Investigators with the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and the Pennsylvania State Police have identified the man who shot and killed 34-year-old Richard Wesley Wheeler in September 1980, in Nockamixon Township.
Peter Eric Marschner, who changed his name after fleeing from authorities, shot Wheeler four times and hid his body on the wooded property off Center Hill Road, approximately a mile south of the intersection with Kintner Hill Road, in Nockamixon Township. Wheeler’s body was located on Sept. 18, 1980.
This investigation, pieced together by Bucks County Detective David Hanks and Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Christopher Cleveland, determined Marschner killed Wheeler under orders from another man, Leslie Schmidt, because Schmidt felt Wheeler mishandled a large sum of money Schmidt had entrusted Wheeler to manage.
Both Marschner and Schmidt have since passed away--Marschner in 2006 and Schmidt in 2022.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office considers this case solved due to the deaths of all the participants in the murder. Additionally, this office has consulted with the victim’s family, and they are grateful that this crime is now solved.