Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Camp Lejeune, SC: Marine pleads guilty in Army wife's murder

Monday, September 13, 2010


FAYETTEVILLE (WTVD) -- A Camp Lejeune Marine has pleaded guilty to the 2008 murder of his Army nurse wife.

Camp Lejeune Marine Cpl. John Patrick Wimunc pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in his estranged wife's death on Monday, avoiding the death penalty. Officials have said the couple was in the process of divorcing.

Wimunc has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibilty of parole.

On July 13, 2008, fire fighters found 24-year-old 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc's remains when they responded to a brush fire in a wooded area near Camp Lejeune.

According to an autopsy report, the Army maternity ward nurse died from a gunshot wound to the head and her body was dismembered. The report also showed the Fort Bragg soldier had been burned then wrapped in an air mattress before she was found in a shallow grave.
Holley Wimunc was first reported missing when she didn't show up for work. Investigators then discovered her two bedroom apartment burned and a back window broken out, but her car was still in the parking lot.

Police later said Holley Wimunc was killed at her Fayetteville apartment. The mother of two was from Dubuque, Iowa.

Another Marine, Lance Cpl. Kyle Ryan Alden, 22, has been charged with assisting John Wimunc in destruction of evidence, burying a body and trying to throw investigators off by offering up a false alibi. An affidavit has said Alden admitted his involvement.

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