Elena Athens
Appearances
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
They had to obtain DNA and then create a DNA profile. That DNA profile was then sent to the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System, and it had to be compared to the DNA that was on file for Bonnell.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
And I will say as a reporter who pulls a lot of documents and spends quite a bit of time in a courthouse, when you're pulling an arrest affidavit and you see that the United States Army was now involved in this investigation and they were called upon to help with an identification, it just shows you the totality of the situation, right?
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
And how many resources are being pulled into figuring out what happened here.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, Cloud's bond was denied. She is in jail here in North Carolina. If you're charged with first-degree murder, you're not going to get bond. You will be held in jail. So if convicted, she was also warned by the judge, she faces the potential of capital punishment in this case. And we know that we have another court hearing coming up that's scheduled for mid-April, so not so far from now.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
So it will be interesting to see in that hearing what comes if the prosecution, if the Cumberland County's office has been able to uncover any more and will bring any more to the table once that hearing does get underway.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Thank you, Brad. Thanks for having me.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
They undertake some of the most sensitive missions. This is an elite force of the military. Green Berets are specially trained. So on the morning of January 28th, Bonnell did not show up for class. And that really was out of the ordinary for him, according to his sister, who spoke with our ABC station, WTVD.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Something is off. She's just a little girl. You think she's faking it? She has adult teeth? There are signs of puberty?
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
I don't know what's going on. How old are you? You should get a lawyer. You have no idea how those people hurt this girl.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Also, according to the program director at the Physician's Assistant Program, he was this dedicated, passionate student. So when he did not show up for class, university employees knew something was off, something was wrong. A concerned university employee had called the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and asked to do a welfare check.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
So when deputies got to his house, investigators say the car was there, as well as backpack, wallet, laptop, however. They say they could not find his cell phone. His wife, Shanna Cloud, was at home at the time. She allegedly told investigators she hadn't seen him since the day prior, so that's January 27th, and then he hadn't come home that night.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
She did not file a missing persons report at the time. In an interesting twist, Bonnell had a girlfriend, and that girlfriend also called to have deputies do a welfare check. And we actually did go out to their house where the search warrants were executed, where the welfare checks were done. I just wanted to kind of get an idea of what this house looked like.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
It's an extremely rural part of Cumberland County. You're gonna have nothing but trees and farmlands. And this was a part of that town. All wooded area. When we pulled up to the house, you couldn't get past this massive iron gate that's outside. And there's tall trees. If you looked hard enough, you could see the roof line, but it was very secluded, this home.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, it did change in a few days. January 30th, the case was reassigned to the homicide unit. At that point, detectives, they expanded the search for him into Virginia. So there are some connections to Virginia. Bonnell's wife, Shanna Cloud, owned property there.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
We also learned in court that she was a traveling nurse and had even done some work for the Virginia Department of Corrections as a traveling nurse. So detectives, they executed a search warrant on Cloud's vehicle. rental property, as well as cell phone. They did multiple searches.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
There were multiple warrants that were issued in Cumberland County, Virginia, to extract that information from clouds devices there so they could obtain digital data, cell phone records, video footage, etc., etc.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, this is where things take a turn, a gruesome turn at that, in February. So this is about a month after Bonnell was last seen. The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office received a call about human remains in a pond. So this is an extremely rural area of Cumberland County. And where this pond is located is only about three miles from Bonnell's house. And our station, WTVD, did obtain that call.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
So we learned in court at the first appearance, deputies were only able to find the torso. The body was dismembered because of the conditions of the remains, immediate identification. That took some work. It was not possible at the immediate moment. DNA was tested and eventually matched to Clint Bonnell.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
It was at this point that Shanna Cloud was charged with first-degree murder as well as concealment of death. Court records show she was denied bond.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, I have to say, Brad, I have never attended a first appearance like this before. First off, the Cumberland County Courthouse, it operates very much like a federal courthouse. You are basically stripped of any modern conveniences that you are used to. You cannot bring in your laptop. You cannot bring in your cell phone. It is very, very by the books.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
And that was the case at the Cumberland County Courthouse. And now you're in a position where I got to find a notebook and I have to do this old school style and shorthand what happens in court. The appearance itself was one of the longest I've ever attended for a first court appearance. These things typically are only five minutes long. They're very routine.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
You have the prosecution who's rolling through what the charges are. The judge is going to tell the defendant what the potential penalties are. And then you have the defense who's going to enter in a plea. This first court appearance went about 45 minutes long, and the prosecution really laid it all on the table. They went through the timeline of what they are planning to present in court.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
They also detailed some of the evidence that they plan to present once that trial does get underway. So it was rather long. And at one point, I even turned to another reporter who was in the courtroom, and I said, are we really at a first appearance right now? Because I was just so surprised and taken aback how much... was being put on the record at this first court appearance.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
And I also have to say the setup itself at this first court appearance was a bit different. It's an extremely small courtroom. You know, you think of typical courtrooms and there's just rows and rows and rows of benches. But in this courtroom, there was really only four. There was two on one side, two benches on the other. So on the right, you had all the media.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
with our notebooks because we can't take notes on our cell phone. And then on the left side, you had family members on both sides.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Sitting on the same side, which is not usual. Usually they're on opposite sides, right? So on the first row, the first bench, you had Bonnell's sister. Seated immediately next to her was Bonnell's girlfriend. And then behind them was Shanna Cloud's daughter, who, as I found from the arrest affidavit, living in Florida, we learned in court she was a college student.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
We also learned that Bonnell had raised Shanna Cloud's daughter since she was three years old. So this is also someone who, you know, knows everyone.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
very intertwined and sitting within inches of each other. And I kept looking over because I was seated closest to that side of the room. And, you know, everyone was really on the edge of their seat. You know, you had Bonnell's sister crying several times, being consoled. And then just behind her, you know, Shannon Cloud's daughter. So it was a very tense, very tense court appearance.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, investigators say they have video evidence of Cloud in the area where Bonnell's torso was recovered. According to the details from the first appearance that I went to in March, Bonnell went to a lawyer's office on January 27th to seek a divorce. Investigators believe Cloud shot and killed her husband the next day inside the couple's home.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Yeah, new court documents reveal that Bonnell and Cloud had met up at the Fit for Life Health Club on January 27. So that's, in terms of timeline, the day before he was reported missing. We learned in court that they both went their separate ways after meeting up at that fitness center. Cloud allegedly confronted him about a note she found on she believed, was from a romantic partner.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
The two left the gym, again, separate vehicles. Cloud reported to go to a local grocery store, pick up some items. He also saw his girlfriend that day and attended a study session at Methodist University.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
According to the prosecution, from that first court appearance, he had told the girlfriend. He made his wife aware that they were moving to separating.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
So Kelly told ABC News that Clint texted her the night before the disappearance. He was really exhausted that day. He had been kept up the night before. You could tell he had been through a lot. In court documents, Kelly said he was home, told his wife about the divorce, and was going to bed.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Court records indicate Bonnell arrived back home in the evening hours of January 27th, and his location data ended at 8.15 the following morning. So Kelly said she tried to, you know, send a message to Bonnell's phone around 8.30, maybe 8.35, but then, you know, got one of those messages on her phone. It didn't go through. The message was not delivered.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Yeah, I mean, that's what we heard in the first appearance of planning to present this. It shows that allegedly Clint Bonnell was home the night before the murders, which goes against what Shanna Cloud had allegedly told investigators. They still have not found his cell phone, but we know that this is not over, right? They're still investigating.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
There's still the prosecution, the state building this case.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, we did speak with her attorney right after the hearing. He was the first person to kind of come out and step up to our mics. His name is James McRae Jr., and he did make a very brief statement, and I have it in front of me. He says, I want you to know that Ms. Cloud is innocent and looks forward to her day in court.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
So the defense is preparing to go to trial, and he's standing on it that his client is innocent.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office made it clear to me that they are still actively investigating this case. That was something that the prosecution reiterated right after the first court appearance that I attended and spoke with him after the hearing was complete. We know the deputies, they are still searching, right? Because only the torso was found of Bonnell's body.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, it starts back in January. Clinton, Clint, that's how it goes by, Bonnell was in his second semester of physician's assistant school at Methodist University. That's in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Bonnell was a Green Beret. He had recently retired after 20 years of service. And remember, a Green Beret is a name for someone in the U.S. Army Special Forces.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
So arms, legs, head, that work is underway.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Well, I want to also give context. Fayetteville, this is a military town.
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The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
A lot of military families, a lot of people who are connected in some way, retired. The words Green Beret hold serious weight here. It's an elite unit of the army. They go through rigorous training physically and mentally. So, you know, he's highly trained and a little bit above the cut. Not that they all are not, but you have this extra oomph to you in the community.
20/20
The Crime Scene: Wife of Green Beret Charged with His Murder
Yeah, and also, along those lines, we know that the United States Army was instrumental in this investigation. The arrest affidavit that I pulled for Shanna Cloud says that due to the conditions for the remains that they found, right, just that torso, the North Carolina State Medical Examiner's Office could not make an initial identification. So they had to do several things.