Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Another body found in a shallow grave near the remains of 20-year-old beauty, Vannessa Guillen.

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Another body found in a shallow grave near the remains of 20-year-old beauty, Vannessa Guillen. · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece. The name Vanessa Gim will
0:17
Speaker 1: live in our hearts, in our minds forever. The beautiful
0:21
Speaker 1: twenty year old private first class from Fort Hood who
0:25
Speaker 1: is murdered, her body hidden. All of this starts at
0:29
Speaker 1: Fort Hood, within the Army, but they somehow don't know
0:33
Speaker 1: anything about what's going on, still denying about sex harassment
0:36
Speaker 1: claims that she had suffered. But another name has emerged
0:43
Speaker 1: amidst the Vanessa Gim investigation. That name is Gregory with
0:49
Speaker 1: Dell Morales. Could somebody tell me how the army posted
0:55
Speaker 1: him as a wall targeted him for desertion claims, even
1:02
Speaker 1: after his body has been found in a shallow grave
1:07
Speaker 1: during the search for Vanessa. That's all wrong. Crime Stories
1:19
Speaker 1: with Nancy Grace. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
1:29
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us. Take a listen to
1:30
Speaker 1: our friends at kaw Katie Fox forty four. The disappearance
1:36
Speaker 1: of Gregory Morales does not make any sense because his
1:39
Speaker 1: phone mysteriously went silent on Monday, also adding he was
1:43
Speaker 1: looking forward to process out of the military in a
1:46
Speaker 1: few weeks. Friends say they're at lost words. I don't
1:51
Speaker 1: know when the next time I see him, How I'm
1:54
Speaker 1: going to see him? Diana Williams says she's in total
1:57
Speaker 1: shock after her friend Gregory more Morals went missing one Monday.
2:01
Speaker 1: No matter how we try to contact them, whether it
2:04
Speaker 1: be Facebook, his phone, any type of messaging, there's no answer.
2:10
Speaker 1: Williams became suspicious when she heard the twenty three year
2:13
Speaker 1: old soldier was in no show at the four Hood base.
2:16
Speaker 1: That was a sign lay something could possibly be wrong. Yeah,
2:21
Speaker 1: something was very wrong. This young guy, just twenty three
2:26
Speaker 1: years old, Gregory Wheedle Moralice is dead. But why as
2:33
Speaker 1: the army dragged their feet naming him first a wall
2:37
Speaker 1: targeting him for desertion charges and then for very long
2:41
Speaker 1: period of time refusing to lift that he's dead and
2:45
Speaker 1: a shallow grave? How can that be? With me an
2:49
Speaker 1: All Star panel visit Hill k j R HTV News anchor,
2:55
Speaker 1: Reporter Joseph Scott Morgan, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, an
3:00
Speaker 1: author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon Psychoanalysts joining
3:05
Speaker 1: me from Beverly Hills. Doctor Bethany Marshall at doctor Bethany
3:09
Speaker 1: Marshall dot com. Kurt Nurmi, renowned defense attorney The Jodi Arius,
3:14
Speaker 1: defense attorney and author. I've trapped with miss Arius on
3:18
Speaker 1: Amazon and special guest joining me Gregory's mother, Kim Wheedle.
3:27
Speaker 1: Miss Wheedle, thank you for being with us. I'm pleasure
3:30
Speaker 1: to be here, Miss Wheedle. I find it very difficult
3:34
Speaker 1: to understand why you have not been given a cod
3:40
Speaker 1: cause of death for your son, Gregory. What are authorities
3:46
Speaker 1: telling you? Honestly? Right when they first found his remains
3:51
Speaker 1: on August or sorry June nineteenth, they had they said
3:59
Speaker 1: that he was basically scattered all over this field because
4:02
Speaker 1: I just nature and wildlife, and some people went out
4:08
Speaker 1: to put out a memorial and they found more evidence.
4:12
Speaker 1: So I think there's still evidence coming in. But other
4:15
Speaker 1: than that, I would I don't know. I don't understand
4:19
Speaker 1: why it's taking so long for the autopsy results to
4:22
Speaker 1: come in. Jessus Scot Morgan, you are a death investigator,
4:27
Speaker 1: professor forensic Jacksonal State. I don't get it. So people, friends, family,
4:34
Speaker 1: colleagues go out to where his body is ultimately found
4:39
Speaker 1: during a search for a Vanessa gim and they happen
4:44
Speaker 1: to find other remains. It's as if the army wasn't
4:48
Speaker 1: even looking for Gregory. But so they find the remains.
4:52
Speaker 1: Then these the friends go out to lay a memorial
4:55
Speaker 1: there and they find other remains. Did I get that right,
5:01
Speaker 1: miss Wheedle, that's correct? What kind of a half? Well,
5:07
Speaker 1: I gave up cursing, so I can't say that. What
5:10
Speaker 1: kind of a job did authorities do? The death investigators?
5:13
Speaker 1: The investigators do if when friends come out to lay
5:17
Speaker 1: out flowers and immemorial they find some more of the body, Well,
5:21
Speaker 1: it was not sufficient to the task, Nancy Man. That's
5:25
Speaker 1: certainly putting perfume on a pig. Yeah, I know, and sorry,
5:31
Speaker 1: as miss Wheedle had had put just a second ago.
5:36
Speaker 1: His remains have been scattered, and this is very common
5:39
Speaker 1: when we have skeletonized remains. If a body is not
5:44
Speaker 1: sufficiently buried at a great depth, then you're going to
5:47
Speaker 1: get all types of wildlife that are out there. And
5:50
Speaker 1: one of the things that happens is that skeletal remains
5:53
Speaker 1: will be drug off in various directions depended upon the
5:56
Speaker 1: animal that's involved in this. And I noticed very difficult
6:00
Speaker 1: to hear, and I'm sorry I'm having to say it,
6:02
Speaker 1: but the reality is this, they're spread everywhere. Now that
6:05
Speaker 1: doesn't excuse the authority's inability to really pinpoint this. You know,
6:12
Speaker 1: once you find any part of a human remain at
6:17
Speaker 1: that moment in time, Nancy, everything should be locked down.
6:20
Speaker 1: I've been on scenes with sculpt remains, Nancy, where they've
6:23
Speaker 1: been scattered. Everything was shut down for days and days
6:27
Speaker 1: on end. We broke the thing down into grids. We
6:30
Speaker 1: had up to twenty to thirty people marching shoulder to
6:33
Speaker 1: shoulder with one another, looking over every inch of ground.
6:38
Speaker 1: Animals tend not to take sculpt remains off to great,
6:42
Speaker 1: great distances. Now, what they will do is take them
6:44
Speaker 1: back to their burrow. But most of the time, if
6:47
Speaker 1: you're talking about remains, they're on surface of ground. We're
6:49
Speaker 1: not talking about them hauling them off miles and miles.
6:52
Speaker 1: That draws into question what exactly were they doing out
6:56
Speaker 1: there and why is this particular area seem to, I
7:00
Speaker 1: don't know, be a repository for remains. You know, we
7:04
Speaker 1: look at Vanessa's case, who we were all heartbreaking broken over,
7:09
Speaker 1: and now this case, why in this particular area. Well,
7:13
Speaker 1: let us start at the beginning of Gregory's disappearance. For
7:18
Speaker 1: those of you just joining us, Gregory's body was found
7:22
Speaker 1: during the search for twenty year old Private first Class
7:25
Speaker 1: Vanessa Gein. During that search, remains were found, and at
7:30
Speaker 1: first everyone thought it was a Vanessa. It wasn't. It
7:33
Speaker 1: was Gregory. He was set to leave the military honorably
7:38
Speaker 1: in just a couple of weeks, but his body is
7:41
Speaker 1: found buried in a shallow grave. Even now, Mom does
7:47
Speaker 1: not have a cod and the army has put her
7:50
Speaker 1: through he doble l regarding treating her son as if
7:55
Speaker 1: he deserted. Let's start at the beginning, Kim Wheedle, this
7:59
Speaker 1: is Gregory's When did you first become concerned something was
8:04
Speaker 1: very wrong with Gregory? When I received a call from
8:08
Speaker 1: his his sergeant, asking me if I'd talked to him
8:11
Speaker 1: or he knew where he was at. And I believe
8:14
Speaker 1: that was August twentieth. I had I had actually talked
8:18
Speaker 1: to greg on the night keeenth and when the twentieth
8:23
Speaker 1: they called asked if I knew where he was, if
8:24
Speaker 1: I had talked to him, and UM what I told
8:29
Speaker 1: him I had talked to him the day before. They
8:32
Speaker 1: proceeded to tell me that he did not show up
8:34
Speaker 1: for formation, that they had gone looking for him. They
8:38
Speaker 1: had called his friends and family there and nobody had
8:44
Speaker 1: seen him well. I tried to call his phone and
8:48
Speaker 1: it went straight to voicemail. I don't know any twenty
8:51
Speaker 1: something year old who lets his phone die for very long.
8:54
Speaker 1: I knew there was something wrong, and I tried to
8:56
Speaker 1: file a missing person report. They wouldn't take WHOA who
9:02
Speaker 1: would not take the missing person report? CID said they
9:06
Speaker 1: would not and College police said they would not. Why
9:10
Speaker 1: because I wasn't in tech prime stories with Nancy Grace.
9:26
Speaker 1: A young man in the prime of his largest twenty
9:29
Speaker 1: three years old Gregory Whetle Moralice, his body only discovered
9:36
Speaker 1: during the search for Vanessa Gain Private first class there
9:40
Speaker 1: at Fort Hood. Take a listen to our friends at
9:43
Speaker 1: k w t X needs ten August nineteen to twenty
9:48
Speaker 1: nineteen the last time anyone has seen Private Gregory Wheedle Morales.
9:53
Speaker 1: In the weeks to follow, not a trace except the
9:56
Speaker 1: possible sighting of his car. The only actual proof a
10:00
Speaker 1: league we found is my daughter in law just actually
10:02
Speaker 1: pulled up his CARFAX report for this missing car and
10:05
Speaker 1: it showed it was inspected in Dallas in December. Fort
10:09
Speaker 1: Hood would classify Gregory as a wall then desertion status
10:13
Speaker 1: now the Army Criminal Investigation Command is hoping a fifteen
10:17
Speaker 1: thousand dollar reward will help bring the missing soldier back home.
10:21
Speaker 1: His mom doesn't believe he would have intentionally vanished. He
10:25
Speaker 1: had plans so just disappearing, losing the money to pay
10:30
Speaker 1: for college, you know, losing her paycheck. It's just that's
10:34
Speaker 1: not him. The family of Gregory wal Morales is accusing
10:42
Speaker 1: the Army of wrongfully designated this young man twenty three
10:48
Speaker 1: years old as a deserter. Even now, Mom cannot bury
10:53
Speaker 1: her son. To Dr Bethany Marshall, Psychoanalis joining us out
10:56
Speaker 1: of LA when we hear talk like the remains were scattered.
11:06
Speaker 1: To hear that, you know that's because of let me
11:08
Speaker 1: just say ephemistically, due to animal activity. We know what
11:13
Speaker 1: that means. To think that this young sons body was
11:21
Speaker 1: out there for this period of time and instead of
11:27
Speaker 1: finding him, the Army declared him a deserter. You heard
11:32
Speaker 1: the mom joining me right now. Kim Wheedle say his
11:36
Speaker 1: phone went dead. Nobody lets their phone go dead. He
11:40
Speaker 1: didn't pick up a check, He totally dropped off the map.
11:44
Speaker 1: His friend's love interest mom, nobody heard from him. That
11:49
Speaker 1: was it. Of course, He's not a wall. Of course,
11:53
Speaker 1: he didn't desert, he's come. He's a victim of foul play.
11:58
Speaker 1: This has got to be a scrucia for the family.
12:02
Speaker 1: Nancy having great Rew Morales's mother on this show, and
12:10
Speaker 1: Missus Morales just Neetle Morales. It's just my condolences go
12:14
Speaker 1: to you, and I'm sorry you have to hear words
12:16
Speaker 1: like human remains. This is a twenty twenty three year
12:21
Speaker 1: old on a young man who had plans to go
12:25
Speaker 1: to college, who had just bought a car, who loved
12:28
Speaker 1: his mother, who was in touch with his family. You know,
12:31
Speaker 1: I don't know the military, but I do know group psychology.
12:35
Speaker 1: And when the military wanted him, they were all over him.
12:39
Speaker 1: They recruited him, they brought him in, they wanted him
12:43
Speaker 1: to be a part of the group. The minute he
12:46
Speaker 1: went missing, they wanted nothing to do with him. That
12:50
Speaker 1: kind of group psychology, Nancy, is toxic. It's poisonous and
12:56
Speaker 1: it leads to language like human remains. This field where
13:01
Speaker 1: he was found. Joe Scott Morgans brought up aptly, why
13:06
Speaker 1: so many human remains in one field? It's like the
13:09
Speaker 1: killing fields there and what has happened on this base?
13:14
Speaker 1: That so many people go missing. I feel like I'm
13:17
Speaker 1: looking into a cess pool and I don't quite know
13:19
Speaker 1: what at the bottom. I can guess that there is
13:23
Speaker 1: a culture of some kind of harassment, whether it's sexual harassment,
13:28
Speaker 1: whether it's a culture of sadism, a bullying, of hazing,
13:33
Speaker 1: something like that that goes too far. I had a
13:35
Speaker 1: beloved patient last week who grew up on a military base.
13:40
Speaker 1: Sob through the entire session because she told me that
13:45
Speaker 1: so many of the men on the base were what
13:47
Speaker 1: she called creepers, that there were these sex offenders on
13:51
Speaker 1: the base that would predate against her as a child.
13:54
Speaker 1: Her family lived on a base, and nobody protected her
13:58
Speaker 1: because it was a part of the culture. So what
14:02
Speaker 1: is this culture. I don't see it as the military.
14:05
Speaker 1: I'm beginning to see it almost as a cult, a society,
14:10
Speaker 1: a group that overlooks wrongdoing to its own members, recruits
14:15
Speaker 1: people and then abuses them once they're in their midst,
14:18
Speaker 1: you know. In the last hours, Fox seven Austin has
14:22
Speaker 1: reported that Gregory has now been reinstated to active duty.
14:27
Speaker 1: According to Fort Hood. To Kim Wheedle, Gregory's mother, it
14:34
Speaker 1: took hell and high water to get the Army to
14:37
Speaker 1: reinstate him even after his body has been found. He
14:40
Speaker 1: was murdered and buried in a shallow grave, obviously shortly
14:44
Speaker 1: after he was last seen driving away from Fort Hood.
14:47
Speaker 1: What did it take, Kim to get the Army to
14:50
Speaker 1: drop the deserter status on your son? It took a
14:55
Speaker 1: lot of public outcry and a lot of phone calls
14:59
Speaker 1: de senators, not just in my states, but in Texas
15:03
Speaker 1: and actually my sister in Hawaii contacting her concreous people.
15:08
Speaker 1: It was. It just took a lot of pressure from
15:12
Speaker 1: people to get them to correct their mistake, to make
15:16
Speaker 1: something right that should never have started like that. How
15:19
Speaker 1: long did your campaign take before you got changed, before
15:23
Speaker 1: he was taken the deserter status was taken away and lifted. Well,
15:31
Speaker 1: we started fighting that fight on June twentieth, when we
15:36
Speaker 1: found out that he was going to be left as
15:38
Speaker 1: a deserter until the autopsy, So almost a month since
15:44
Speaker 1: he went missing. Could you tell me, Kim, what the
15:48
Speaker 1: Army did to try to find him, As far as
15:52
Speaker 1: I know, not much. They basically, just as when a
16:00
Speaker 1: soldier goes day wall, they looked for them for about
16:03
Speaker 1: a day or two, and if they can't find them.
16:05
Speaker 1: They just moved somebody else into his slot to fill it,
16:08
Speaker 1: and he's kind of forgotten. There wasn't anybody really looking
16:13
Speaker 1: for him. I'm also curious what you said, aside from
16:17
Speaker 1: the army, why the local police surrounding Fort Hood would
16:22
Speaker 1: not allow you to report him missing? Could you explain
16:24
Speaker 1: that again? They told me because I wasn't in Texas,
16:27
Speaker 1: I couldn't file a missing person report in Texas, so
16:30
Speaker 1: I had to get somebody in Texas to do it
16:33
Speaker 1: for me. And what authority was that the local PD
16:37
Speaker 1: around Fort Hood? Yeah, it was the police police department,
16:41
Speaker 1: the Killeen Police Department joining me, Vincent Hill kJ RHTV.
16:46
Speaker 1: Where exactly was the location of Gregory twenty three year
16:51
Speaker 1: old Gregory's body as it relates to Fort Hood, Well,
16:54
Speaker 1: Nancy has remained were found about ten miles from the
16:58
Speaker 1: base or remote field out in Colleen, Texas. And this
17:03
Speaker 1: was all based on a tip. Now whether that tip
17:06
Speaker 1: was about vaness his case or whether it was about
17:09
Speaker 1: Gregory's case, that's not clear. But Colleen police received the
17:13
Speaker 1: tip and that's when they found his remains in that
17:15
Speaker 1: remote field. Just got Morgan how far away from Vanessa's remains,
17:21
Speaker 1: Vanessa again's remains where Gregory's remains. My understanding, Nancy, is
17:28
Speaker 1: that not very far. I think that it's probably certainly
17:33
Speaker 1: within a mile of one another. And so for me,
17:38
Speaker 1: you know, thinking about this as an investigator and in
17:41
Speaker 1: this isolated area, which that area out there is certainly isolated,
17:46
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, what are the odds, you know, just if
17:48
Speaker 1: you apply the logic to this, you know, what are
17:50
Speaker 1: the odds that you're going to find two service personnel
17:54
Speaker 1: from the same post who's who are missing and and
18:00
Speaker 1: are now found in this state. Of course, Vanessa's the
18:04
Speaker 1: nature of her burial and everything is completely different than Gregory's.
18:08
Speaker 1: But the idea that they're both found there, I think
18:12
Speaker 1: that from a broader perspective, my question would be, and
18:19
Speaker 1: this is horrible, who else is out there? Who else
18:22
Speaker 1: is missing? And is this a specific to use the
18:27
Speaker 1: term repository a little while ago for remains? And so,
18:32
Speaker 1: you know, to me, my mind is running here, you know,
18:34
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about this, and I'm thinking, well, you've got
18:37
Speaker 1: commingled remains out here. They're looking, you know, for Vanessa,
18:41
Speaker 1: and they find Gregory. Are there other remains out there?
18:44
Speaker 1: And do they have a way to separate these remains?
18:47
Speaker 1: And I'm thinking about things like DNA and this sort
18:49
Speaker 1: of thing. Are they going to take the time to
18:51
Speaker 1: apply the necessary technology in order to kind of, you know,
18:57
Speaker 1: put a finer point on what we're dealing with here.
19:00
Speaker 1: Is this is a nasty business, Nancy, And so you know,
19:05
Speaker 1: for me, I'm thinking, well, if Gregory's remains went to,
19:10
Speaker 1: in my understanding, and Vincent can correct me if I'm wrong,
19:13
Speaker 1: went to the Southwestern Forensic Center, which is actually located
19:17
Speaker 1: in Dallas, that's one saving grace because they are this
19:21
Speaker 1: is being handled by the state authorities. If he had
19:24
Speaker 1: died on Post, if his remains were found on Post,
19:27
Speaker 1: they would have been taken all the way to Washington,
19:29
Speaker 1: to the America, to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology,
19:32
Speaker 1: and you think you're not getting information, Now they have
19:35
Speaker 1: the ability to completely shut that down. So that's one
19:39
Speaker 1: saving grace that you have Southwestern involved in this, and
19:42
Speaker 1: they're a really good bunch of people and they do
19:45
Speaker 1: really good work. I can't speak to the Kaleen Police
19:48
Speaker 1: Department though I don't know where they are from a
19:51
Speaker 1: technology stand one. And now now you've got two big
19:56
Speaker 1: cases that they're having to deal with. I just I
19:58
Speaker 1: wish the Rangers would get involved in this, to be
20:01
Speaker 1: perfectly honest, I'd like to know if they are crime
20:16
Speaker 1: stories with Nancy Grace. Guys are talking about the disappearance,
20:20
Speaker 1: in the discovery of the body of a young man
20:23
Speaker 1: and looking at him right now, handsome, vibrant, loved his mom,
20:31
Speaker 1: doing a great job. Two weeks approximately two weeks before
20:36
Speaker 1: he leaves the army in good standing, he drives away
20:40
Speaker 1: from the base there at Fort Hood and has never
20:42
Speaker 1: seen alive again. I'm talking about Gregory wheel Morales, just
20:47
Speaker 1: twenty three years old. This all comes to light during
20:50
Speaker 1: the search for twenty year old Private first Class Vanessa
20:53
Speaker 1: Again and the search for her body. How could two
20:57
Speaker 1: Fort Hood soldiers be murdered and buried about a mile
21:03
Speaker 1: apart and their death not be connected. What all did
21:09
Speaker 1: Gregory's mother have to go through begging local police and
21:14
Speaker 1: forth Hoood authorities to help her find her son, insisting
21:17
Speaker 1: he was not a wall Nobody would listen. Take a
21:22
Speaker 1: listen to our friends at k WTX, just minutes away
21:27
Speaker 1: from forth Hoood. This community is feeling a range of
21:30
Speaker 1: emotions hearing that the mother of a missing soldier, says
21:34
Speaker 1: that his remains were found in an open field. In
21:38
Speaker 1: the window up here, you can see the whole field.
21:41
Speaker 1: You can see what they were doing. You can see
21:43
Speaker 1: the yellow tape, and we saw that they had teams
21:45
Speaker 1: coming out searching the area. Army veteran Michael Hellman says
21:49
Speaker 1: he could only feel sorrow and shock for the tragedy
21:52
Speaker 1: then unfolded in his own backyard Friday morning. I cannot
21:56
Speaker 1: imagine how hard it is to know where your where
22:01
Speaker 1: your child is, and for someone who used to lead
22:05
Speaker 1: troops not know where your troop is, where your soldier is,
22:08
Speaker 1: someone who you see as a part of your family.
22:12
Speaker 1: The mother of Gregory we Del Morales told KWTX that
22:16
Speaker 1: the remains found that day belonged to her son, who
22:19
Speaker 1: had been missing since August of last year. I'm trying
22:22
Speaker 1: to figure out what that scene looked like, because you know,
22:26
Speaker 1: when the police were searching and medical examine investigators were
22:33
Speaker 1: searching for the remains of let's just say I'm Kelly Anthony.
22:38
Speaker 1: They had a tent up all through the night. Investigators
22:42
Speaker 1: were on their knees, digging, looking, going through the grass
22:49
Speaker 1: with tweezers to find everyone for two hundred plus bones
22:55
Speaker 1: and her body. We saw the same thing in the
22:58
Speaker 1: search for a missing Suzanne Moorephew. Authorities totally tore apart
23:05
Speaker 1: a cement Basse reportedly that her husband had dug on
23:10
Speaker 1: a home he was working on trying to find her remains.
23:13
Speaker 1: We see it over and over, painstaking searches for the remains.
23:19
Speaker 1: As of right now, Gregory wheel Morales mom doesn't even
23:23
Speaker 1: have a cod cause of death. Friends and colleagues go
23:26
Speaker 1: out to the location to lay a flowers or balloons.
23:30
Speaker 1: They find body parts, bones that investigators did not find.
23:35
Speaker 1: What the hay is going on? Why did the mom
23:39
Speaker 1: joining me right now Kim Wheedle have to call and
23:42
Speaker 1: beg Forthood and the Colleen Police to declare her son
23:47
Speaker 1: missing and start looking for him. Why right now there's
23:51
Speaker 1: a twenty five thousand dollar reward in the search for
23:57
Speaker 1: information on Gregory Wheedle Morales's death and the circumstances surrounding it.
24:03
Speaker 1: Tipline two five four five zero one eight eight three zero.
24:09
Speaker 1: That's the Killeen, Texas Police two five four five zero
24:13
Speaker 1: one eight eight thirty Army number two five four nine
24:18
Speaker 1: five seven seven six seven two five four, four, nine, five, seven, seven, six,
24:24
Speaker 1: seven to twenty five thousand dollars reward put up by
24:28
Speaker 1: the Army. I'm glad they're doing that now, Kim, but
24:32
Speaker 1: it's kind of a day late and a dollar short.
24:35
Speaker 1: I mean, I appreciate what they're doing now, but I
24:38
Speaker 1: feel that the only reason they took him off the
24:40
Speaker 1: list of deserters is because here at Crime Stories and
24:45
Speaker 1: other places we kicked up such a ruckass and a
24:47
Speaker 1: fit and called them out. They had to do something
24:50
Speaker 1: because people started finding out about it, Kim. I believe
24:54
Speaker 1: that's true. It just it wasn't going to happen. They
24:58
Speaker 1: told me until after the autopsy results, and for them
25:02
Speaker 1: to come back and tell me beforehand. The colonel at
25:06
Speaker 1: the base actually told me that it was based on
25:08
Speaker 1: new evidence Colleen had put together that they were going
25:11
Speaker 1: to reinstate him. I talked to the detective a Colleen,
25:14
Speaker 1: and he said they didn't have any new evidence, so
25:17
Speaker 1: he wasn't sure what he was talking about. And Senator
25:21
Speaker 1: Enhof's office called and said it was being done because
25:23
Speaker 1: of all the pressure that people were putting on them. Honestly,
25:27
Speaker 1: I don't care why it happened at this point I'm
25:30
Speaker 1: glad it did, so we move on. We know that
25:34
Speaker 1: Gregory's black Kia Rio recovery back in January after his
25:40
Speaker 1: family saw on Carfax at somebody in Dallas had tried
25:44
Speaker 1: to take it in for an inspection. That was all
25:47
Speaker 1: the way back in January, yet he was still put
25:50
Speaker 1: left on the deserter list. Tell me about that, Kim
25:53
Speaker 1: Whittle about his black Kia Rio. How did you find
25:57
Speaker 1: it on Carfax? My middle son Nick, his wife and
26:02
Speaker 1: him are kind of crime junkie people, and so when
26:05
Speaker 1: she said she was going to pull it up on Carfax,
26:08
Speaker 1: I felt stupid because I hadn't thought of it. And
26:11
Speaker 1: she pulled it up and there it just there. It
26:13
Speaker 1: was black and white. It was in December, had been
26:17
Speaker 1: taken into a station in Dallas for an inspection. I called.
26:24
Speaker 1: I called Colleen Police and the CID. I didn't get
26:28
Speaker 1: anybody to call me back. I emailed a copy of
26:30
Speaker 1: the carfax report. I didn't get any answer with that.
26:35
Speaker 1: Another lady called Colleen Police and or not Colleen, I'm
26:40
Speaker 1: sorry CID and got a home number to one of
26:44
Speaker 1: the people and made them angry. So they finally called
26:47
Speaker 1: me back and said, oh yeah, We've had it since January?
26:51
Speaker 1: Why would you not tell me that? Yeah? Who who
26:54
Speaker 1: is it that took your son's car in for an
26:57
Speaker 1: inspection to sell it? I don't have any idea that
27:00
Speaker 1: I'm There has to be a video of whoever drove
27:04
Speaker 1: it in or told it in. There has to be
27:07
Speaker 1: somebody's name on a receipt somewhere. Well, whoever had he
27:11
Speaker 1: was last seen alive in his car, and that was
27:14
Speaker 1: around August nineteen. You spoke to him on August twenty,
27:16
Speaker 1: I think is the time scenario. And then suddenly that
27:20
Speaker 1: car he's last scene in is being taken in. Let's
27:24
Speaker 1: see that was August s set Timber October, November December,
27:26
Speaker 1: four months later to get an inspection to sell it.
27:29
Speaker 1: It pops up on Carfax and the mom and her
27:32
Speaker 1: son and daughter in law are the ones that have
27:33
Speaker 1: to find that. Joining me, renowned attorney defense lawyer Kirk Nurmi,
27:39
Speaker 1: who represented Jody Arius at trial, author of Trapped with
27:42
Speaker 1: Him as Arius on Amazon, Kirk, where do we start
27:47
Speaker 1: this investigation to find who murdered Gregory wheel Moralice. I'd
27:52
Speaker 1: start with the car, because whoever's taken the car? I
27:54
Speaker 1: mean when I see a car part. I don't suddenly
27:56
Speaker 1: go hey, I'm going to jacket and take it in
27:58
Speaker 1: for an inspection and sell it. Somebody knew that nobody's
28:02
Speaker 1: going to make a claim on that car. Who is
28:05
Speaker 1: that person? I'd start right there? What about you? Where
28:07
Speaker 1: do you start? Kerk Well, I think you're exactly right.
28:10
Speaker 1: I would say that there hasn't been even any investigation
28:14
Speaker 1: up to this point. You just pointed out the family
28:17
Speaker 1: had to find this correlation and it was ignored by authorities.
28:21
Speaker 1: My hope is the delay in those months didn't destroy
28:25
Speaker 1: any evidence of the car that could be found in
28:28
Speaker 1: the car. Because you're right, Nancy, how does someone just
28:30
Speaker 1: show up with this car? Is their videotape which the
28:34
Speaker 1: security footage has it already been erased and taped over?
28:39
Speaker 1: Are their fingerprints in the car? All those sort of
28:41
Speaker 1: issues need to be seized upon right away and for
28:45
Speaker 1: order there to be a valid of what I would
28:48
Speaker 1: call a real investigation. To this point, we haven't seen it.
28:51
Speaker 1: And it's a shame because Gregory and his family deserve better.
28:56
Speaker 1: I'll see you, Josie. How can I jump in? Yes, please, dude,
28:59
Speaker 1: and yes, you know behavioral evidence is so important Vanessa again,
29:03
Speaker 1: who also went missing, complained to her family that she
29:07
Speaker 1: was being harassed. Something happened on that base where somebody
29:12
Speaker 1: wanted Gregory Wheedle Morales gone, eradicated dead, whatever word we
29:19
Speaker 1: want to use. I know Vanessa complained to her mother,
29:22
Speaker 1: and I have a question for missus Wheedle, is did
29:26
Speaker 1: your son ever complain to you about any harassment on
29:30
Speaker 1: the base, somebody who had it in for him, unfair treatment,
29:35
Speaker 1: something that made him feel uncomfortable. Show he didn't complain
29:41
Speaker 1: about anybody on the base. He was unhappy overall, would
29:45
Speaker 1: be in in the military at this point. He was
29:47
Speaker 1: ready to get out and get on with his life,
29:49
Speaker 1: which it takes to me. It was so obvious this
29:52
Speaker 1: was not suicide. He had no complaint. Prime stories with
30:08
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. Guys, we're talking about Gregory wheel Morales. A
30:14
Speaker 1: twenty three year old young man is life ahead of him.
30:17
Speaker 1: His body is found in a shallow grave within a
30:20
Speaker 1: mile of the body the remains of twenty year old
30:23
Speaker 1: Vanessa gain private first class Fort Hood. Fort Hood stonewalled everybody,
30:29
Speaker 1: including us, in the search for Vanessa, and now a
30:33
Speaker 1: second body turns up. How can they not be connected?
30:37
Speaker 1: And take a listen to our friend Alex Gibbs KWTX.
30:41
Speaker 1: The discovery left a solemn feeling as complete strangers sympathize
30:45
Speaker 1: with the family. I am a service member and to
30:49
Speaker 1: just know one that it's about long for them to
30:51
Speaker 1: find a body, and just that literally the body is
30:54
Speaker 1: right there the whole time. So it was scary for
30:56
Speaker 1: these veterans. A feeling from Morris for the soldier and
31:01
Speaker 1: the son who died in a way that no one should.
31:05
Speaker 1: I'm glad for the parents and the family members of
31:08
Speaker 1: the soldier. I'm so glad for you to have some
31:11
Speaker 1: type of closure. I'm glad for you. I'm so sorry
31:14
Speaker 1: that it happened this way. Well, no flowers have actually
31:17
Speaker 1: been left out in the field. Many bystanders have been
31:19
Speaker 1: coming by all day to pay their respects. Army CID
31:22
Speaker 1: has not released an official statement, and there was those
31:26
Speaker 1: people that found more of Gregory's remains that authorities somehow missed.
31:33
Speaker 1: Now listen to Kate xx vs. Abby Lorene. Not only
31:38
Speaker 1: is the Weedel family having to deal with losing a
31:40
Speaker 1: loved one, but now they're having to seek help from
31:42
Speaker 1: Congressman John Carter to help fight and clear Gregory Morales's name.
31:46
Speaker 1: When Gregory Morales disappeared in August twenty nineteen, the US
31:50
Speaker 1: Army put down the reason for his disappearance is having
31:53
Speaker 1: gone a wall, and even after his remains were found
31:56
Speaker 1: in the field on June nineteenth, he is still listed
31:59
Speaker 1: as a dessert. Really frustrating and said because he said
32:04
Speaker 1: he gave his life and was willing to give his
32:06
Speaker 1: life for his country. He was deployed twice and they're
32:09
Speaker 1: just treating him like trash, like he just doesn't matter.
32:13
Speaker 1: The family is upset because now the RV is saying
32:15
Speaker 1: the family is responsible for the cost of bringing Morale's
32:18
Speaker 1: home and for the funeral costs. We can't do a
32:21
Speaker 1: military funeral because he's considered a civilian now and a
32:26
Speaker 1: criminal basically, so anything that we want to do we
32:30
Speaker 1: have to pay for ourselves. The life insurance, we don't
32:34
Speaker 1: get the life insurance, and we don't get to bury
32:36
Speaker 1: him with military honors that we wanted to next to
32:39
Speaker 1: his uncle and where his grandpa is a retired major,
32:42
Speaker 1: wants to be buried. Isn't it true to Kim Waitel,
32:46
Speaker 1: this is Gregory's mother that your son earned multiple military awards.
32:52
Speaker 1: He started in Kuwait and Korea. Yes, he received a
32:58
Speaker 1: lot of awards for from doing his job, for doing
33:01
Speaker 1: what he was supposed to do and being above and beyond.
33:04
Speaker 1: And like I said, they just they just threw him away.
33:10
Speaker 1: Where will your son be buried? He will be buried
33:16
Speaker 1: now at Fort Gibson National Cemetery and Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.
33:21
Speaker 1: Now that they've changed his status, we will have the
33:26
Speaker 1: funeral here in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, and then he will be
33:30
Speaker 1: transferred to Fort Gibson. Miss Wheedle, I'm so grateful you're
33:37
Speaker 1: with us today, and I know that everything has just
33:41
Speaker 1: spent a struggle for you, from the moment he went missing,
33:47
Speaker 1: begging the police, begging Fort Hood to look for him.
33:50
Speaker 1: You live in a different state, He's from Oklahoma. To
33:52
Speaker 1: start with, nobody would cooperate with you. You and your
33:56
Speaker 1: family have to find out his car has been put
33:59
Speaker 1: up for sell four months after he goes missing. Then
34:04
Speaker 1: his body is found happenstance because Vanessa again went missing.
34:10
Speaker 1: Then people had to come out to the scene laying
34:13
Speaker 1: flowers and they find his body parts looked over by authorities.
34:22
Speaker 1: Then the fight to get his name cleared. He didn't deserve.
34:26
Speaker 1: He was not a wall. He was murdered and buried
34:29
Speaker 1: in his shallow grave. It's just been nothing but hand
34:35
Speaker 1: to hand mutual combat for you, his mother. You know,
34:42
Speaker 1: at night, when you put your head to the pillow,
34:45
Speaker 1: does it even process? Gregory is gone? You'll never see
34:50
Speaker 1: your boy again? Oh my goodness? Not really. Um. I
35:04
Speaker 1: just keep sorry, UM, I just keep hoping he'll walk
35:14
Speaker 1: through the door, can I tell you, Walt, But up
35:22
Speaker 1: until June night, peace, I got to hope. And now
35:27
Speaker 1: that's God and the fight's super too much, you know,
35:34
Speaker 1: doctor Bethany, What is that? I mean? Sometimes I'll be
35:38
Speaker 1: driving along and I think, for an instant, I see
35:42
Speaker 1: my fiance that was murdered before our wedding. I think
35:45
Speaker 1: I see him in the car that passed where I
35:48
Speaker 1: remember a time fifteen years ago. It looked just like
35:54
Speaker 1: Keith passing me in a truck. And I have um
35:59
Speaker 1: dreams about my dad where he's just just beyond this gate,
36:06
Speaker 1: waiting for me to join him. He's and I guess
36:10
Speaker 1: in live, I still expect to see him. What is
36:15
Speaker 1: that about we humans? Nancy? Just because the person's body
36:22
Speaker 1: is gone doesn't mean that the attachment pieces to exist.
36:28
Speaker 1: Kim is still attached to her son. You're attached to
36:31
Speaker 1: your fiancee, to your father, to lost loved ones. We
36:36
Speaker 1: all are. Our brains want that person to be there,
36:40
Speaker 1: but most importantly, our hearts still love, and I think
36:45
Speaker 1: the heart communicates to the brain that that person is
36:48
Speaker 1: still here. I lost my mother a year ago, and
36:51
Speaker 1: I dream about her as if she's still alive. I
36:54
Speaker 1: dream that we're going on a vacation, and it's as
36:57
Speaker 1: if she's still here in my heart. I have a
37:01
Speaker 1: personal belief that our lives go on after we were gone,
37:06
Speaker 1: and that attachments continue for a reason. But I think
37:11
Speaker 1: for Kim Wheedle in particular, she has been subjected to
37:15
Speaker 1: something we call a complicated bereavement. There's actually a diagnosis
37:20
Speaker 1: for that in the field. It's when the circumstances surrounding
37:24
Speaker 1: a person's loss are so traumatic, so difficult, that the
37:29
Speaker 1: whole grieving process is delayed. And remember, the remains were
37:34
Speaker 1: just recently found, so the greeting process has just started.
37:38
Speaker 1: It's been unknown until now you know where he was,
37:42
Speaker 1: so there was still hope. But at this point Kim
37:45
Speaker 1: is right in the sick of the grieving, and I
37:48
Speaker 1: think it's important for her to know that that grieving
37:51
Speaker 1: has no timing, meaning it didn't necessarily start when her
37:56
Speaker 1: beloved Gregory went missing. It may have started when the
37:59
Speaker 1: remains were found, and so she needs to surround herself
38:03
Speaker 1: by love, people who understand, a Greece group, a place
38:07
Speaker 1: where she can process her feelings. Kim Wadel, Gregory's mother,
38:13
Speaker 1: Please know that many people, including my family, pray for
38:19
Speaker 1: you and Gregory in your family, for strength to get
38:24
Speaker 1: through what lays ahead for you, and for peace. At
38:31
Speaker 1: some point. What is your life like now, Kim? I mean,
38:36
Speaker 1: I can't imagine my life without my son or daughter.
38:40
Speaker 1: I just I don't feel I have any reason to
38:43
Speaker 1: keep living at this point. I have to keep fighting
38:49
Speaker 1: for him and make sure that he's not forgotten them
38:54
Speaker 1: all the other terrible things that are happening in Forthood.
39:00
Speaker 1: My day is stepped on social media, answering questions and
39:04
Speaker 1: talking to people, and I do try to help other
39:08
Speaker 1: people who are going through similar things. But She's right,
39:11
Speaker 1: it's it's like we've lost him twice. We lost him
39:16
Speaker 1: last year and then we lost him again in last month.
39:21
Speaker 1: I just you just have to get up each day
39:24
Speaker 1: and put one foot in front of the other and
39:27
Speaker 1: go on. There's a huge piece of our life missing,
39:32
Speaker 1: you know. That's what I always tell my twins. When
39:34
Speaker 1: you're overwhelmed and you don't know what to do, just
39:38
Speaker 1: take one step and then the other foot will follow.
39:44
Speaker 1: You'll see. You are in our prayers and our thoughts.
39:48
Speaker 1: Please know that, and we pray the Army does the
39:52
Speaker 1: right thing. Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off. This homicide
39:58
Speaker 1: is yet to be solved. Goodbye to h