Police: Soldier killed wife and hid her body in garage
OLYMPIA, Wash. - A Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier is under arrest after he confessed to killing his wife and hiding her body in their garage for a month, Thurston County authorities said.
Sgt. Sheldon T. Plummer was taken into custody Friday morning and booked into jail for investigation of second-degree murder, said Thurston County sheriff's detective Lt. Chris Mealy.
A search warrant was executed shortly afterward at the couple's home, in the 9200 block of Skokomish Way NE, and the wife's body was found inside a cargo crate in the garage, officials said.
Mealy said an investigation was launched earlier this week after a friend of the soldier came to police and reported a suspicious conversation he had with Sgt. Plummer about his 27-year-old wife, who had been missing for about a month.
"Basically the conversation centered on how you would dispose of a body," Mealy told KOMO News Radio. "The friend felt this was suspicious, inasmuch as he knew the suspect's wife had been gone from the residence for about a month."
Meanwhile, the wife's car remained in the driveway, and no one had heard from her or seen her since the day of her disappearance, Mealy said.
Police opened a missing-person investigation and questioned Plummer, who said his wife had left voluntarily.
"We talked with the suspect in the middle of the week, we got some more information, we checked that story out ... it became more and more suspicious, as his story didn't make any sense or could not be verified," Mealy said.
Detectives interviewed the soldier at his home again for several hours on Thursday, but he denied any wrongdoing. Plummer then was told that a search warrant would be executed at his home the next day.
On Friday morning he came to the Thurston County Sheriff's Office and confessed to killing his wife, Mealy said.
"He talked to a detective and confessed to murdering his wife," Mealy said. "He indicated we would find her in the garage, and we did."
Mealy said he believes Plummer confessed because "he probably figured we were going to find the body of his wife anyway."
The soldier and his wife have a 2-year-old child.
Neighbors were stunned when they heard the news of the arrest.
One, Ron Easterday, said he had talked with Plummer several times and he seemed like "such a neat guy."
A Lewis-McChord spokesperson said Plummer was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 51st Signal Battalion, and had been deployed to Iraq three times.
Plummer has been assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord since August 2004. He is trained as a multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer and has worked for the past three years in his battalion as a senior system information non-commissioned officer.
While assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Plummer deployed to Iraq with his unit from Nov. 21, 2005, to Nov. 20, 2006 and again from Aug. 28, 2008, to Aug. 23, 2009. He had also previously deployed to Iraq while assigned in Germany, for a total of three deployments.
Sgt. Sheldon T. Plummer was taken into custody Friday morning and booked into jail for investigation of second-degree murder, said Thurston County sheriff's detective Lt. Chris Mealy.
A search warrant was executed shortly afterward at the couple's home, in the 9200 block of Skokomish Way NE, and the wife's body was found inside a cargo crate in the garage, officials said.
Mealy said an investigation was launched earlier this week after a friend of the soldier came to police and reported a suspicious conversation he had with Sgt. Plummer about his 27-year-old wife, who had been missing for about a month.
"Basically the conversation centered on how you would dispose of a body," Mealy told KOMO News Radio. "The friend felt this was suspicious, inasmuch as he knew the suspect's wife had been gone from the residence for about a month."
Meanwhile, the wife's car remained in the driveway, and no one had heard from her or seen her since the day of her disappearance, Mealy said.
Police opened a missing-person investigation and questioned Plummer, who said his wife had left voluntarily.
"We talked with the suspect in the middle of the week, we got some more information, we checked that story out ... it became more and more suspicious, as his story didn't make any sense or could not be verified," Mealy said.
Detectives interviewed the soldier at his home again for several hours on Thursday, but he denied any wrongdoing. Plummer then was told that a search warrant would be executed at his home the next day.
On Friday morning he came to the Thurston County Sheriff's Office and confessed to killing his wife, Mealy said.
"He talked to a detective and confessed to murdering his wife," Mealy said. "He indicated we would find her in the garage, and we did."
Mealy said he believes Plummer confessed because "he probably figured we were going to find the body of his wife anyway."
The soldier and his wife have a 2-year-old child.
Neighbors were stunned when they heard the news of the arrest.
One, Ron Easterday, said he had talked with Plummer several times and he seemed like "such a neat guy."
A Lewis-McChord spokesperson said Plummer was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 51st Signal Battalion, and had been deployed to Iraq three times.
Plummer has been assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord since August 2004. He is trained as a multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer and has worked for the past three years in his battalion as a senior system information non-commissioned officer.
While assigned to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Plummer deployed to Iraq with his unit from Nov. 21, 2005, to Nov. 20, 2006 and again from Aug. 28, 2008, to Aug. 23, 2009. He had also previously deployed to Iraq while assigned in Germany, for a total of three deployments.
