Criminology - Sammy Wheeler

Episode Date: July 19, 2026

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. 

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It's like I can't stop. I'm addicted. Start your free trial at Shopify.com. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 418 of the Criminology Podcast. This is Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, how you doing this week, buddy?

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 it yeah that 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 yeah i look forward to friday mornings that's when we usually record and you know hang out for a couple hours to talk about

a cool case and get ready for the next one 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. 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 patreon.com slash criminology. 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 19, 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. This story starts out on June 7, 1992.

It was around 10 in the morning that day. In a parking area of George Washington National Forest in Virginia, the two hikers came across an odd scene. And they knew right away that something was. was definitely wrong. The first thing that stood out was an SUV, a dark blue 1988 Asuzu 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 burned, 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 and a volunteer firefighter for help. 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 back seat dead. It appeared that he had been killed inside the car. He had 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. 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. you're 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 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, 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 an EMT and a volunteer firefighter are going to know more than the average person. But also, you know, as I said, this volunteer firefighter opens the door carefully because he knows. This is a crime scene and he doesn't want to disturb any evidence. 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 that are 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. because 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. 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. Sammy was an identical twin. His twin brother, Danny, immediately thought of a suspect who might have wanted Sammy, Sammy's girlfriend Pat Snee 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 had 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 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 a custody battle. But this idea morph of, you know, someone being jealous or or upset, whatever word you want to use about their, their ex, you know, seeing someone else. Okay. It's going to have. 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. 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. of 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. 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 comes to Bob here. 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. 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 PI caught Danny talking to Pat when she had the boys. Now, it's unclear if the children were actually there and interacting with Sammy. Sammy, or if he was just seen at the apartment building, at a time the children would have been inside. The PI could have seen his car parked at Danny's and assumed he was at Pat. There's 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 PI told him, this is what

happened. 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, 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?

So that's just something I've been thinking about as we've got up to this part. 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 Samuel, Sammy was not to be around the boys. It had to be more than just Bob being angry or jealous. But what it is, we don't know. 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

from the sleep comfortably. He could stop by his brothers 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. 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 through separate ways, but police wondered if this confrontation could have been the final straw for Bob Bean. So two things jump out of 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 carries. about this woman deeply, wanted to be with her because he's taking some extraordinary steps. He's willing to live in his SUV. 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 seemed like he was going out of his way to do his part and make that work. 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. Pat had stolen. started to suspect Danny of Sammy's murder after a friend told her that he was secretly in love with Pat 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. 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.

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, 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, Mor, there's a lot going on here. First and foremost, Sammy is dead. But then, you know, you have the police questioning those are. 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 in the forest. When Sam got shot. 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. Yeah, and they got to 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 kids, they're only three and four years.

old. So, you know, three and four-year-old say some wild stuff. You got to keep all of that in mind as well. 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 is make it seem like Pat was involved. Just plant the seat 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 in their heads and that children didn't know or witness anything regarding Sammy's murder. Your sales order says one thing. Your inventory says another. Your spreadsheet says good luck. O-Doo brings your business together on a single platform. From sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, visit Odu.com to book a demo.

It's O-D-O-O-O-com. So to this point in the story, we have multiple people, the new Sammy, and they all seem to be pointing the finger at each other. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 in the kids. There was no need to take two young children to the woods in the middle of the night and hoped 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, she was keeping a thorough record she could take to court with her if she was accused of violating any court order. So Bob's alibi is really good, right?

I, my youngest daughter's boyfriend is in the National Guard. He does 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 stent. 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 it just means he couldn't have physically been there and killed sammy you know himself but then you know i 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 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. Yeah, both of their alibis seemed 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. 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 be. 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. 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 Newsleader, someone out there is going to be awfully angry with themselves when an arrest is made, and they realized they had the information to take this $10,000 reward, but they kept their mouths shut.

Danny couldn't bear the thought of his brother's murder staying unsolved forever, so we hired Alan Cates, a private investigator for a law firm. As this was a private case, not related to any of the firm's cases, Cates 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 Cates interviewed Bob Bean in 1998, Bob had yet another suspect in mind. He told Cates 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 murderer aired on TV. And he blurted out. Hell, I know who did that. It was Guy and I. And we mentioned it, Morfright.

Danny and Sammy were twins. And, you know, there's that bond between twins. I mean, I don't know what it is. I'm an only child. then 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 now another guy that he believes was involved in the murder. I mean, just wondering why at some point during that six year period, he didn't give this information to police. 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.

But we also don't know when this alleged kind of confession happened, right? What year had 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, 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 newsleader, two drunks were just out there raising the devil, Kirk Thomas Bell, and his childhood friend,

23-year-old Guy Jackson Price didn't even know Sammy Wheeler, 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. 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. Yeah, I don't hunt morph, but I do have experience with deer. We have a lot of deer around where I live. And, you know, if you're driving the back roads 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. 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 light shining on them that they sort of freeze up and stand there and don't really move a lot of time. So, you know, that seems like a tactic that if you're going to do that, it would be easier to get these deer. When the two men got to the George Wai's,

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 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.

Bell pulled the car over to let the truck pass, but Price shot at the driver. While pulled over, Price heard a cow in a field and decided to shoot it too. So Bell is telling this story, right, to police, and obviously he is putting it. 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 going to grab my rifle. And, you know, 3030 is a pretty large cartridge. And I'm just going to start shooting the car. having no idea whose car it is, what's what the situation is. 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 of there. But then even after that, prices like shooting at a guy in a truck. He's shooting at a cow. I think erratic is maybe almost an understatement here. 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, 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 answer sooner. 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 know, I definitely take that into account. 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 30-30 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. 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. Yeah,

it is odd because on one hand, they're trying to cover up anything that links into 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. And maybe the going back to to shoot the person again wasn't the main motor, 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. Growing businesses deal with the same problem. Too many tools, too much back and forth, and not enough time. Odu helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management platform, fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, so your team can spend less time chasing information and focus on growth. Whether you're in retail, manufacturing, or service, O-DU gives you one place to manage your business. Visit O-D-O-D-com to book a demo. It's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-O-com. 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 24, 1998. He had left the Army in 1996, likely after an injury, because he was receiving checks for 50% disability while working at Walmart.

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 on, Multiple places throughout his military career was used as a point against him, making him a reasonable flight risk. 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 Shabbat. 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? 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. And you can kind of understand that, right? 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. 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. 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. 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. He tried again in 2017 and 2009. 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 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. 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, morph, this guy only served like 22 years of a life sentence for a murder.

And I have to believe that COVID played a part in him getting out. 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 in 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 these 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. 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, who was the big serial killer who they almost let out? Is that the Green River killer? Somebody was like slated to be let out accidentally or something. There's no way that he could be. No, I heard he was dying though. 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. 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, and 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. It appears Kirk Thomas Bell died on February 23, 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. And my thought is, you know, if your 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 definitely walking the... the straight and narrow. 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 Kurt Thomas Bell 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.

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 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, 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. One thing that some people point to that may be a link to Bob Bean is that it was Bob being himself who was able to direct the private investigator toward one of the two people who were at the scene. Maybe he did know 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 the 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, and that's how they knew each other. But then how does Bell factor in and what was in it for him? And I think more if 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 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. 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 give them later on. But in this case, it doesn't. It doesn't doesn't seem like there's any evidence that Bob is connected to the murder. 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. Danny has talked about how gratefully 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. Alan Cates, the private investigator, told Greensboro.com, I've never seen nothing quite like this one, with everyone accusing everyone else. Before becoming a PI for a law firm, he spent 18 years with the Alamance 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. He knew Sammy would figure it out if it had been Danny, so Danny was going to figure it out for Sammy. When the arrest came, Danny knew he had done right by his brother. Danny and Sammy's mom calling told the newsleader, 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 newsleader, 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 newsleader, I was trying to find another Sam. And I don't think there's another Sam out there. 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. 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. And the one thing that really jumped out at me was, you know, Danny talked. 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. This was a case that had 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. 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. Yeah, we talked about the lack of evidence, 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 Kurt Thomas Bell didn't open his mouth. Yeah, a 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 betting 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 kill Sam. This is like the epitome of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. 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 you.

telling your friends. Word of mouth about the podcast really goes a long way. 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 Criminology Podcast.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. So that's it for another episode of Criminology, but Morp and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, for Mike and Morp. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.