorge
has has lots of resources, but we also U as
(09:18):
far as staff and goes, but we also depend a
lot on our on our partner agencies. Park officials said
a local forty three year old woman was with her
husband and son when she fell off the overlay. And
after that exhaustive search, still no body. I want you
to take a listen now to WOAYTV news reporter Anna Saunders. Yeah,
(09:39):
the call came in just before dark last night when
we arrived on scene, and uh, yeah, we had a
witness that that said that someone went over the edge,
and we did an initial sweep till almost midnight last night,
and uh we weren't able to have a get a
(10:00):
fined last night, so we came back in the morning
and going on a second operational period today. So the
National Park Service, joined by the Beaver Volunteer Fire Department.
West Virginia State Police, the Raley County Sheriff's Department, Genecare Ambulance,
and the Fayette County Vertical Rescue Team were all on
scene for day two as teams repelled down both sides
of the overlook, everyone on hand to search for a
(10:23):
local woman who reportedly fell off the clip. After all that,
still no body. So explain to me straight out to
Levi Page Crime Online got common investigative reporter Levi tell
me about the search for her. The search for Jeelie Wheeler,
So Nancy. They got dive teams to search the river,
They got people that were repelling off the mountain looking
(10:46):
for her. They had helicopters dispatched at night, and they
searched for her for days. They were looking in this
mountainous region for her body, dive teams repelling. Still no body.
But what about bloodhounds. Listen to Woay TV. All we
really know is that she's forty three years old and
(11:10):
she was here with her son and her husband. So
we know that she was wearing a peak shirt. That's
just about all the details that we have at this
point in a time. Overnight a thermal helicopter search did
not turn up any results, so on Monday in daylight,
the repell team descended about fifty feet to the first
cliff after the overlook drop, and once that search was
completed with no results, the Raleigh County Sheriff's Apartment sent
(11:31):
in the bloodhouding team. They were able to find the
woman sent at the overlook using her items, but from
there it was time for another repel, this time Cruse
doing a grid search from top to bottom, fourteen hundred
feet from the park's tallest peak all the way down
to the river. You know when you blink, bring in
bloodhounds straight out to you. Cloyd Steiger, homicide detective. A
(11:54):
lot of people don't understand how bloodhounds were tracking dog
sent dogs. You can be a tracker dog, you can
be cadaver dog. You can be a fire dog. My
favorite fire dog ever was named Blaze and helped me
in many arts and investigations. Trained to smell accelerants even underwater,
A bomb dog again, a drug dog. They're trained specifically
(12:18):
to find a certain thing. Lloyd Steiger, I remember you
know how many times I use dogs in court as witnesses,
and I've said a million times my best witness I
ever put on the stand was a dog, and I
was I'm happy to report who's very hard to cross examine.
But a dog has thousands like we have two nostrils,
(12:44):
a dog on their little nose it's always moist, has
thousands of I'm not even sure what you would call
them membranes, to smell like a thousand and noses. That's
why they can do things we can't even imagine explain
(13:06):
how it works. Chloyd, Well, that's exactly right. You know,
different types of dogs are better for different types of smells,
but bloodhounds are the best because they can tract things
days after it's happened, because they're the most sensitive noses
and can follow a scent long after other types of
dogs can. So that's why bloodhounds are used in search
(13:29):
as well after the event, as opposed to German shepherds,
which are great for a short time after the event.
But bloodhouns are the king. Well why are you saying
that about German shepherds. Well, because they don't the scent.
They can't detect a scent after a while it dissipates,
but bloodhounds are so much more sensitive in the nose
like a police dog. We'll be able to search maybe
forty five minutes after an event. The thing on the
surface grass is better than concrete, but bloodhounds can search
(13:54):
days after the event and still be active. Dogs can
determine a track sent by identifying a combination of smells
based on the humans natural scent, as well as a
combination of environmental odors. For instance, does she wear a
(14:14):
baby powder, does she wear secret deodorant? Does she have
hair spray or a makeup or a Veno lotion? I
mean it could be a number of things. So the
dog is picking up not just the iman. I mean
it said that hard to understand. I mean, I'll look
over at Jackie Howard and I identify her by her height,
(14:36):
by the color of her eyes, by her short blonde hair,
by stomping around when things don't go right. I can
even hear her steps coming. So long story short, I'm
just a person with people senses, much less a highly
trained tracker dog. And after all, this still nothing. And
(14:58):
then wait for it. Take a listen to this right
now to our newsroom, and it involves the investigation in
the search and rescue towards that woman at the grand
view overlooked that is, and we go right back to
Paris Dumford Live with an update, Paris, what do you
have for us? Lass And two minutes ago, right after
we just went live at the beginning of the show,
(15:19):
we heard from Sergeant Wood from the State Police that
Julie Willer was found alive in Beaver. That's all we
have right now. We'll bring you more details at fifty
nine News at six if they are available. We wanted
to make sure we optated you as soon as possible,
so let's quite jump quickly to cut seven. Take a
listen to WOAYTV news reporter Anna Saunders and the giant
(15:42):
multi agency forty hours search for Julie. Once the mountain
had been thoroughly searched by a repel team, helicopters, drones,
and other emergency crews, then say police conducted a walkthrough
of the house. At that point they didn't find anything.
When they came back with the search warrant, Julie was
in the closet of her Beaver home. The criminal complaint
says the rescue efforts far exceeded a thousand dollars, so
(16:04):
the court will request restitution pay from the couple, but
Keller says she's not holding her breath. It's a matter
of fact, when you have people that are either going
to prison or commit frauds for monetary game, it is
very rare that the taxpayer ever gets their money back.
(16:24):
Wheeler was scheduled to appear in court for sensing on
June seventeenth for separate federal healthcare fraud charges. In's facing
up to ten years in prison already, which is what
appears to be the motive for wanting to come up
with this scheme after the major rescue effort put forward.
Keller calls this case disturbing. People's lives were put in
danger and an untold amount of taxpayer money was spent
(16:47):
on what turned out to be a fraud crime. Stories
with Nancy Grace, Guys, we were talking about the so
(17:08):
calm disappearance of Julie Wheeler, a young mom and wife
who was out hiking apparently with her husband and her
teen son when she was looking for an earring and
fell over the cliff of New River Gorge. They're at
Grand View State Park in West Virginia, but then suddenly
(17:29):
cops find her hiding in the closet in her own home.
Levi Page Crime Online got Com investigative reporter. I blame
you totally because you didn't tell me at the beginning
she could avoid sentencing for fraud on another matter. So
you know, Jim Elliott, the cars are stacked against us
(17:51):
knowing the truth. Did a husband fake his wife's death
pretending she falls over a cliff so she avoid jail
time for a fraud? Wow? In jail time, I'm a significant,
significant fine, But you know, restitution I believe almost perhaps
exceeding four hundred thousand dollars future was not. So where
(18:17):
are you getting the four hundred thousand dollars figure from um? So?
What she pled guilty to was a bad medical faud
case where she was allegedly caring for a family member
that had spina bifida UM and sent fraudulent invoices to
the v plain to me to leave my page. Follow
(18:38):
up on what Jim Elliott is saying, how this whole,
this whole farce got started. How'd they cook it up?
So Julie Weaver actually played guilty in February, months before
this incident happened to federal healthcare fraud. There was an
investigation into a pill mill clinic that led to her
(19:01):
because she apparently owned a home health business where she
would take care of sick people in their home. And
she had a relative that had spina bifida, which is
a spine condition they have difficulty walking, bladder control. And
the VA provides benefits to descendants of veterans that fought
in the Vietnam Korea War. And she was actually inflating
(19:26):
the days and hours that she worked and helped her
relative that was suffering from this condition and was scanning
money from the VA. And she pled guilty to that
was facing ten years in prison and had to pay
restitution of four hundred thousand dollars in that area. And
(19:49):
her husband is the one that cooked up this plot
allegedly to hide her so she wouldn't have to be
sentenced to ten years in prison for sam And now
we've got the Sun being dragged into it, being told
to go along with a fakery. What we understand is
that a husband and his wife faked her death by
(20:12):
pretending she falls over a cliff so she could avoid
jail time for fraud. Now, somehow the Sun has been
dragged into the whole thing too. Take a listen to
cut six Way TV news reporter Anna Saunders. Well was
originally reported as an accidental fall and a family's worst nightmare,
(20:35):
was actually a giant ploy to allegedly fake the death
or disappearance of Julie Wheeler, who was arrested alongside her
husband Rodney, as they now face a series of charges
fraudulent schemes, which is felony felony conspiracy, also the misdemeanor
of willful disruption of government processes, two different kinds of
(20:55):
giving false information to law enforcement and contributing to thelinquentship
of mind her because they involved their child. So what
happened at the overlook Well? According to the criminal complaint,
a call came in on Sunday night saying a woman
had fallen over the main Overlook grand view. At the
scene a male juvenile and his father, Rodney said Julie
reached over to pick up an earring and fell. Goes
(21:17):
on to say that Rodney and the Sun plans and
items of her as like a cell phone and a shoot,
but there was never any evidence she was actually at
the overlook, So how did they pull it off? Straight
back to Levi Page Crime online dot Com investigative reporter.
What happened? So apparently they went along with this story,
made a fake nine one one call, Julie hid out
(21:38):
in her closet, and they told the seventeen year old
son to go along with this story. It wasn't until
police had learned of her criminal history and they had
gotten a search warrant for a phone and email, any
electronic communications and the home. They went to the home,
deployed this search warrant, got in there and found her
hiding in her own quality. Doctor Angela Arnold Psychiatrists joining
(22:02):
us out of Atlanta. What does it say that they
dragged the sun into it and now he's facing charges
as well. Well. I have my own idea about these
folks after hearing this story, and that would be why
I certainly believe I believe they have they are personality disordered.
Now this doesn't mean that this is not an excuse
(22:23):
for them, okay, Nancy, but it sounds to me like
they are one or both of them have antisocial personalities. Well,
so that's your excuse for everything, and antisocial personality. You
drag your son into a fraud plot. He's looking at it. Well,
go ahead, Well sure, because if you're if you're, if you're,
(22:43):
if you if you truly have a if you're a
personality disordered. Because none of us can understand this, none
of us would do this, right, Nancy, So then you
have to look deeper. What would make someone have complete
disregard and buy the rights of other Well, I can
tell you why a son would do it. A son
would do it to save his mom from going to jail.
(23:05):
I mean, if I was between a rock and hard
spot and my husband or my children were going to jail,
I might go along with a little fakery. I'm not
saying that it's right, it's wrong. You know who reminds
me of to you, doctor Angie Angela Arnold, do you
remember Jennifer will Banks is so called runaway Bride. I'm
(23:27):
not talking about Julia Roberts. She was a woman who
was about to have a six hundred seat wedding and
then you know the whole shebang, like ten bridesmaids, ten grooms,
blah blah. That's hard for me to understand right there,
because Dave and I decided on Tuesday we're getting married
(23:48):
on Saturday, and bam, we did it. It was great,
But she disappears the night before the wedding I believe
it was, and then shows up a week or two
later blaming some Hispanic males for sex assaulting her, which
was all a big lie. She made that up right,
(24:08):
And last I saw of her she was out doing
community service, cutting grass or picking up trash or something
like that. That was the runaway bride, the real one.
What about this woman, Well, this woman seems completely This
woman seems evil to me. I mean, she has no
regard for the human condition at all of us. You're
(24:29):
any kind of laws or regulations, I mean, to be
able to to fraud the government. And why when I
was looking at this Nancy, my fault was, why shouldn't
you put all of this energy to doing something good?
Use her powers for a good night evil? That's what
I tell my daughter Lucy all the time. But tell me,
(24:51):
doctor Arnold, not just as psychiatrist, but you have to
be a medical doctor. You've got to be an MD
before you can then focus in on psychiatry. What is
sp is a disorder in which the brain and the
spinal cord do not completely close in utero, and it
(25:11):
can there can be all different they're different. Spectrums of
spina bitha can affect people in very different ways. And um,
typically these children are wheel true ridden, they don't they
don't walk, Oftentimes they have Oftentimes, um, they're cognitively impaired.
They can have ball and bladder problems. It is a
(25:34):
it is bad to have spina. Okay, that is not
a good thing to have. And apparently this and this child,
I don't believe that she was taking care of this
child with spin every day. I mean, but I mean,
the reality is you're asking doctor Angela Arnold, you're the shrink,
not me, what kind of person would take advantage of
(25:55):
the situation? She was taking advantage of spina bifiti children. So,
I mean, are you surprised you pulled this fraud? Off?
To Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about
(26:20):
a woman, Julie Wheeler, her husband, Rodney Wheeler, and now
their teens son has been dragged into it trying to
save his mom's neck. Apparently the husband comes up with
a plan to have mom fall off a cliff to
avoid a huge fine hundreds of thousands of dollars and
ten years behind bars for faking claims to the Feds.
(26:43):
It's like faking with the irs. Jackie, don't ever fake
the taxman. Don't do it, Brett, don't do it. They
will catch you. That's how al Capone got caught. He
murders all these people. He's a mobster, but it was
the Irs that got him. Do not lie to the Feds.
Just don't say anything. But for Pete's sake, don't lie
(27:05):
much less as she did put it in writing trying
to get money from the federal government for work she
was not doing. And now she's looking for an earring
and falls off a cliff. Boy that smelled to high
heaven at the get go. But I want you to
take a listen to again Fox fifty nine Paris done
for cut nine. The search not only costs different agencies
(27:25):
a lot of money, it also took a lot of time,
about forty hours worth, and more than half of the
men and women working on seeing were volunteers. There's a
little bit of frustration when we spend all that time
and manpower for a false claim. And for most of
those volunteers, they were repelling down a steep cliff, putting
themselves in danger. And you send all these people out
(27:47):
to risk their own lives and safety and well being
in order to search for someone that wasn't even there.
And even though they were searching for someone who was
never even there, for putting your lives at danger on
behalf of us, we appreciate it. They're hard working dedication
did not go unnoticed. And Julie and Rodney will are
facing multiple charges including conspiracy and fraud at the least.
(28:08):
And you know another thing straight out to you, Jim Elliott,
to you and Cloyd Steiger first to you, Jim. You know,
very often I'd have a court calendar, be it a
plea arrayment calendar or a trial calendar, emotions calendar, and
the defendant wouldn't show up. I guess not because if
I had anything to do with he's going to jail.
But let's say we don't know where he is, and
(28:31):
I would say, always, first go to his mother's house,
number one, look under the bed and look in the closet.
Just just do that for me, and when you finish that,
call me on my cell phone, which, by the way,
got stolen out of the courtroom. My phone got stolen
out of the courtroom during a trial calendar. I had
it plugged in. Somebody stole my phone. I never found
(28:52):
it anyway, that's another cannon arms. My point is, Jim,
why this woman's found a hiding in her closet? Could
you surprise me just what? And don't be in your
closet or under your mom's bed. I mean it's almost laughable.
It's almost like Keystone cops. And what did you think
she was gonna? I mean, just ridiculous. I don't think
they thought it through it as a matter of fact,
(29:12):
isn't it true? Levi page Crime online dot com. She
was found just two days after this extensive search. She
hid out I guess in the closet for two days,
eating ramen noodles. I don't know. Was it two days?
Two days? So chlod Steiger thirty six years Seattle PD
twenty two of that on homicide and author Isn't it true?
Everybody always runs straight home to mom. They hide out
(29:35):
in mommy's house or in their own place, under their
bed or in their closet. It's just a given. Yeah,
you know, it's always amazes me. And you know we
have I have big murder cases where people so he's
fled the country or this is that? No? Right? Down
the road, ride down the street. I'm saying, go to
mama's house or on Tea's house. That's where they're gonna
(29:57):
be always. I mean, you know, think about it. Don't
tell my children Cloyd Stiger when you run into him.
We play hide and seek in the house all the time.
It never fails. John David always goes to my closet
and hides same place every time. Lucy always goes to
(30:19):
the living room and she hides behind the curtain behind
the piano. It just is a given. Or they both
hide and start giggling under the ping pong table. They
always go the same place. What is that, Doctor Angela?
That are we just like you know the dog that
always circles three times before he sits down, Like the
murderer that always goes back to look at the crime scene.
(30:42):
Think about Scott Peterson looking out over San Francisco Bay.
They're tracking him on his car. Why do we always
do the same things over it and over Like this
woman hiding in a closet. It's a safe place. They
don't where else are they going to go? Right? I believe?
I believe, particularly with criminals that go back to their
mother's house and things like that where they can hide again.
(31:04):
They look, like you said, they haven't thought this through completely,
and they seek a safe place to go where they
think they're going to be. That's certainly an understatement. They
haven't thought this through completely. That's a that's certainly putting
perfume on the pig. Go ahead, haven't thought it through completely.
They've got her scaling the side of a cliff, or
and then it changes to she lost her earring. Think
(31:26):
about it, doctor Angela. You have volunteers repelling down the
side of a sheer cliff looking for this woman and
she's hiding in the closet having leftovers. That's why I
said there's a there's a there's a horrific antisocial personality disorder. Oh,
(31:47):
here you go with the personality disorder. The disorder is
she cheated the government and doesn't want to go to jail. Right,
that's the disorder. In complete disregard for anything that anybody
has to do to find her. Maybe maybe she didn't
think that it was going to go that far. I
have no idea but to think about the men who
(32:09):
put the men and women who put their lives in
danger to search for her. Oh my goodness, but no
one can feel sorry for her at this point, Kim,
they take a listen to our friends at Fox fifty nine,
Cut eight. He set the bail at one hundred thousand
dollars for both of them. If they make bail, they
will be restricted to home confinement. Prosecuting attorney Chris and
Keller says she asked for home confinement because both are
(32:31):
considered a fight risk. And say, please say the Wheelers
tried to fake Julie falling off the main overlook at
Grand View. That nine one one call sent rescue crews
on an extensive search, and that search came with the
cost to take a look. Repel teams, drones, helicopters, and bloodhounds.
Those were all the resources used to search for Julie
Wheeler came out calculated at this moment, only to find
(32:52):
out she and her husband allegedly faked the fall. But
who will pick up the bill? Assuming she's convicted, then
law the court would order restitution. Okay, now, just to
rub salt in the wound, take a listen to Riley Phillips,
Fox fifty nine. Listen to this carefully. Two people accused
(33:14):
of faking a death where we're supposed to appear in
court today. Rodney and Julie Wheeler were scheduled to appear
in front of a judge this morning, but the Wheelers
did not qualify for a court appointed attorney because they
make too much money. They will now have to reapply
for an attorney. The preliminary hearing will also be rescheduled.
The Wheelers were arrested last week after legedli trying to
fake Julie's death. Jim Elliott, you know you kind of
(33:36):
have to be in the know, an inside player, to
note what which is played. Do you hear this? These
two scammed the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars,
according to prosecutors, claiming the mom was taking care of
a spine a bifit A patient when she wasn't. Then
they fake her death to avoid jail time, use all
(34:00):
these resources. Then to top it all off, they file
for a public defender, which means a free lawyer to
defend her, who's paid for by you and me, the taxpayers.
We fund the public defenders for people that can't afford
a lawyer. Then it turns out they made too much money,
(34:21):
money they stole from the government. According to prosecutors and
they got to get their own lawyer. They're still scamming
Jim Elliott. They're still at it. I was gonna say,
trying to scam the government for the third rounds and
base image. That kind of audacities and me incredible. The
Public Defender's Office, so who I fought with them like
(34:41):
cats and dogs. But they work for practically nothing as
it is, and they get every case where somebody can't
afford a lawyer, no matter what the case is, and
here they are trying to take advantage of the Public
Defender's officer. There's no love laws between me and the
public Enners or any defense lawyer. But I mean, really
(35:02):
scamming off the PD's office, faking it to the end. Well,
of course they claim they're innocent. We wait as justice unfals.
Nancy Grace crime story signing off, goodbye friend,
Did a West Virginia woman plummet to her death. Her
name is Julie Wheeler. She goes hiking or looking at
scenery with her husband and her teen son, apparently looking
for a missing earring, falls to her death, but nobody
(00:32):
can find the body. Crime stories with Nancy Grace, I
mean Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories. Thank you for
(00:53):
being with us. What happened to Julie Wheeler? First of all,
take a listen to our friends. At Fought fifty nine, Paris, Dunford,
multiple search and rescue teams joined together to look for
the missing woman after a sixty foot drop. These men
are repelling down the steep cliff searching for a woman.
(01:14):
He had a call coming yesterday evening that a woman
had fallen off of the main overlook in the Grand
View areas of park. The call came into dispatch around
eight thirty Sunday night. Rescue teams joined together with the
National Park Service at the Grand View Overlook to search
for the missing woman between multiple fire departments, in law
enforcement agencies. Definitely inter agency. The National Park Service here
(01:37):
at the New River Gorge has has lots of resources,
but we also as far as staff and yoes, but
we also depend a lot on our partner agencies. Park
officials say that the local forty three year old woman
was with her husband and son when she fell off
the overlook. Now, if it had just been the husband,
I would think, oh, wait, push her, But she's there
with her husband and son out. You know, Jackie was
(02:02):
very curious about why I wanted to take the children
across the country in an RV. Didn't sound really fun
to her to be cooking and parking lots doing for
a Dutch oven, cooking that we learned with a Scouts,
sleeping in tents out in the badlands. That kind of
thing didn't sound fun to HERMS five star luxury resort.
You may wonder, why would a woman even want to
(02:23):
climb up and down the sheer face of New River Gorge.
It's a cliff, but you know what, to each her own.
I like RV. I like camping out. I like building
a fire and cooking over the fire and pitching a
tent looking up at the stars. That's just me, Jackie.
(02:45):
You stick to the ritz, Okay, So don't even start
asking why Julie Wheeler wanted to climb a sheer face
of New River Gorge, Eric grand View State Park straight
out to our all Star panel. Jim Ellie, attorney with
Butler Snow. He's a legal counsel for multiple jurisdictions, governmental entities.
(03:06):
Doctor Angela Arnold, renowned psychiatrists joining us out of Atlanta.
Cloyd Steiker thirty six years Seattle PD, twenty two of
those as homicide detective all the Seattle's Forgotten serial killer
Gary Jean Grant. You can find him at Cloyd Steiger
dot com. But right now to Crime online dot com.
Investigative reporter Levi, Paige Levi, this woman is a lot
(03:29):
of people may judge her if she had been out
all on her own, but that's not the case. She's
out with her husband and her son. Tell me about
this area, New River Gorge, Grandview State Park, Nancy. This
is in Beaver West, Virginia and Grandview State Park. It's
absolutely stunning if you pull it up on Google. It
(03:49):
has beautiful mountain views. There's a river that runs through there,
and there these overlooks that you can just get these
amazing views of at Grandview State Park. And Julie Weaver,
her husband Rodney Wheeler, and seventeen year old son were
hiking in this area and she missed an earring. She
(04:12):
was looking for it, and her husband said she fell
and they couldn't find her. She fell off one of
the overlooks. Okay, so original reports that she was scaling
the side of a cliff and lost her footing and fail,
that's not correct. She was looking for a lost earring.
As he said that she was missing her earring, She
was looking for it and fell off one of the
overlooks at Grandview State Park. And you know, to Cloyd
(04:36):
Steiger again thirty six years Seattle, PD twenty two of
out on Homicide, the first thing you want to do
when a woman goes missing is you want to find
out where the husband is, the boyfriend, the ex, the lover,
any romantic and just a spurned boyfriend from five years
ago that keeps texting her and emailing her. That's where
you look first, right Kloyd, Yeah, that's right. But again,
(04:58):
as she said, in this case, closely her was with her.
You know, I want to interview the sun see what
he knows. But that doesn't seem to be the key
that changes everything, that changes the whole dynamic. When you've
got the team's son there he's not got to stand
by and watch dad murder mom and not say anything.
But I do find this very curiously. By page she
(05:18):
falls off the cliff, but they can't find her body.
It's the New River Gorge, so she's looking down at
a river. She wouldn't have just fallen straight down and
hit the ground and her body lie there. There's a river.
That's the whole point. You're looking down and a river.
Her body obviously would have been taken away by the river.
(05:39):
So was that the problem? That is the problem, Nancy.
And there were searching rescue missions, there were helicopters that
were deployed. People were really searching for her, thinking that
she may have fell into this river. That's right, guys,
take a listen again to our friend Paris Dunford at
Fox fifty nine. The Bay County Vertical Rescue Team first
tried repelling on the mountain and continue to do that
(06:03):
for the rest of the day. West Virginia citate police
who's a helicopter and a drone to get a better view.
Raley County Sheriff's Department brought in a canine that detected
a positive scent of the woman on the overlook fence.
You take one step at a time. We'll have another
briefing once this operational periods over to decide on a
plan for We'll reconvene tomorrow and the rescue crew will
(06:25):
continue to exhaust all of their resources looking for the
pink shart you may have been wearing when she fell.
A search will be going on till they find, you know,
find a person. So the incident is still under investigation.
The woman's name has not yet burned release. The ground
search here has been suspended, but the National Guard is
still taking a helicopter that you might be able to hear,
to search the end of the cliff Man. That costs
(06:45):
a lot of money, time and effort to find this
missing woman. Julie Wheeler. She's out hiking with husband and
teen son. She loses an earring, goes over the side
of New Gorge Overlook. They're at Grand View State Road.
You know, I never put a price a price tag
(07:08):
on a search, Chloyd Seiger, because if it's my child,
or my husband or my mom, I want every resource possible.
That's why I pay taxes. So they can get out
there with their helicopters and their drones and their dogs.
That's what they're paid to do. Everybody always makes a
big deal about the price tag. That's why they're sitting
(07:32):
there to come out at moments just like this. So
suggesting that somehow she fell over because she's looking for
an earring and then all these resources were used. I
disagree with that. Yeah, that's right. When these things happen,
you have to pull out all the stops and you
can't worry about money or how much things cost, because
how much as a person's life worth, right, you have
(07:54):
to you have to do that. It's very important to
their family. And suppose she's injured and not dead, and
because you didn't, you can't I know that happened. Crime
(08:15):
Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we are talking about the
disappearance of a mom. Her name is Julie Wheeler. Take
a listen again to our friends at Fox fifty nine, Paris.
Done for this cut. Three Multiple search and rescue teams
(08:36):
joined together to look for the missing woman. After multiple techniques,
they were still not able to locate her. Take a
look a sixty foot drop. These men are repelling down
the steep cliff searching for a woman. He had a
call coming yesterday evening that a woman had fallen off
of the main overlook in the Grand New areas of park.
(08:57):
The call came into dispatch around eight thirty Sunday. Night
rescue teams joined together with the National Park Service at
the Grand View Overlook to search for the missing woman
between multiple fire departments, in law enforcement agencies. Definitely inter agency.
The National Park Service here at the New River Gorge
has has lots of resources, but we also U as
(09:18):
far as staff and goes, but we also depend a
lot on our on our partner agencies. Park officials said
a local forty three year old woman was with her
husband and son when she fell off the overlay. And
after that exhaustive search, still no body. I want you
to take a listen now to WOAYTV news reporter Anna Saunders. Yeah,
(09:39):
the call came in just before dark last night when
we arrived on scene, and uh, yeah, we had a
witness that that said that someone went over the edge,
and we did an initial sweep till almost midnight last night,
and uh we weren't able to have a get a
(10:00):
fined last night, so we came back in the morning
and going on a second operational period today. So the
National Park Service, joined by the Beaver Volunteer Fire Department.
West Virginia State Police, the Raley County Sheriff's Department, Genecare Ambulance,
and the Fayette County Vertical Rescue Team were all on
scene for day two as teams repelled down both sides
of the overlook, everyone on hand to search for a
(10:23):
local woman who reportedly fell off the clip. After all that,
still no body. So explain to me straight out to
Levi Page Crime Online got common investigative reporter Levi tell
me about the search for her. The search for Jeelie Wheeler,
So Nancy. They got dive teams to search the river,
They got people that were repelling off the mountain looking
(10:46):
for her. They had helicopters dispatched at night, and they
searched for her for days. They were looking in this
mountainous region for her body, dive teams repelling. Still no body.
But what about bloodhounds. Listen to Woay TV. All we
really know is that she's forty three years old and
(11:10):
she was here with her son and her husband. So
we know that she was wearing a peak shirt. That's
just about all the details that we have at this
point in a time. Overnight a thermal helicopter search did
not turn up any results, so on Monday in daylight,
the repell team descended about fifty feet to the first
cliff after the overlook drop, and once that search was
completed with no results, the Raleigh County Sheriff's Apartment sent
(11:31):
in the bloodhouding team. They were able to find the
woman sent at the overlook using her items, but from
there it was time for another repel, this time Cruse
doing a grid search from top to bottom, fourteen hundred
feet from the park's tallest peak all the way down
to the river. You know when you blink, bring in
bloodhounds straight out to you. Cloyd Steiger, homicide detective. A
(11:54):
lot of people don't understand how bloodhounds were tracking dog
sent dogs. You can be a tracker dog, you can
be cadaver dog. You can be a fire dog. My
favorite fire dog ever was named Blaze and helped me
in many arts and investigations. Trained to smell accelerants even underwater,
A bomb dog again, a drug dog. They're trained specifically
(12:18):
to find a certain thing. Lloyd Steiger, I remember you
know how many times I use dogs in court as witnesses,
and I've said a million times my best witness I
ever put on the stand was a dog, and I
was I'm happy to report who's very hard to cross examine.
But a dog has thousands like we have two nostrils,
(12:44):
a dog on their little nose it's always moist, has
thousands of I'm not even sure what you would call
them membranes, to smell like a thousand and noses. That's
why they can do things we can't even imagine explain
(13:06):
how it works. Chloyd, Well, that's exactly right. You know,
different types of dogs are better for different types of smells,
but bloodhounds are the best because they can tract things
days after it's happened, because they're the most sensitive noses
and can follow a scent long after other types of
dogs can. So that's why bloodhounds are used in search
(13:29):
as well after the event, as opposed to German shepherds,
which are great for a short time after the event.
But bloodhouns are the king. Well why are you saying
that about German shepherds. Well, because they don't the scent.
They can't detect a scent after a while it dissipates,
but bloodhounds are so much more sensitive in the nose
like a police dog. We'll be able to search maybe
forty five minutes after an event. The thing on the
surface grass is better than concrete, but bloodhounds can search
(13:54):
days after the event and still be active. Dogs can
determine a track sent by identifying a combination of smells
based on the humans natural scent, as well as a
combination of environmental odors. For instance, does she wear a
(14:14):
baby powder, does she wear secret deodorant? Does she have
hair spray or a makeup or a Veno lotion? I
mean it could be a number of things. So the
dog is picking up not just the iman. I mean
it said that hard to understand. I mean, I'll look
over at Jackie Howard and I identify her by her height,
(14:36):
by the color of her eyes, by her short blonde hair,
by stomping around when things don't go right. I can
even hear her steps coming. So long story short, I'm
just a person with people senses, much less a highly
trained tracker dog. And after all, this still nothing. And
(14:58):
then wait for it. Take a listen to this right
now to our newsroom, and it involves the investigation in
the search and rescue towards that woman at the grand
view overlooked that is, and we go right back to
Paris Dumford Live with an update, Paris, what do you
have for us? Lass And two minutes ago, right after
we just went live at the beginning of the show,
(15:19):
we heard from Sergeant Wood from the State Police that
Julie Willer was found alive in Beaver. That's all we
have right now. We'll bring you more details at fifty
nine News at six if they are available. We wanted
to make sure we optated you as soon as possible,
so let's quite jump quickly to cut seven. Take a
listen to WOAYTV news reporter Anna Saunders and the giant
(15:42):
multi agency forty hours search for Julie. Once the mountain
had been thoroughly searched by a repel team, helicopters, drones,
and other emergency crews, then say police conducted a walkthrough
of the house. At that point they didn't find anything.
When they came back with the search warrant, Julie was
in the closet of her Beaver home. The criminal complaint
says the rescue efforts far exceeded a thousand dollars, so
(16:04):
the court will request restitution pay from the couple, but
Keller says she's not holding her breath. It's a matter
of fact, when you have people that are either going
to prison or commit frauds for monetary game, it is
very rare that the taxpayer ever gets their money back.
(16:24):
Wheeler was scheduled to appear in court for sensing on
June seventeenth for separate federal healthcare fraud charges. In's facing
up to ten years in prison already, which is what
appears to be the motive for wanting to come up
with this scheme after the major rescue effort put forward.
Keller calls this case disturbing. People's lives were put in
danger and an untold amount of taxpayer money was spent
(16:47):
on what turned out to be a fraud crime. Stories
with Nancy Grace, Guys, we were talking about the so
(17:08):
calm disappearance of Julie Wheeler, a young mom and wife
who was out hiking apparently with her husband and her
teen son when she was looking for an earring and
fell over the cliff of New River Gorge. They're at
Grand View State Park in West Virginia, but then suddenly
(17:29):
cops find her hiding in the closet in her own home.
Levi Page Crime Online got Com investigative reporter. I blame
you totally because you didn't tell me at the beginning
she could avoid sentencing for fraud on another matter. So
you know, Jim Elliott, the cars are stacked against us
(17:51):
knowing the truth. Did a husband fake his wife's death
pretending she falls over a cliff so she avoid jail
time for a fraud? Wow? In jail time, I'm a significant,
significant fine, But you know, restitution I believe almost perhaps
exceeding four hundred thousand dollars future was not. So where
(18:17):
are you getting the four hundred thousand dollars figure from um? So?
What she pled guilty to was a bad medical faud
case where she was allegedly caring for a family member
that had spina bifida UM and sent fraudulent invoices to
the v plain to me to leave my page. Follow
(18:38):
up on what Jim Elliott is saying, how this whole,
this whole farce got started. How'd they cook it up?
So Julie Weaver actually played guilty in February, months before
this incident happened to federal healthcare fraud. There was an
investigation into a pill mill clinic that led to her
(19:01):
because she apparently owned a home health business where she
would take care of sick people in their home. And
she had a relative that had spina bifida, which is
a spine condition they have difficulty walking, bladder control. And
the VA provides benefits to descendants of veterans that fought
in the Vietnam Korea War. And she was actually inflating
(19:26):
the days and hours that she worked and helped her
relative that was suffering from this condition and was scanning
money from the VA. And she pled guilty to that
was facing ten years in prison and had to pay
restitution of four hundred thousand dollars in that area. And
(19:49):
her husband is the one that cooked up this plot
allegedly to hide her so she wouldn't have to be
sentenced to ten years in prison for sam And now
we've got the Sun being dragged into it, being told
to go along with a fakery. What we understand is
that a husband and his wife faked her death by
(20:12):
pretending she falls over a cliff so she could avoid
jail time for fraud. Now, somehow the Sun has been
dragged into the whole thing too. Take a listen to
cut six Way TV news reporter Anna Saunders. Well was
originally reported as an accidental fall and a family's worst nightmare,
(20:35):
was actually a giant ploy to allegedly fake the death
or disappearance of Julie Wheeler, who was arrested alongside her
husband Rodney, as they now face a series of charges
fraudulent schemes, which is felony felony conspiracy, also the misdemeanor
of willful disruption of government processes, two different kinds of
(20:55):
giving false information to law enforcement and contributing to thelinquentship
of mind her because they involved their child. So what
happened at the overlook Well? According to the criminal complaint,
a call came in on Sunday night saying a woman
had fallen over the main Overlook grand view. At the
scene a male juvenile and his father, Rodney said Julie
reached over to pick up an earring and fell. Goes
(21:17):
on to say that Rodney and the Sun plans and
items of her as like a cell phone and a shoot,
but there was never any evidence she was actually at
the overlook, So how did they pull it off? Straight
back to Levi Page Crime online dot Com investigative reporter.
What happened? So apparently they went along with this story,
made a fake nine one one call, Julie hid out
(21:38):
in her closet, and they told the seventeen year old
son to go along with this story. It wasn't until
police had learned of her criminal history and they had
gotten a search warrant for a phone and email, any
electronic communications and the home. They went to the home,
deployed this search warrant, got in there and found her
hiding in her own quality. Doctor Angela Arnold Psychiatrists joining
(22:02):
us out of Atlanta. What does it say that they
dragged the sun into it and now he's facing charges
as well. Well. I have my own idea about these
folks after hearing this story, and that would be why
I certainly believe I believe they have they are personality disordered.
Now this doesn't mean that this is not an excuse
(22:23):
for them, okay, Nancy, but it sounds to me like
they are one or both of them have antisocial personalities. Well,
so that's your excuse for everything, and antisocial personality. You
drag your son into a fraud plot. He's looking at it. Well,
go ahead, Well sure, because if you're if you're, if you're,
(22:43):
if you if you truly have a if you're a
personality disordered. Because none of us can understand this, none
of us would do this, right, Nancy, So then you
have to look deeper. What would make someone have complete
disregard and buy the rights of other Well, I can
tell you why a son would do it. A son
would do it to save his mom from going to jail.
(23:05):
I mean, if I was between a rock and hard
spot and my husband or my children were going to jail,
I might go along with a little fakery. I'm not
saying that it's right, it's wrong. You know who reminds
me of to you, doctor Angie Angela Arnold, do you
remember Jennifer will Banks is so called runaway Bride. I'm
(23:27):
not talking about Julia Roberts. She was a woman who
was about to have a six hundred seat wedding and
then you know the whole shebang, like ten bridesmaids, ten grooms,
blah blah. That's hard for me to understand right there,
because Dave and I decided on Tuesday we're getting married
(23:48):
on Saturday, and bam, we did it. It was great,
But she disappears the night before the wedding I believe
it was, and then shows up a week or two
later blaming some Hispanic males for sex assaulting her, which
was all a big lie. She made that up right,
(24:08):
And last I saw of her she was out doing
community service, cutting grass or picking up trash or something
like that. That was the runaway bride, the real one.
What about this woman, Well, this woman seems completely This
woman seems evil to me. I mean, she has no
regard for the human condition at all of us. You're
(24:29):
any kind of laws or regulations, I mean, to be
able to to fraud the government. And why when I
was looking at this Nancy, my fault was, why shouldn't
you put all of this energy to doing something good?
Use her powers for a good night evil? That's what
I tell my daughter Lucy all the time. But tell me,
(24:51):
doctor Arnold, not just as psychiatrist, but you have to
be a medical doctor. You've got to be an MD
before you can then focus in on psychiatry. What is
sp is a disorder in which the brain and the
spinal cord do not completely close in utero, and it
(25:11):
can there can be all different they're different. Spectrums of
spina bitha can affect people in very different ways. And um,
typically these children are wheel true ridden, they don't they
don't walk, Oftentimes they have Oftentimes, um, they're cognitively impaired.
They can have ball and bladder problems. It is a
(25:34):
it is bad to have spina. Okay, that is not
a good thing to have. And apparently this and this child,
I don't believe that she was taking care of this
child with spin every day. I mean, but I mean,
the reality is you're asking doctor Angela Arnold, you're the shrink,
not me, what kind of person would take advantage of
(25:55):
the situation? She was taking advantage of spina bifiti children. So,
I mean, are you surprised you pulled this fraud? Off?
To Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about
(26:20):
a woman, Julie Wheeler, her husband, Rodney Wheeler, and now
their teens son has been dragged into it trying to
save his mom's neck. Apparently the husband comes up with
a plan to have mom fall off a cliff to
avoid a huge fine hundreds of thousands of dollars and
ten years behind bars for faking claims to the Feds.
(26:43):
It's like faking with the irs. Jackie, don't ever fake
the taxman. Don't do it, Brett, don't do it. They
will catch you. That's how al Capone got caught. He
murders all these people. He's a mobster, but it was
the Irs that got him. Do not lie to the Feds.
Just don't say anything. But for Pete's sake, don't lie
(27:05):
much less as she did put it in writing trying
to get money from the federal government for work she
was not doing. And now she's looking for an earring
and falls off a cliff. Boy that smelled to high
heaven at the get go. But I want you to
take a listen to again Fox fifty nine Paris done
for cut nine. The search not only costs different agencies
(27:25):
a lot of money, it also took a lot of time,
about forty hours worth, and more than half of the
men and women working on seeing were volunteers. There's a
little bit of frustration when we spend all that time
and manpower for a false claim. And for most of
those volunteers, they were repelling down a steep cliff, putting
themselves in danger. And you send all these people out
(27:47):
to risk their own lives and safety and well being
in order to search for someone that wasn't even there.
And even though they were searching for someone who was
never even there, for putting your lives at danger on
behalf of us, we appreciate it. They're hard working dedication
did not go unnoticed. And Julie and Rodney will are
facing multiple charges including conspiracy and fraud at the least.
(28:08):
And you know another thing straight out to you, Jim Elliott,
to you and Cloyd Steiger first to you, Jim. You know,
very often I'd have a court calendar, be it a
plea arrayment calendar or a trial calendar, emotions calendar, and
the defendant wouldn't show up. I guess not because if
I had anything to do with he's going to jail.
But let's say we don't know where he is, and
(28:31):
I would say, always, first go to his mother's house,
number one, look under the bed and look in the closet.
Just just do that for me, and when you finish that,
call me on my cell phone, which, by the way,
got stolen out of the courtroom. My phone got stolen
out of the courtroom during a trial calendar. I had
it plugged in. Somebody stole my phone. I never found
(28:52):
it anyway, that's another cannon arms. My point is, Jim,
why this woman's found a hiding in her closet? Could
you surprise me just what? And don't be in your
closet or under your mom's bed. I mean it's almost laughable.
It's almost like Keystone cops. And what did you think
she was gonna? I mean, just ridiculous. I don't think
they thought it through it as a matter of fact,
(29:12):
isn't it true? Levi page Crime online dot com. She
was found just two days after this extensive search. She
hid out I guess in the closet for two days,
eating ramen noodles. I don't know. Was it two days?
Two days? So chlod Steiger thirty six years Seattle PD
twenty two of that on homicide and author Isn't it true?
Everybody always runs straight home to mom. They hide out
(29:35):
in mommy's house or in their own place, under their
bed or in their closet. It's just a given. Yeah,
you know, it's always amazes me. And you know we
have I have big murder cases where people so he's
fled the country or this is that? No? Right? Down
the road, ride down the street. I'm saying, go to
mama's house or on Tea's house. That's where they're gonna
(29:57):
be always. I mean, you know, think about it. Don't
tell my children Cloyd Stiger when you run into him.
We play hide and seek in the house all the time.
It never fails. John David always goes to my closet
and hides same place every time. Lucy always goes to
(30:19):
the living room and she hides behind the curtain behind
the piano. It just is a given. Or they both
hide and start giggling under the ping pong table. They
always go the same place. What is that, Doctor Angela?
That are we just like you know the dog that
always circles three times before he sits down, Like the
murderer that always goes back to look at the crime scene.
(30:42):
Think about Scott Peterson looking out over San Francisco Bay.
They're tracking him on his car. Why do we always
do the same things over it and over Like this
woman hiding in a closet. It's a safe place. They
don't where else are they going to go? Right? I believe?
I believe, particularly with criminals that go back to their
mother's house and things like that where they can hide again.
(31:04):
They look, like you said, they haven't thought this through completely,
and they seek a safe place to go where they
think they're going to be. That's certainly an understatement. They
haven't thought this through completely. That's a that's certainly putting
perfume on the pig. Go ahead, haven't thought it through completely.
They've got her scaling the side of a cliff, or
and then it changes to she lost her earring. Think
(31:26):
about it, doctor Angela. You have volunteers repelling down the
side of a sheer cliff looking for this woman and
she's hiding in the closet having leftovers. That's why I
said there's a there's a there's a horrific antisocial personality disorder. Oh,
(31:47):
here you go with the personality disorder. The disorder is
she cheated the government and doesn't want to go to jail. Right,
that's the disorder. In complete disregard for anything that anybody
has to do to find her. Maybe maybe she didn't
think that it was going to go that far. I
have no idea but to think about the men who
(32:09):
put the men and women who put their lives in
danger to search for her. Oh my goodness, but no
one can feel sorry for her at this point, Kim,
they take a listen to our friends at Fox fifty nine,
Cut eight. He set the bail at one hundred thousand
dollars for both of them. If they make bail, they
will be restricted to home confinement. Prosecuting attorney Chris and
Keller says she asked for home confinement because both are
(32:31):
considered a fight risk. And say, please say the Wheelers
tried to fake Julie falling off the main overlook at
Grand View. That nine one one call sent rescue crews
on an extensive search, and that search came with the
cost to take a look. Repel teams, drones, helicopters, and bloodhounds.
Those were all the resources used to search for Julie
Wheeler came out calculated at this moment, only to find
(32:52):
out she and her husband allegedly faked the fall. But
who will pick up the bill? Assuming she's convicted, then
law the court would order restitution. Okay, now, just to
rub salt in the wound, take a listen to Riley Phillips,
Fox fifty nine. Listen to this carefully. Two people accused
(33:14):
of faking a death where we're supposed to appear in
court today. Rodney and Julie Wheeler were scheduled to appear
in front of a judge this morning, but the Wheelers
did not qualify for a court appointed attorney because they
make too much money. They will now have to reapply
for an attorney. The preliminary hearing will also be rescheduled.
The Wheelers were arrested last week after legedli trying to
fake Julie's death. Jim Elliott, you know you kind of
(33:36):
have to be in the know, an inside player, to
note what which is played. Do you hear this? These
two scammed the government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars,
according to prosecutors, claiming the mom was taking care of
a spine a bifit A patient when she wasn't. Then
they fake her death to avoid jail time, use all
(34:00):
these resources. Then to top it all off, they file
for a public defender, which means a free lawyer to
defend her, who's paid for by you and me, the taxpayers.
We fund the public defenders for people that can't afford
a lawyer. Then it turns out they made too much money,
(34:21):
money they stole from the government. According to prosecutors and
they got to get their own lawyer. They're still scamming
Jim Elliott. They're still at it. I was gonna say,
trying to scam the government for the third rounds and
base image. That kind of audacities and me incredible. The
Public Defender's Office, so who I fought with them like
(34:41):
cats and dogs. But they work for practically nothing as
it is, and they get every case where somebody can't
afford a lawyer, no matter what the case is, and
here they are trying to take advantage of the Public
Defender's officer. There's no love laws between me and the
public Enners or any defense lawyer. But I mean, really
(35:02):
scamming off the PD's office, faking it to the end. Well,
of course they claim they're innocent. We wait as justice unfals.
Nancy Grace crime story signing off, goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
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