Husband charged in murder of St. Ambrose graduate stationed at Fort Bragg

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By The Associated Press | Monday, July 14, 2008 |

Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Buy this Photo

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.— The husband of an Army nurse who worked in the maternity ward at Fort Bragg’s hospital was charged Monday with murder in her death, a day after her body was discovered by authorities.

Marine Cpl. John Wimunc, 23, was also charged with first-degree arson and conspiracy to commit arson in the death of his wife, Army 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc, of Dubuque, Iowa. Her body was found Sunday, three days after a suspicious fire at her Fayetteville apartment.

Holley Wimunc received her nursing degree from St. Ambrose University in Davenport in 2007. Dolores Hilden, chair of the Department of Nursing at St. Ambrose, described her as a good student, who was forthright and outgoing during her time at the college. She transferred to the school after taking classes at Scott Community College, Hilden said.

In May, Wimunc secured a temporary restraining order against her husband. She told authorities he got drunk and held a loaded handgun to her head and his. At the time of her death, the couple was going through a divorce.

“You start with people who are closest to the spouse and you work your way out from that,” Fayetteville Detective Jeff Locklear said of the investigation.

Authorities also charged Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Alden, 22, with first-degree arson, conspiracy to commit arson and accessory after the fact to first-degree murder. Both were arrested at Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps base about 130 miles southeast of Fayetteville where they are stationed as combat engineers.

Wimunc’s body was found in a wooded area near the southern border of Camp Lejeune late Sunday afternoon, not far from Alden’s residence. The body had been there several days, and there is evidence she was dead upon arrival, said Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson, who wouldn’t elaborate. The men were arrested late Sunday night after police interviewed Alden.

Both men are being held without bond in the Cumberland County jail and are scheduled to appear in court today. It wasn’t immediately clear if they had attorneys. John Wimunc’s father declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press, but Alden’s mother said her son’s only involvement was giving a friend a ride to Fayetteville.

“He had no idea what was going on. He didn’t do this,” Connie Johnson said in a phone interview from her home in Pequot Lakes, Minn.

Fayetteville police began searching for Wimunc when she didn’t show up for work Thursday. Co-workers could not find her at her apartment but smelled what they suspected was a fire and called police. Once inside, investigators found evidence of arson.

Sgt. Chris Corcione said Monday that investigators found several points where the fire was started, but the blaze was concentrated in the apartment’s rear bedroom. While the interior walls of the burned room were black with soot, Corcione said, the fire burned itself out and left behind useable evidence.

Holley Wimunc, 24, was commissioned by the Army Nurse Corps in 2007. Her first duty assignment was at Fort Bragg, where she worked in the mother and baby unit at Womack Army Medical Center.

Corcione said Wimunc was last seen alive the night of July 8, when she went out with friends and used her ATM card. Police believe she was dead when she was taken out of the apartment, but they are not yet sure when her body was taken to Onslow County.

Hudson said an attempt to burn the body set off a brush fire that drew the attention of authorities, and the body was located by Division of Forest Resources personnel. He said detectives likely would never have found her body had it been burned in a brush-free area about 100 feet away.

“It seems that someone tried to torch the body in the shallow grave,” Hudson said.

Maj. Cliff W. Gilmore, a spokesman with the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, said both suspects are assigned to the division’s 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion. John Wimunc has served two tours in Iraq, including one that ended in January. Alden’s mother said he went to Iraq in 2006.

Holley Wimunc’s father in Dubuque, Jesse James, said his daughter was excited about nursing and her career in the U.S. Army. She also had a son and daughter.

She enrolled at St. Ambrose in the fall of 2003 and graduated in the spring of 2007. She completed her four years there with a grade point average higher than 3.0, said Hilden, of St. Ambrose.

“She was a good student,” Hilden said. “I don’t think she had a lot of time for leadership. She had a few children. Between the hours they have to put in to earn good grades and working part-time and their children — that takes up most of their time.”

John Wimunc was not the father of Holley Wimunc’s two children, and they were not in Fayetteville when the fire was reported. She had sent them to live with her father because of “the domestic situation,” Corcione said.

(Sheena Dooley of the Times contributed to this report.)