PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After more than 40 years, detectives in Bucks County have identified the man who shot and killed 34-year-old Richard Wheeler in 1980.
“Although leads may go cold, it is so important for both the community protection, as well as these families, to be able to have a solution at the end of the day that they don't just disappear,” said Bucks County Deputy District Attorney Megan Hunsicker.
Sometime between Sept. 8 and 18th in 1980, authorities say Peter Marschner shot Wheeler, a West Coast marijuana dealer, four times then hid his body. Wheeler’s body was found about a mile south of the intersection with Kintner Hill Road in Nockamixon Township on Sept. 18.
Investigators say Marschner met Wheeler and Leslie Schmidt, a Bucks County meth dealer, while in federal prison in Connecticut, where Hunsicker says they came up with a plan to move to Bucks County after their release and create a meth lab where “they'd be able to conduct the operation more or less, back then, more undetected.”
Wheeler was the first of the three to be released from jail in November 1979. That’s when Schmidt gave Wheeler $250,000 to set up operations and take care of Schmidt’s family while he was still in prison.
Marschner, nicknamed “The Captain” because he stole yachts in the Caribbean, was supposed to be deported back to Germany after his release from prison in 1980, but after his flight was canceled, he escaped from JFK International Airport.
Wheeler had started work at the lab and eventually both he and Marschner reconnected – Marschner even became Wheeler’s personal driver and bodyguard.
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Authorities say the two had a falling out about their “business venture,” leading to Marschner telling Schmidt Wheeler wasn’t handling the money how he was supposed to – using it for himself instead of Schmidt’s family. That’s when Schmidt ordered Marschner to kill Wheeler.
After killing Wheeler, investigators say Marschner moved to New Jersey, became “Charles McLaren,” raised a family and started a limousine company in New York City. Marschner died in 2006 – Schmidt died last year.
Hunsicker says Marschner’s family was “astonished – stunned, actually,” adding that they didn't know him as “Peter Marschner.”
Hunsicker says Wheeler’s family was relieved to finally have closure.