Detectives honor homeless Vietnam veteran, Gary Dale Wilson

Detectives honor homeless Vietnam veteran who died alone in Riveria Beach woods


With no family to be found, they make sure Gary Dale Wilson's passing is noted.

By JASON SCHULTZ

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Gary Dale Wilson died alone in the woods in Riviera Beach sometime in May or June.

Nobody reported Wilson, a 61-year-old Vietnam veteran, missing for weeks. Even after police found his decomposed body in late July, they could not find any family members to claim him.


But on Tuesday two Riviera Beach police officers who helped find Wilson's body made sure that at the end, somebody was there to remember him.

"This guy served his country. Somebody should be there," said Detective Sgt. Patrick Galligan at the South Florida National Cemetery.

Wilson, who served as a private in the U.S. Army, was buried Tuesday at the military cemetery on State Road 7 just south of Lantana Road. Galligan and Detective Jeremy Summers were the only people who attended the ceremony, except for cemetery and funeral home employees, and a three-man Army honor guard.

Wilson, who was homeless, frequented the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Riviera Beach to pick up medicine for the throat cancer that eventually killed him. He also did odd jobs at St. George's Church and Community Center.

He was last seen alive in May after leaving the medical center.

Church officials reported him missing in July. Police found his decomposed remains on July 29 in what appeared to be his campsite in the woods south of Martin Luther King Boulevard, Summers said.

"He wouldn't take a handout. He worked around the church and accepted food, but he never accepted money, even for the work he put in," Summers said. "He just did it alone and didn't have many friends."
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Detectives honor homeless Vietnam veteran