The wife of a recently retired Green Beret who disappeared in late January is accused of killing and dismembering him after he told her he wanted a divorce, authorities in North Carolina said.
Shana Cloud, 50, was denied bond Monday after she was charged with first-degree murder and concealment of death in the killing of Clinton Bonnell, 50, court records show.
Bonnell’s remains were discovered in a body of water in a rural area southeast of Fayetteville in February, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. DNA testing confirmed the remains were those of Bonnell last week, according to the statement.
Citing Cumberland County District Attorney Billy West, NBC affiliate WRAL of Raleigh reported that the remains were a dismembered human torso.
West said authorities gathered digital and video evidence alleged to link Cloud to the area where the torso was found, the station reported.
Cloud’s attorney, James McRae Jr., told reporters that she is innocent and looks forward to her day in court.
Bonnell retired from the military in December after more than two decades.
He was attending a physician assistant program at a local university when an official with the school reported him missing shortly before 3 p.m. Jan. 28, according to an affidavit in support of a search warrant.
When deputies spoke with Cloud, she said she’d last seen him the day before at a gym in Fayetteville, according to the affidavit. She said that they’d left in separate vehicles, the affidavit says, and that he’d planned to go to the university campus to study for a test the following day.
When Cloud awoke the next morning, she told deputies, Bonnell’s vehicle was at their home, but she was unable to find him, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit notes that she declined to file a missing persons report.
Bonnell’s girlfriend — who filed a missing persons report hours after the school official — told deputies that Bonnell talked to a lawyer about divorcing Cloud on Jan. 27, the day before he disappeared, according to the warrant.
She last heard from him that night, when he sent a text telling her that he was home and that he’d told his wife he wanted a divorce, the affidavit says.
