Dennis G. Cregan shot himself while surrounded by deputies in a parking lot in Volusia County.
By CHRIS TISCH
Published August 30, 2003
DUNEDIN - In a telephone conversation with his daughter, Dennis G. Cregan admitted he had done something that would land him in prison for life. He had no plans to come home.
Instead, he was eluding Pinellas sheriff's detectives who wanted to arrest him in the slaying of a former employee. Detectives knew Cregan was zig-zagging across South Florida in his pickup, and they suspected he might be heading to Canaveral National Seashore Park near New Smyrna Beach.
A park ranger there saw Cregan's Ford pickup Friday morning. He called Volusia County deputies, who pulled Cregan over in a parking lot. As a deputy ordered him out of the truck, Cregan put a gun to his head and fired, killing himself.
Family and friends of Patricia Wheeler, the Dunedin woman Cregan, 58, was suspected of killing, had mixed feelings about his death. Some thought it was an appropriate end, others wanted to see him prosecuted. All are seeking more answers that, perhaps, only Cregan could have provided.
"I wish I could have found out why, what his motivation was," said Wheeler's sister, Mary Collet.
While some accounts indicate Cregan might have killed Wheeler, 33, over a proposed business deal gone bad, some said Cregan, who is married, was obsessed with Wheeler.
Cregan had once employed Wheeler, whom friends called Tricia, at his nursery and offered her a part of the company. But Wheeler indicated to family members that Cregan stared at her chest, was controlling and asked personal questions.
Whatever the motive, detectives said Wheeler's killing appeared calculated. Cregan apparently came to Wheeler's apartment, 3075 Park Lane, after she got home from work Friday.
Detectives would later find pepper spray in Wheeler's eyes and on the door, indicating her attacker squirted it in her eyes in the doorway, said sheriff's Lt. Steve Shipman.
Detectives say Cregan then bound Wheeler's hands and feet with nylon handcuffs and took her into the bedroom. He put a gun to her head, authorities say, covered his hand with a pillow and fired one fatal shot.
There were no signs of sexual assault.
Wheeler missed dates she had made with friends on Friday night and Saturday. On Tuesday, two friends went to her home and called firefighters, who broke into the house and found Wheeler's body.
For Wheeler's family, her death echoed a previous tragedy. Her mother was shot to death in 1974 by her father, who then put the gun in his mouth and killed himself. The violence erupted after an argument in a St. Petersburg parking lot.
Wheeler was 4 years old. Her oldest sister, Annamarie Braden, who was 21 at the time, took her in, along with another sister and three brothers. She also had her own infant.
No one in the family talked about the murder-suicide much. Nobody told tiny Patricia. She told playmates that her mother had gone to dinner and never came back. She sometimes stood in the front window waiting for her to return.
"We were all young," Collet said. "We just tried to pretend it didn't happen."
At the age of 8, Patricia was adopted by family friends John and Sara Wheeler. "She was a sweet little girl. I think she wanted parents," Sara Wheeler said.
Wheeler rarely talked much about her parents' deaths. She seemed embarrassed by it, avoiding the subject when it came up in conversation. But she was close to her sisters, who shared a bond of tragedy and survival.
"We were very, very close," Collet said. "Our lives have been hard. We all shared that bond and all of us, we had to make our own way and pick up those pieces after that."
Wheeler carved out a good life. A lover of nature, she enjoyed photographing birds and camping in the woods. She also worked at nurseries, where she intersected a few years ago with Cregan.
Cregan at one time offered Wheeler the chance to own a part of his nursery and collect a percentage of the profits. Wheeler's family said she considered the offer, but turned it down and eventually left the business, which upset Cregan.
"He did not want her to quit working for him," Collet said. "He made her very uncomfortable. She said she didn't like the way he looked at her."
After Wheeler left, Cregan had to liquidate more than $200,000 in inventory he had ordered. He lost about $30,000. He blamed it on Wheeler.
"She loved the business and the whole bit but she just wanted to get away from him," Sara Wheeler said. "She said she thought he had a thing for her. He was very angry when she quit. He probably did blame her, but he could have continued on. All he had to do was hire somebody.
"I never realized it was so serious," she added. "I thought he was just blowing off steam."
Cregan, who had been living in Bushnell, disappeared sometime last week. His wife reported him missing to the Sumter County Sheriff's Office last Saturday, the day after Wheeler was killed, deputies said.
Cregan called family members and said he was not coming home. He told his daughter in New Jersey that he had done something that would put him in prison, Lt. Shipman said.
Using various techniques, deputies began tracking Cregan's movements to South Florida and alerted police there to be on the look-out for him. Then they learned he might be headed to the national park in Volusia County, Shipman said.
A park ranger saw the truck at 10:54 a.m. and called Volusia deputies, who swooped over the area with a helicopter to track him. Meanwhile, a deputy on the ground pulled Cregan over in a parking lot. He began to step out of his truck, then put the gun to his head, deputies said.
"We're all angry and we would have liked to have seen him held accountable for his actions," said Wheeler's oldest sister, Annamarie. "But in some respects it may bring closure quicker so we can heal our pain in our own way. It will prevent us from having to go through the court process and be exposed to it over and over. At least this way it is final. I just wish he had suffered as much as he made her suffer and as much as we are."
