Army soldier Pvt. Wanya Bruns, 20, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Killeen, Texas on November 26, 2016. Pvt. Bruns’ home of record is listed as Bellwood, Illinois and he joined the Army in February 2016. Pvt. Bruns was a cavalry scout assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood in Texas. At the time of the report, the Killeen Police Department investigated the circumstances of Bruns’ death and their findings indicated the gunshot wound was self-inflicted. In effect, Pvt. Bruns committed suicide nine months after joining the Army; five months after getting to Fort Hood. The following comment on MJFA under Spc. Zachary Moore’s story begs the question: Why Are Army Soldiers at Fort Hood Dying at Alarming Rates Stateside?
ID Go: With hearts of stone, these Deadly Women give their men special send-offs when “Love Leaves Town.” -Love Leaves Town, Deadly Women (S10, E12)
Oxygen:
A mysterious disappearance leads police to a woman pushing a trash can full of body parts down the street. -Carmen Montelongo, Snapped (S16, E4)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
With hearts of stone, these Deadly Women give their men special send-offs when “Love Leaves Town.” A young mom prefers her vices to her boyfriend. -Love Leaves Town, Deadly Women (S10, E12)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Fort Hood Army Pvt. Kevin Paulino, 24, died of a gunshot wound in Peru, Indiana on November 16, 2016. Pvt. Paulino’s home of record is listed as Bronx, New York and he entered military service in May 2016. He was an infantryman assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. According to the Killeen Daily Herald, civilian police confirmed Pvt. Paulino’s cause of death was a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Army Pfc. David Winchester, 21, was found dead in his Fort Bragg barracks in North Carolina on November 16, 2016. Pfc. Winchester of Adamsville, Alabama was a biomedical equipment specialist; he joined the Army in April 2015. Pfc. Winchester was assigned to the 601st Area Support Medical Company, 261st Multi-functional Medical Battalion, 44th Medical Brigade at Fort Bragg. The Army sent out a media advisory to Associated Press announcing that agents with the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) were investigating the incident. The official cause of death is unknown.
Spc. Phillip Cruz-Medellin, US Army, was found dead in Manhattan, Kansas on November 15, 2016. Spc. Cruz-Medellin was a satellite communications operator and maintainer with the 267th Signal Company, Special Troops Battalion, 1st Infantry Division Sustainment Brigade at nearby Fort Riley. He was from Prairie Lea, Texas and enlisted in the Army in October 2014. Reports indicate that the civilian authorities were investigating the cause of death but the official cause of death is unknown.
ID Go: An argument about access to a disputed road puts two Lompico, California men at each other’s throats. Things progress from intimidation and property damage to a backhoe attack and, finally, one of the most shocking murders the area has ever seen. -Bonfire of Blood, Fear Thy Neighbor (S3, E9)
Coast Guard veteran Walter Stephens shot and killed Bob Hall in Lompico, California on November 20, 1998. After killing Bob, Walt burned and attempted to hide his body in a bonfire on his property. Bob’s co-workers grew concerned when Bob didn’t show up for his retirement party at work. They called the police and asked them to do a welfare check on Bob. In the course of the investigation, police learned from family members that if anything happened to Bob, they needed to talk to his neighbor Walter Stephens. Bob and Walter had been in a long standing neighborhood feud with one another over a property issue. When police went to visit Walter at his home, they found him tending a large fire. They questioned Walter about Bob’s disappearance but he denied having any knowledge or information useful to the missing persons investigation. Upon closer examination of the bonfire, the police observed what appeared to be human remains in the fire. Walter admitted to killing Bob and he was arrested.
Fellow neighbors always thought it would be the other way around, that Bob would kill Walter. Some believe Walter finally snapped. Bob’s family believed it was first degree murder. Facing a possible death sentence, Walter pleaded self-defense but the prosecutors believed otherwise after the forensic evidence was examined. Walter said he thought Bob had a weapon when he approached him late one night on his property but his gun told another story. Walter pistol whipped Bob with his gun and then shot him while he was helpless and down on the ground. Prosecutors argued it wasn’t self-defense, it was straight up murder. They believed Walter started that confrontation with Bob that night with the intent to kill. Walter Stephens was found guilty and sentenced to 40 years to life in prison for second degree murder. He got 14 years for the murder and another 25 years for use of weapon. Bob’s bones were burned and mostly disintegrated and his body was not recognizable. Detectives believe that had the police not discovered Bob’s remains in the fire, Walter Stephens may have got away with it.
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch all of the Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. Download the ID Go app and binge away. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $2.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict.
Dateline featured ‘Prairie Confidential’ on August 13, 2018. It was a 2015 homicide case out of Minot, North Dakota. Nursing student and mom of three Angila Wilder didn’t show up for an important exam at school and her professor knew something was wrong. Angila was discovered stabbed to death in her bedroom in her North Dakota home. The crime appeared personal so the police started their investigation with Angila’s boyfriend and ex-husband. When Angila’s boyfriend Chris Jackson was interviewed, he pointed the finger at her ex-husband Richie Wilder, Jr. Angila met Richie in high school and soon after they married, they had a couple children together. Richie joined the Air Force and was stationed at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. But during their time there, things went awry with the marriage. Richie was court-martialed and convicted of domestic abuse. As a result, he was discharged from the Air Force and soon divorce followed. Richie remarried Cynthia, a kindergarten teacher, and they had a child together. Angila also moved on with Chris Jackson and they too had a child together. Angila was pregnant at the time of her murder.
Investigators found Angila’s blood in Richie’s car and Richie’s DNA was found under Angila’s fingernails. As a result, Richie Wilder was charged with murder and ordered to pre-trial confinement on a 2 million dollar bond. After a couple days in jail, Richie came forward with a “confession.” Richie told police he and Chris learned Angela was cheating on Chris and they hoped to catch her in the act so they could then have custody of their children. Richie said he picked up Chris at his place of employment, drove to Angila’s home, killed her together (an attempt to minimize his involvement yet explain DNA), and then dropped Chris back off at Wal-Mart. But the police looked at the video at Wal-Mart and it blew Richie’s “confession” out of the water. Chris was at work all night and never left the property. In December 2016, Richie Wilder Jr. was convicted of Angila’s murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole. In May 2018, Cynthia Wilder took an Alford plea hoping the judge would go lenient on her but she was sentenced to life in prison without parole for conspiracy to commit murder. In the course of the investigation, police learned Cynthia and Richie Wilder planned Angila’s murder for two years.
In the News:
Richie Wilder, Jr Murder Trial -KFYR TV (January 17, 2017)
Cynthia Wilder Sentenced -KFYR TV (December 24, 2018)
Dateline NBC:
Trailer: A murder case considered closed by North Dakota detectives is suddenly reopened when a confidential informant comes forward with a tip about an unlikely suspect. -Dateline NBC (S26,E51)
A secret addiction drives a young woman to sacrifice her wheelchair bound employer; a scheming caregiver betrays the man who trusts her; and a single mother’s desire for a better life leads to a brutal dismemberment. -The Vulnerable, Deadly Women (S9, E13)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
When the lifeless body of Willie McCarty is found at the base of a staircase, neighbors direct Kenda to a mysterious truck spotted fleeing the scene. Then… Kenda must solve a bizarre case of poisoning at a busy downtown hospital. -Pop Goes the Witness, Homicide Hunter (S5,E10)
Lt Joe Kenda of Homicide Hunter featured another case where he was tasked with investigating what hospital officials suspected was an attempted murder. Upon arrival at the hospital, he was bombarded by the press because they heard the call for service over the scanner. The hospital was secure and police officers were on the scene. Upon an initial briefing, Lt Kenda discovered that a nurse suspected that someone had tampered with one of their patient’s IVs. Lt Kenda then interviewed Carol Taylor, the wife of an Army officer also present at the hospital with their two children.
Lt Kenda learned that Carol had broken her leg and had developed some blood clots. She was simply visiting with her husband and children when all of a sudden the alarm on the IV infusion machine went off. And somehow the IV had been pulled from her arm. Lt Kenda immediately began to suspect that someone was trying to kill her because it looked like someone had either tampered with or inserted something into the IV line. Because the crime lab was not proficient in the hospital’s medical equipment, they called in a hospital employee who was considered an expert. This person determined that someone had injected something into the line. The only other people in the room were her husband and children.
Lt Kenda started his next line of questioning with the husband. He learned that Lt Col Dennis Taylor served in the US Army for 27 years and was currently working as the Chief of Oral Surgery at the Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado. Lt Kenda observed that the doctor was unusually calm and appeared to be minimizing the event and brushing it off as a mistake. So then Lt Kenda went back to the wife and asked her if she thought that maybe her husband did this. The wife claimed she was fine and that everyone was making a big deal out of it and she just wanted it to go away. She claimed that they had a great marriage and life. Lt Joe Kenda had a hard time believing that her marriage was as perfect as she made it out to be and moved forward with the investigation because there was in fact liquid in the IV pump that was not supposed to be there.
Kenda reached out to a family friend who worked alongside the doctor over the years. He learned from Stan that the doctor had confided in him that Carol was verbally abusive, demeaning him, telling him he is pathetic, and even punched him. She also was upset about his drinking and knew that he had been having extra-marital affairs. Stan told Kenda that the doctor wanted to leave Carol but she had threatened to go to his commander and report him for the drinking and adultery (both considered UCMJ infractions and punishable under military law) if he left her. Carol enjoyed the privileges of being a military wife too much to lose them to divorce. He felt trapped in his current abusive marriage and was drinking more and having affairs as a way to cope with his current situation. In the civilian world, Carol would not be able to get away with threatening her husband because it is not illegal to drink and have affairs.
As it turns out, the results of the pump came back and they found Diazinon, which is a poison used to kill ants, spiders, cockroaches, etc. She would have been dead in a matter of minutes and would have been in excruciating pain, as the poison would have burned her from the inside out. As a result, Kenda arrested the doctor for attempted murder. During the arrest he found a plunged hypodermic in his pocket. The doctor told him he didn’t need an attorney and admitted his guilt. He told Kenda that earlier that morning while he was out shopping, the idea came to him that this was the only way out. Because he is a doctor, he knew how to do it. He inserted the poison and the alarm went off so he pulled the IV out of her arm for fear of arrest.
Instead of the civilians pressing forward with a case, the Army decided that they were going to court martial the doctor. They claimed they wanted to make an example of the disgraced colonel in front of a jury of his peers. He was sentenced to 18 months hard labor and he and his family were stripped of all Army privileges. And this may be why Carol Taylor protected her husband despite the fact that he just tried to kill her. Why would the Army doctor rather kill his wife then report the domestic violence to the commander? Why would the doctor feel that going to the commander was not an option and his only way out of this abusive situation was to murder his wife? Why was the doctor so intimidated by the threat of his wife reporting what would be considered minor infractions, even under UCMJ standards?
We need to evaluate why the doctor felt that he was not able to report the abuse and threatening to the Commander. Would he automatically be in trouble with military leadership if he admitted that he had been drinking and having affairs? Was he concerned about losing his career, his retirement, or facing disciplinary action? Why did he feel that he had to choose murder over reporting the threats and abuse to his commander? These are all things that we must ponder. We are seeing a pattern over and over. Our military men do not feel that reporting to the commander is an option when they are the victim of a crime. If that is the case, how can we help our military men, who find themselves the victim of threats, domestic violence, or sexual assault, report to a safe place? Right now, some would rather resort to murder then report the crimes to their commander. There must be a better way.
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
