Sammy Wheeler

In June 1992, 35-year-old Samuel "Sammy" Wheeler was found murdered inside his Isuzu Trooper in Virginia's George Washington National Forest. His SUV had been riddled with bullets, wiped clean of fingerprints, and someone had unsuccessfully tried to burn it to destroy evidence. The investigation quickly focused on a bitter custody dispute involving Sammy, his fiancée, her estranged husband, and even Sammy's identical twin brother. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the murder of Sammy Wheeler. For years, accusations flew between those closest to him before investigators discovered the shocking truth: none of the prime suspects was responsible. The killer was a complete stranger, and Sammy had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. You can help support the show through Patreon. We'd love to connect with listeners on social media. We are available on the following platforms: Facebook - Facebook Discussion group - Instagram - Threads - X Formerly Twitter - Blue Sky - Twitch - Tik Tok Criminology is an Emash Digital production hosted by Mike Ferguson and Mike Morford.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  Hello everyone and welcome to episode 418 of the Criminology Podcast. This is Mike Ferguson.

• 0:43Speaker 02

  And this is Mike Morford.

• 0:45Speaker 01

  Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, buddy?

• 0:47Speaker 02

  Doing good. You know, we're talking before we started recording about our aches and pains and getting up there in age and comparing notes, but I'm here, I'm talking and hanging out with you. What are you doing?

• 0:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's the, the fun part, right? I haven't talked about this in a while, but you know, there's the research part, which, you know, is fun in its own way, but the recording and the, you know, us going back and forth, that's really the fun part of the week for me.

• 1:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, I look forward to Friday mornings. That's when we usually record and, you know, hang out for a couple of hours, talk about a cool case and get ready for the next one.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Well, we didn't have any new Patreon support this week, but just wanted to say thank you to everyone who does support us on Patreon. We really appreciate it.

• 1:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, it really goes a long way to helping us out and we appreciate everyone that does do that. And if you want to get started, head over to patreon.com/criminology.

• 1:41Speaker 01

  All right, we're jumping right in. And for our listeners who are fans of the show Unsolved Mysteries, this is a case you might remember, the 1992 murder of Sammy Wheeler in Virginia. In the Unsolved Mysteries episode about Sammy's case that first aired in 1994, there seemed to be no shortage of suspects mentioned. And amongst them, they seemed to point the finger at one another. Eventually Sammy's murder was solved and it turns out that the killer wasn't even someone talked about in that episode.

• 2:14Speaker 02

  This story starts out on June 7th, 1992. It was around 10:00 in the morning that day. In a parking area at George Washington National Forest in Virginia, the two hikers came across an odd scene, and they knew right away that something was definitely wrong. The first thing that stood out was an SUV, a dark blue 1988 Isuzu Trooper, riddled with bullets. The gas cap was open, and it looked like someone had tried to set the car on fire by blowing up its tank. Bits of paper and a cigarette had been shoved in the opening of the tank. Some of the paper had obviously been burnt, but the fire went out before all the paper or any of the contents of the tank could ignite. The hikers flagged down a group of people nearby, a group that conveniently included an EMT

• 2:57Speaker 02

  and a volunteer firefighter for help.

• 3:00Speaker 01

  The group made their way to the vehicle and took a closer look into the car. What they saw shocked them. Inside the car was 35-year-old Samuel Edward Wheeler, known as Sam or Sammy to his friends and family. He was inside a sleeping bag in the backseat, dead. It appeared that he had been killed inside the car. He'd been shot six times. Some of the bullets hit his upper body, and others hit his head. The volunteer firefighter on scene carefully used one finger to open the door, trying not to disturb any evidence so that he could check for a pulse on the off chance they had arrived soon enough to help. Sammy's wrist felt cold to the touch.

• 3:41Speaker 01

  Investigators quickly descended on the scene to scan for clues. All right, Morph, so you're just out, you know, for a leisurely hike, something that, you know, many of us do all the time. Out looking at nature and just, you know, taking in the scenery. And then you walk up on this, a car that has been shot up. Somebody tried to set it on fire. And then inside is a man who... Is dead and, and has been shot to death. But I do want to talk about the fact that nearby is an EMT and a volunteer firefighter. Okay, kind of fortuitous, right?

• 4:24Speaker 01

  For the group that finds this car. And in my mind, for a couple of reasons, right? If there's any aid that could be administered, obviously, and, and EMT and a volunteer firefighter are gonna know more than the average person. But also, you know, as I said, this volunteer firefighter opens the door carefully because he knows. And this is a crime scene and he doesn't want to disturb any evidence.

• 4:55Speaker 02

  It's amazing the amount of cases we've covered over the years where it involves someone out for a walk on a trail, something along those lines, and they stumble upon something like this. But it's equally amazing to me that a lot of times the people that are first there to help turn out to be nurses or firefighters or an off-duty policeman, you know, somebody of authority that can help out in these situations. Cause you have to imagine that the first people to find this are in shock and it's good to have someone there that has some kind of training or knowledge to help in that situation. Investigators believe that the attempt to light the car on fire was part of a larger goal, destroying evidence at the crime scene.

• 5:38Speaker 02

  There were no shell casings found anywhere despite the multiple shots obviously fired, and someone had wiped the car clean of any fingerprints. In addition, Sammy's wallet was nowhere to be found. Investigators wondered if he had been targeted in a robbery that went wrong. Maybe someone had stumbled upon him alone in the national forest and decided to take their chance. But investigators didn't have to pursue that line of thinking for very long because the people closest to him in life all had ideas about what happened to him and why. And they were not shy about pointing the finger and naming names.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  Sammy was an identical twin. His twin brother Danny immediately thought of a suspect who might have wanted Sammy dead. Sammy's girlfriend, Pat Snead, was technically still married, even though she and Sammy had a wedding date set and it was fast approaching. Danny believed that Pat's ex, Bob Bean, could have hated Sammy enough to kill him. They'd been having issues for months due to a complicated custody situation involving Pat, Bob, and their two young children. In 1992, the children were three and four years old. Since at least the fall of 1991, Bob was angry that Sammy was around Pat when

• 6:52Speaker 01

  she had their kids. He didn't want his sons to have anything to do with Sammy. It's unclear whether Bob's issue was with any man replacing him, or whether he had a specific issue with Sammy as a person, but it seems from what we could gather that he wouldn't have been happy seeing Pat with anyone, especially before their divorce was complete. In his Unsolved Mysteries interview, Bob mentioned he just wanted to provide some kind of moral environment for the children. And I think you have to look at Bob as, you know, a person of interest early on. He's the ex, right? The ex is going to be looked at. They're in

• 7:31Speaker 01

  a custody battle, but this idea morph of, you know, someone being jealous or upset, whatever word you want to use, about their, their ex, you know, seeing someone else. Okay, it's gonna happen. And a lot of times, it's probably going to be kind of the same emotions towards anyone, not Sammy in particular, but just the fact that your wife, ex-wife, is with somebody else.

• 8:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, that seems like it's always a line of inquiry for the police immediately is to look at the ex, especially when there's some kind of volatile situation over custody. You've got kids involved that really touches off a lot of intense feelings. And, you know, oftentimes, someone is murdered. It's by someone they know and it's, it surrounds a situation like this. So I think the police had to definitely consider Bob Bean.

• 8:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, and we, we talk about, you know, divorce situations, custody situations all the time, but here you have kind of another angle, which is just maybe on top of it, jealousy, right? You're not happy that your wife, soon to be ex-wife is with somebody else. So, I mean, you really have a number of possible motives when it, when it comes to Bob here.

• 9:00Speaker 02

  Danny Wheeler owned a building that had been split up into multiple apartment units. He lived in one and rented the others out. Toward the end of 1991, Sammy moved into one of the units with Pat and sometimes her children. Bob didn't like this arrangement, so he went to court and filed a motion regarding Sammy and the children. In February, just four months before his murder, a judge ruled that Sammy couldn't be around the boys. Sammy and Pat didn't have to break up, but they would have to find different places to live. And if Pat had the boys, Sammy couldn't go see her. They would need to make sure that the kids were with Bob or a babysitter if they wanted to have a date night. So it certainly caused some bad blood and friction.

• 9:40Speaker 01

  But it seemed like Sammy was okay with this arrangement. He just wanted to be with Pat, and he wasn't going to let Bob or the courts tear them apart. So he moved out of his own apartment and moved into Danny's unit. But this wasn't enough for Bob. He hired a private investigator to tail Sammy and see if he was really staying away from the boys. Apparently, the P I caught Danny talking to Pat when she had the boys. Now, it's unclear if the children were actually there and interacting with Sammy, or if he was just seen at the apartment building. At a time, the children would have been inside. The P I could have seen his car parked at Danny's and assumed he was at Pat. There's

• 10:24Speaker 01

  just not much information about this supposed incident, and we don't know if Sammy really broke the court's order. All we have today is Bob's work, that his P I told him, this is what happened.

• 10:36Speaker 02

  I get where Bob is coming from. He wants his boys to be safe. We don't know all the information here about Sammy or his background, you know, if he had a criminal record, if he was, you know, maybe a drug abuser, things that might put his children at risk. I can see taking all these precautions. But it seems like he was really going overboard here if there's none of that at play. And you know, the going back to the judge ordering Sammy not to be around the boys. You know, I wonder what that's based on if they were just dating and there was no criminal record or no, nothing to put the kids at risk. Why would the judge come to that decision?

• 11:19Speaker 02

  So that's just something I've been thinking about as we've got up to this part.

• 11:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm with you. Yeah, again, not much out there in the research about it, but it was kind of an interesting decision. It seems like there had to have been something there for the judge to make this, you know, decision that Sammy was not to be around the boys. It, it had to be more than just Bob being angry or jealous, but what it is, we don't know.

• 11:52Speaker 02

  After this private investigator incident, Sammy decided to be even more careful. If living in a different unit wasn't enough, he wouldn't live in the building at all. He decided to start living in his SUV. He took out the rear seat so that there was enough room for him to sleep comfortably. He could stop by his brother's here and there, but overnight he and his car would be far from the boys. There would simply be nothing to misconstrue, nothing to report to the judge, nothing else to fight about. He felt that it was the best way to handle the situation. But reportedly, just four days before he was murdered, Sammy was still basically being stalked by supporters of Bob Bean. This time it wasn't the private investigator following Sammy. It was Bob's teenage son from a prior relationship.

• 12:36Speaker 02

  He was taking pictures of Sammy as he left his brother's apartment at around 5:30 in the morning. This obviously upset Sammy, so he went to talk to Bob's son. Eventually they went their separate ways, but police wonder if this confrontation could have been the final straw for Bob Bean.

• 12:52Speaker 01

  So two things jump out at me here. One is that, I mean, you're just really seeing the scope of how far Bob is willing to go. I mean, he's not backing down and he's pushing this thing. And the second thing is obviously Sammy really cared about this woman deeply, wanted to be with her because he's taking some extraordinary steps. He's willing to live in his SUV.

• 13:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, it seemed like he was trying to make the situation work and listen to what the judge said, keep Bob happy by not being around the kids. So he was, seemed like he was going out of his way to do his part and make that work.

• 13:34Speaker 01

  And it wasn't just the custody situation that made Danny believe Bob could have wanted Sammy dead. Bob and Pat's divorce was apparently set to be final just two days after Sammy was found dead. And Sammy and Pat's wedding was set for just two days after that. If he wanted to easily get rid of Sammy, Bob was running out of time. But Bob felt that Danny and Pat had stronger motives. In the Unsolved Mysteries episode, he said he knew of two things that would come between twin brothers, money and a woman. Pat had started to suspect Danny of Sammy's murder after a friend told her that he was secretly in love with Pat

• 14:18Speaker 01

  and had been for a long time. Maybe his jealousy was finally just too much to take. They were identical twins, after all. What could Sammy possibly have that Danny didn't? If Sammy was gone, he could easily just take his place and marry Pat.

• 14:35Speaker 02

  Danny denied these allegations and said that Pat was like a sister. Looking back on things, Pat started to believe that Danny's emotional outburst upon being informed of his brother's death was just an act. He had immediately told the officers to go find Bob Bean and then grabbed his own shotgun and tried to march right out of the apartment past him. What seemed like somebody completely distraught over losing their other half, losing a connection most of us will never be able to understand, could have also been a misdirection and a way to seem surprised about what he already knew.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  Danny started to wonder why Pat would lie about him being in love with her, or why she would ever try to blame him for Sammy's murder. This made him begin to suspect that Pat had killed Sammy. After all, she would have known exactly where he was supposed to be that night. And Bob felt that it could have been possible, too. He claimed that about a week after Sammy's murder, the children Started showing signs that they knew something about what happened. And the only way this would be possible is if Pat was responsible. They first started talking about how Sammy was found dead in his own SUV. Obviously, they had to explain to the children that Sammy was dead.

• 15:49Speaker 01

  So he wouldn't be coming back, but how would they know, you know, very specific details? Who in their right mind would tell a young child anything about the specifics? When he started asking them more about what they knew, they said they were actually up at the National Forest and that they went there when Sam got shot. As time went on, the boy seemed fearful. So Bob continued to ask them about what they knew. And he started recording their responses with a video camera. So more if there's a lot going on here, first and foremost, Sammy is dead.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  But then, you know, you have the police questioning those around him, which is completely natural. The thing that jumps out to me is how many people are starting to suspect someone in Sammy's life, right? Pat starts to suspect Danny. Danny's like, why is Pat lying? Bob possibly suspects Pat. And then you have the children apparently saying some things that they probably shouldn't have known. But the biggest bombshell of it all is them saying that they were, they were in the forest when Sam got shot.

• 17:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, you have to wonder if that's because maybe they're confused. Could they be making things up? You know, had they been to that forest before, but just at a different time? You know, this is all stuff that the police have to consider and. I think the police also have to continue their investigation and not be swayed by any of these back and forth accusations between the people that knew Sammy. They're pointing the finger in every direction at each other, but the police have to stay on task and follow the evidence to see where it goes.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, and they gotta check it all out, but I'm with you, right? You don't want to get too wrapped up into any one thing unless it starts to pan out. But the other thing is, you know, these two, these two kids, they're only three and four years old. So, you know, three and four year olds say some wild stuff. You gotta keep all of that in mind as well.

• 18:08Speaker 02

  We already know that Bob wasn't happy with the custody arrangement. Sure, it was supposedly Sammy that he had a problem with, but eventually Pat would probably have another boyfriend and he would have the same problems with him. It could have not been about Sammy at all. It could have been a justification to be an inconvenience in his ex's life. Sammy being around was an easy way to ask a judge for custody if he knew that Pat wouldn't leave him. Maybe after Sammy's murder, he saw an easy opportunity to ask for full custody again. All he had to do was make it seem like Pat was involved. Just plant the seed of doubt and the judge might find that Bob's house was a better environment for the children, even temporarily. That's all speculation, of course, but investigators did believe that Bob was putting those ideas

• 18:51Speaker 02

  in their heads and that the children didn't know or witness anything regarding Sammy's murder.

• 18:57Speaker 01

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• 20:25Speaker 01

  According to Doug Rhodes, a special agent with the Charlottesville, Virginia branch of the FBI, all three of them, Bob, Pat, and Danny, passed polygraph tests which indicated no sign of deception and all three of them had alibis. Bob was on duty with his Army National Guard unit, far from the crime scene in North Carolina. He told WHSV.com, I was in the middle of the woods with my National Guard unit on my two week summer camp. People saw him there, including one of the investigators who would end up being assigned to Sammy's murder case, who happened to be in the same unit as Bob.

• 21:07Speaker 01

  And obviously there would be a record of his absence if he had shirked his responsibilities that weekend. If we assume that the time of death was estimated correctly, there was no way Bob could have killed Sammy. He would have had to drive about 150 miles and commit the murder in just two hours. Assuming he drove the speed limit the whole way, he wouldn't have been able to make it there in time.

• 21:35Speaker 02

  So it seems that Bob had an alibi for the murder. But what about Pat? She was at home with her two young sons. They couldn't exactly vouch for her, but if she was going to kill Sammy with her two children in tow, she could have just done that in the apartment. It would have been easy to create a story where he got fed up with the courts telling him what to do and tired of her letting Bob push him around and attacked her, leaving her no choice but to defend herself and the kids. There was no need to take two young children to the woods in the middle of the night and hope that they didn't spill any of the details later on. Investigators believed her when she said she was at home with the boys as usual. Plus, her diary was very detailed, not only her daily activities, but when she saw Sammy and what they did.

• 22:20Speaker 02

  She was keeping a thorough record she could take to court with her if she was accused of violating any court order.

• 22:26Speaker 01

  So Bob's alibi is really good, right? I, my youngest daughter's boyfriend is in the National Guard. He does the, the two weeks. And then obviously one week in the month or whatever his schedule is, but I know he does like a two week stint and you know, it's, it's pretty buttoned up. I don't think they have a lot of time as far as free time and, and just the, the window of time alone makes it impossible for Bob to have committed the murder. Now, it doesn't mean he couldn't have been behind it.

• 23:05Speaker 01

  It just means he couldn't have physically been there and killed Sammy, you know, himself. But then, you know, I do want to talk about Pat and the kids. There's a lot of different ways that the murder could have happened if she wanted to kill Sammy for, for whatever reason. I just don't see a scenario where a mom would do that with her kids in tow. I mean, that just, it doesn't make any sense to me at all. Number one, why would you subject your kids to that? And then number two, why would you even take the chance that they could tell on you?

• 23:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, both of their alibis seem to be. Pretty strong and the police came away believing that they were being truthful. So I think the third person they had to look at was Sammy's brother Danny.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Police also found out that Sammy's twin brother Danny was out at a bar all night. At the time his brother was murdered, multiple people saw him during the time the murder was thought to have happened. So he seemed to have a pretty clear cut alibi as well. So you have all three of the people that seem to be pointing the finger at each other as potential suspects, all seemingly having alibis and investigators were left trying to answer the question, who killed Sammy and why? Obviously Sammy's family wanted answers.

• 24:37Speaker 01

  The Wheeler family offered a reward of $7,700 for information regarding Sammy's murder. This amount was later raised to 10,000. They were hopeful that this would bring in new leads, but nothing really came in. Danny, sure that someone out there knew something, told the Daily News Leader, someone out there is going to be awfully angry with themselves when an arrest is made and they realize they had the information to take this $10,000 reward, but they kept their mouth shut.

• 25:12Speaker 02

  Danny couldn't bear the thought of his brother's murder staying unsolved forever. So he hired Alan Kates, a private investigator for a law firm. As this was a private case, not related to any of the firm's cases, Kates had to work on the case on his own time, leaving his Saturdays for 18 weeks dedicated to finding Sammy's killer. By the time Alan Kates interviewed Bob Bean in 1998, Bob had yet another suspect in mind. He told Kates about a man named Kirk Thomas Bell, who was 22 years old in 1992 when Sammy was murdered. According to WHSV.com, Bell had been drinking with one of Bob's friends when a segment about the murder aired on TV and he blurted out, hell, I know who did that. It was Guy

• 25:57Speaker 02

  and I.

• 25:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. And we mentioned it more, right? Danny and Sammy were twins.

• 26:04Speaker 01

  And you know, there's that bond between twins. I mean, I don't know what it is. I'm an only child and I certainly don't have a twin, but you hear about it all the time. You know, twins just seem to have a different relationship than they do with their other siblings, if they have other siblings. So it doesn't surprise me at all that, you know, Danny is fixated on this, right? He wants to find Sammy's killer, so much so that, you know, he hires a private investigator. Now, this private investigator doesn't interview Bob Bean for like six years, right? After the murder, but it seems strange that Bob has

• 26:49Speaker 01

  now another guy that he believes was involved in the murder. I mean, I'm just wondering why at some point during that six-year period, he didn't give this information to police?

• 27:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, it does make you wonder if Bob had this information or the suspicion, why he sat on it. And, you know, if you're someone that suspects Bob and thinks he had some shady motives or was involved in some way, it probably doesn't help paint a good picture of him.

• 27:21Speaker 01

  But we also don't know when this alleged kind of confession happened, right? What year it happened? So could it be possible that this guy Kirk Thomas Bell, someone who had not been mentioned early on as a suspect, might have been responsible or played some role in the murder? Until everyone started pointing the finger at each other, investigators actually thought that the crime scene looked like a crime of opportunity and that Sammy was an unfortunate random victim. As it turned out, they were right. August County Commonwealth's Attorney A. Lee Irvin told the news leader, "Two drunks were just out

• 28:02Speaker 01

  there raising the devil." Kirk Thomas Bell and his childhood friend, 23-year-old Guy Jackson Price, didn't even know Sammy Wheel. Didn't know that he would be there that night and didn't realize he was actually inside his parked car when they came upon the scene. This was an actual case of the victim just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

• 28:28Speaker 02

  On the night of June 6th, Bell and Price had been aimlessly driving around, drinking, and basically seeing what kind of trouble they could get up to. Price was on leave from the Army and needed to let loose while he could. They got the idea to head to Elkhorn Lake and do some spotlight hunting, which is where you go hunting at night and use bright light to spot and shock the animals. In many places, this practice is illegal because shooting at night is just inherently more dangerous than shooting during the day, and it's also more cruel to the animals being hunted. The light makes them freeze up and reflects their eyes, making them incredibly visible and highly vulnerable. It gives them no chance to get away. It's less of a hunt, more of a slaughter.

• 29:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't hunt, Morph, but you know, I do have experience with deer. We have a lot of deer around where I live. And you know, if you're driving the backroads at night, you really have to be careful because it's entirely possible that, you know, if a deer is standing in the road and you know, you come over a hill, your lights shine on the deer, they don't move, they just kind of freeze.

• 29:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've never gone spotlighting for deer, so I don't know everything that's involved, but sort of like you touched on, you can clearly tell just by driving by and your lights shining on them that they sort of freeze up and stand there and don't really move a lot of times. So, you know, that seems like a tactic that if you're going to do that, it would be easier to get these deer.

• 30:02Speaker 01

  When the two men got to the George Washington National Forest and the parking area near Elkhorn Lake, they spotted Sammy's SUV parked there. According to Bell, Price got out of the car with a .30 .30 rifle and suddenly started shooting at the SUV. It was only after this shooting that either of them realized there was someone in the car. And when they looked closer, they knew that the person had been shot. Panicked, Price picked up all the shell casings and the two decided to get out of the area. But Price's erratic behavior continued as they were driving around. After shooting a stranger, Price felt that a truck was following them too closely.

• 30:47Speaker 01

  Bell pulled the car over to let the truck pass. But Price shot at the driver while pulled over Price heard a cow in the field and decided to shoot it too. So Bell is telling this story, right, to police and obviously he is putting it all on Price. And it's actually kind of a wild story if you think about it. So, you know, they're out, they're drinking, they're, they're raising hell, they're doing whatever. But to see an SUV just parked in the forest and think, oh, I'm gonna grab my rifle and you know, 3030 is a,

• 31:29Speaker 01

  is a pretty large cartridge and I'm just gonna start shooting the car, having no idea whose car it is, what's, what the situation is that, I mean, that just seems so strange to me. Now, obviously, at some point, they realized there was someone in the car who they had shot, or at least who Price had shot. So they panicked, they picked up the shell casings and got out there. But then even after that, Price is like shooting at a guy in a truck, he's shooting at a cow. I think erratic is maybe almost an understatement here.

• 32:10Speaker 02

  It didn't seem like they were criminal masterminds trying to hide and get away with what had happened. They're out shooting cows, shooting at other people. And, you know, who knows, maybe that other driver didn't even know that he was being shot at. But I wonder if he had come forward and reported being shot at that night and say, maybe the police would have put two and two together and said, maybe we should try and see if this is linked to Sammy's murder. And maybe that would have helped, you know, provide answers sooner.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  And you say, you know, not criminal masterminds. And yeah, I get that. But you know, just the very idea that you would think to pick up all the shell casings. Well, there's definitely some thought to that. You know, you did something wrong. You know that police can probably use those shell casings to help identify you. So you, you know, I definitely take that into account.

• 33:09Speaker 02

  Later on, Price made Bell drive them both back to the George Washington National Forest, this time in Price's car, a blue 1992 Mazda. The first thing Price did was shoot Sammy again, this time with a 22 caliber pistol, to make sure he had finished the job. Then Price got the idea to set the car on fire to destroy any evidence that could link them to the crime scene. There was no need for the shot with a pistol. One of the shots from the 3030 rifle had gone right through Sammy's heart and his left lung. He was already dead when he was shot in the head. A witness recalled seeing Price's car near the crime scene late on the night of June 6, or very early on the 7th.

• 33:48Speaker 01

  And this seems more of like such a strange thing to me. I mean, you're going to take a chance, go back out to the crime scene. For what? To make sure that this person is dead? I mean, my thought is, is if they're still there, they're dead. They're not making it. It just seems like an awfully big risk to drive your own car back out to the crime scene. And maybe that goes directly to your criminal mastermind thought.

• 34:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is odd because on one hand, they're trying to cover up anything that links them to the crime, set the car on fire, taking shell casings. But then they're doing all this other stuff that might draw attention to themselves. So it's a conflicting activity they were doing.

• 34:38Speaker 01

  And maybe the going back to, to shoot the person again, wasn't the main motive, right? Maybe it was to set the car on fire and get rid of evidence. And I mean, we know fire does destroy evidence. But we also know in this instance, they weren't successful, right? In setting the car on fire.

• 35:00Speaker 01

  Only one week after the murder, Price was stationed in Germany. Later at a preliminary hearing, Bell said, "He said if I said anything, the same thing would happen to me." And this was him trying to explain why he didn't come forward with what he knew. He said he was also afraid that even if he lived, he would be found guilty of the crime just for being there with Price. Despite the threats from Price, Bell cooperated with police. 29-year-old Guy Jackson Price was arrested on July 24th, 1998. He had left the Army in 1996, likely after an injury because he was receiving checks for 50% disability while working at Walmart.

• 35:45Speaker 01

  He was charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm during a felony, and shooting at an occupied vehicle and held on a bond of $75,000. The fact that he had been stationed multiple places throughout his military career was used as a point against him, making him a reasonable flight risk.

• 36:07Speaker 02

  Investigators recovered both of the guns Price used to shoot Sammy during a search of his parents' house in Dalville. A shell casing found in the field where the cow was shot and killed, the only shell casing not picked up by Price, matched one of the guns. Price tried to downplay his involvement, admitting that he was there when Sammy was shot, but he claimed that Bell was the one who pulled the trigger. In his version of the story, they were only at the crime scene once, in Bell's car, a green 1977 Chevette. A jury did not buy this version, because first of all, why would Bell have had guns that belonged to Price? And if they were only there once in Bell's car, how did a witness see Price's car there?

• 36:49Speaker 02

  The members of the jury, three men and nine women, believed Bell's version of the story because it matched more evidence than Price's version.

• 36:57Speaker 01

  And you can kind of understand that, right? Maybe why a jury would be a little dubious of Price's version of events. Number one, he's on trial for murder. So he's got to come up with something, right? That's something that we see all the time. And it's very common when you have multiple people involved for one person to then turn around and blame it on the other. But the gun thing, you know, to me as a juror would be a big deal. You're saying that Bell committed the crimes, but the guns belong to you. Okay. Doesn't make a lot of sense there.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  Also, in your story, you guys only went out there one time and it was in Bell's car, but we have a witness saying that they saw your car there.

• 37:50Speaker 02

  I think in this kind of situation where it's one person saying one thing, the other person saying the other thing, that the jury has to sort that all out and try and figure out which version is correct because they both can't be correct and come to a conclusion based on the totality of everything.

• 38:10Speaker 01

  And it sounds like they did just that by going with the story that matched the evidence, or at least more closely matched the evidence than the other story. On May 22nd, 1999, just two days after going on trial, the jury found Price guilty of first degree murder and recommended a life sentence plus eight years. He was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. In 2004, Price tried to appeal on grounds of ineffective counsel, but the motion was denied. Price's case is an interesting one. He first became eligible for parole in 2012, but the board denied his motion.

• 38:54Speaker 01

  He tried again in 2017 and 2019, but both times he was denied parole. It looks like he had to wait at least two years between requests for parole. But in March of 2020, the year after he was denied parole, he requested again. And this time it was granted. And this was the, the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And without it, Price may still be in jail to this day. If we think back to that time, many facilities were dealing with overcrowding and a spread of COVID. And many offenders were released during this time to try to help manage the spread and keep people healthy.

• 39:36Speaker 01

  And we all know, I mean, 2020 was a crazy year. There was so much going on. It was a bad year, no doubt about it. But when it comes to criminals, we know a lot of them were let out because of the overcrowding and the spread of COVID and all that. I mean, when you do the math more, if this guy only served like 22 years of a life sentence for murder, and I have to believe that COVID played a part in him getting out.

• 40:12Speaker 02

  It seems there's no doubt. And I know people can be rehabilitated, can learn their lesson behind prison. We don't have enough information to know if, what's this guy Price? If this guy Price was remorseful, or, you know, maybe they took that into consideration as well. But, you know, to me, this is a guy that it wasn't a spur of the moment thing. He took the time to clean up the evidence. He went back to the scene and shot the victim again. I feel that this is a little bit more of a serious crime, given the fact that he went to these

• 40:53Speaker 02

  extra lengths to, to cover it up and ensure that his victim was dead. So I'm a little bit surprised that he didn't do more time.

• 41:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, I am too, but I do think you have to, to look at COVID and I think it played a big part. I mean, heck, we know there, uh, who was the big serial killer who they almost let out? Was that the Green River Killer? Somebody was like slated to be let out accidentally or something.

• 41:19Speaker 02

  There's no way that he could be. I heard he was dying though.

• 41:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't know if it was him. There was a big killer who was on a list to be. Released and I think they figured it out before he actually was released. I can't remember who it was though.

• 41:36Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, it has to be pretty serious conditions during that time with COVID in prisons to let somebody like that kind of killer out, or at least consider letting him out. Price was only about 50 when he was granted parole and released. It seems like that's not too old to cause more trouble if you're the kind of person who will just shoot at parked cars, passing drivers and cows for no reason. Maybe he was truly rehabilitated, maybe received treatment and is no longer so unpredictable and dangerous. He was an army veteran and had served in the Gulf War. Maybe he was suffering from some mental health issues after that, which were treated or got better over time. We have to hope that the parole board knew what they were doing. We can't find any information on Price after his release from prison.

• 42:21Speaker 02

  It appears Kirk Thomas Bell died on February 23rd, 2025, just over one week after his 56th birthday. He never faced any charges in Sammy Wheeler's murder after confessing to police about what he had witnessed.

• 42:35Speaker 01

  And my thought is, you know, if you're Price, you're probably trying to keep your head down. Because you don't want to be in the news. You don't want anybody to know anything about you. So hopefully he's, he's definitely walking the, the straight and narrow.

• 42:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, to get out after that reasonably short amount of time, hopefully he's doing something better with his life. But I wonder, would this case have ever been solved if it wasn't for Kirk Thomas Bell? You know, coming to police and admitting what he had seen because it, you know, it seems like there was no physical evidence that might have, that would have linked Price to Sammy's murder.

• 43:17Speaker 01

  Now, I don't know if they would have ever. Solved it just using like normal investigative methods. I think this is one where somebody involved had to come forward. And that's exactly what happened, right? With with Kirk Thomas Bell. And I'm sure it's one of the reasons why he didn't actually face charges. Now, I'm kind of surprised by that because a lot of times, even with a confession, if you were there, you get charged with something. Some people still think that Bob Bean was involved in Sammy Wheeler's murder, even if he didn't shoot him and wasn't at the scene. They wondered if Bob could have hired someone else to kill Sammy,

• 44:00Speaker 01

  maybe even setting it up for a night that he had a rock solid alibi. Danny Wheeler believed that the pictures Bob's teenage son was taking of Sammy could have been to give to a hitman. But Bob laughed off this idea, saying that the FBI combed through his finances and saw that he wasn't really in the position to afford the expense of a hitman. But in Danny's belief that Bob was ultimately responsible, he didn't have to pay anyone to die. Danny told WSHV.com, I was sure it was Bob or one of his family members.

• 44:37Speaker 02

  One thing that some people point to that may be a link to Bob Bean is that it was Bob Bean himself who was able to direct the private investigator toward one of the two people who were at the scene. Maybe he did no price, but decided to try to distance himself from him. So he led the investigation to Bell instead of Price. Why did he wait for a private investigator to ask him if he had heard about some confession? One reason might be that there were multiple jurisdictions involved in the investigation. Maybe he didn't know which one to call since it had been so many years. Or maybe he didn't take it seriously. But since he was being interviewed about the case again, anyway, he decided it was worth mentioning. We just don't really know. There are rumors that Price's father was in the same National Guard unit as Bob,

• 45:22Speaker 02

  and that's how they knew each other. But then how does Bell factor in? And what was in it for him?

• 45:28Speaker 01

  And I think more if the, the finance part, okay. You know, I'm sure police looked at that. I don't know how people kill for money. But I certainly don't understand how you'd get somebody else to kill for you without giving them something. And most of the time, that's, you know, a chunk of money. And that's going to show up, I think, pretty easily in somebody's finances somewhere. Right. Once they comb through.

• 45:58Speaker 02

  Yeah, we know that sometimes you don't have to pay someone with money. Sometimes it could be a case of blackmail or something else that they're going to offer them to, to give them later on. But in this case, it doesn't seem like there's any evidence that Bob was connected to the murder.

• 46:16Speaker 01

  My other thing is, you know, Price did try to roll over on Bell. Why wouldn't he have tried to roll over on Bob? If Bob was involved, now he could have tried to cut a deal where he testified against Bob and maybe got a reduced sentence. It didn't seem like he tried to do any of that. So I just, I'm not seeing the Bob angle there at all. In the years since Sammy's murder, and since they pointed the finger at each other, Danny Wheeler and Bob Bean have actually become pretty close friends. The two went out to a bar together for a celebratory drink. When they learned there had been an arrest in the case, it seems that Danny believes what investigators originally thought. Sammy was a victim of a random crime.

• 47:02Speaker 01

  Danny has talked about how grateful he is that Bob forgave him for the accusations and actually went on to become one of his biggest supporters. Bob told the news leader, sometimes good people make honest mistakes, explaining how he could put it all behind him so easily.

• 47:20Speaker 02

  Alan Kates, the private investigator, told Greensboro.com, "I've never seen nothing quite like this one with everyone accusing everyone else." Before becoming a P I. for a law firm, he spent 18 years with the Allamance County Sheriff's Department. He called being able to provide closure in a case like this, "the ultimate high." For Danny Wheeler, finding justice for his twin wasn't just closure. The arrest gave him his life back. The twins had been inseparable since birth, even refusing to go to school in the seventh grade when they were placed in different classes. Sammy was Danny's rock. Suddenly Danny was on his own, and the one person he knew could tell him it would all be okay was gone. That's part of why Danny worked so hard to make sure someone was on the case.

• 48:05Speaker 02

  He knew Sammy would figure it out if it had been Danny. So Danny was going to figure it out for Sammy.

• 48:11Speaker 01

  When the arrest came, Danny knew he had done right by his brother. Danny and Sammy's mom, Colleen, told the news leader, "He can at last get on with his life." Their father, Edward, said, "He never felt like he would see the day he got answers," admitting, "I kind of gave up on it." Sammy and Danny's older brother, Tom Wheeler, told the news leader, "I don't know if this fellow who shot Sammy realized just how many lives he'd mess up when he took that one." Pat remarried in July of 1997, but left the man after about a year. She told the news leader, "I was trying to find another Sam, and I don't think there's another Sam out there."

• 48:54Speaker 01

  And I think, you know, when you hear some of these types of things, it just really reinforces the fact that, you know, when someone's life is taken, it affects so many people in so many different ways that, you know, oftentimes it's hard to truly calculate.

• 49:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's definitely a ripple effect, you know, that even as we discussed throughout this episode, had the people closest to Sam, you know, pointing fingers at each other and being suspicious of one another. And meanwhile, it turns out that it was no, none of them.

• 49:33Speaker 01

  And the one thing that really jumped out at me was, you know, Danny talking about, or his, you know, his parents talking about how he couldn't really move on with his life until the arrest came. And I think, you know, I think people have that. When a family member is murdered, for a lot of people, right? It changes their life in such a way that it's almost like they can't move forward. They're stuck trying to figure out what happened, who did it. And it seems like Danny was that way as well.

• 50:08Speaker 02

  This was a case that had multiple people that were close to the victim pointing the finger at each other. And in the end, none of them were involved. So many cases are still unsolved because of circumstances just like these. Too many good suspects with no evidence against any of them, or a perpetrator with zero connection to their victim or the crime scene. If Kirk Thomas Bell had never run his mouth and eventually told police what he had witnessed, this case might still be today, an unsolved mystery.

• 50:34Speaker 01

  And I think that's a very important point. You and I do cover unsolved cases. We have for years. And you could see how this one could have easily gone unsolved, right? Price had no connection whatsoever to Sammy Wheeler. How was he ever going to get on police radar? You know, if Bell doesn't have a few drinks and start talking about it, and then ultimately decide to cooperate with police, I think this might have been a tough one to solve.

• 51:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, we talked about the, the lack of evidence, the, the attempt to cover it up. And, you know, thankfully, this family did get answers and they know who is responsible. And that might not have happened if, if Kirk Thomas Bell didn't open his mouth.

• 51:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, tragic case for Sammy, for sure, because he wasn't doing anything wrong, right? We said it, he's kind of living out of his SUV, just found a place to park. He was, you know, maybe just bedding down for the night. I don't know exactly what he was doing, but. As far as I know, he wasn't doing anything wrong. And for whatever reason, these guys just get out of their car and Price starts shooting a rifle into the SUV and kills Sam.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  This is like the epitome of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

• 52:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's a strange case, a sad case, but also a very fascinating case. When you think about, you know, the people closest to Sammy who were looked at pointing the finger at each other, and then ultimately it turns out to be someone with no connection to Sammy whatsoever. But that's it for our episode on Sammy Wheeler. As always, if you love this show, but you haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, leave us a review, also leave a rating and keep telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really goes a long way.

• 52:36Speaker 02

  If you want to find us on social media, we're on every major platform. Just search for Criminology Podcast on your favorite. And for news, old episodes and more, head over to criminologypodcast.com. And if you want to join a discussion about the show and the cases we discuss, head over to Facebook and search for the group Criminology Podcast Discussion and Fans.

• 52:56Speaker 01

  So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, from Mike.

• 53:05Speaker 02

  And Morph.

• 53:06Speaker 01

  We'll talk to you next week.

• 53:08Speaker 02

  Take care, everyone.