Dateline: Missing in America - Who was Clinton Bonnell and what happened to him? Disturbing details of the missing case  

Dateline: Missing in America, a short podcast series by NBC's Dateline, covered the harrowing case of Clinton Bonnell, a Texas native who disappeared on January 27, 2025.

Bonnell was a retired Green Beret who lived with his wife, Shana Cloud, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was also taking a medicine course at the University. On the morning of January 28, 2025, he failed to show up to class, and his peers contacted his wife, raising alarms. Cloud reported her husband missing to the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

After weeks of investigation, the police finally found his dismembered body in a water body close to home on February 25, 2025. His wife was arrested for first-degree murder and concealment of death on March 28, 2025.

Find out more on Bonnell's disappearance in Dateline: Missing in America in our story.

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Dateline: Missing in America- Who was Clinton Bonnell?

As told by Stephanie Firkins (Bonnell's sister) to Dateline, Clinton Bonnell was a Green Beret. After working in Motorola for some years, the Texas native finally found his goal in life and joined the military following 9/11.

He climbed the military ranks and even became a spokesperson for the Gold Star Families, but the 50-year-old Green Beret finally decided to retire.

In December 2024, a month before his eventual disappearance, Bonnell retired from the Military and lived on Butler Nursery Road with his wife, Shana Cloud. After retirement, Bonnell decided to pursue his interest in medicine academically and thus joined Methodist University's physician assistant program.

In a statement via NBC News, Firkins noted:

“He was a Green Beret medic so he wanted to pursue medicine. He worked really hard to get into this PA school program at Methodist College in Fayetteville. He was completely enamored with medicine and excited about his career path.''

Talking with The Fayetteville Observer, Firkins also reminisced on how she met with her brother weeks before his disappearance:

“He came and stayed with me for a week and I’m super thankful that I got to see him then and he was in amazingly great spirits. Super excited for his PA program''

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Dateline: Missing in America- Details about the Green Beret's disappearance

According to Firkins, Bonnell's last known location was the Fit4Life gym on Owen Drive around 3 p.m., after which he was to visit his University for study. Bonnell's family and friends were unable to contact him since January 28, 2025, after which his mobile phone was switched off.

The concern for Bonnell arose after his classmates noticed his absence from one of their lectures, which was unusual for the Army veteran. Talking about the alarm it caused among his peers, Firkins noted (via NBC News):

“If you don’t show up to class and you don’t call to say that you’re sick or whatever, you can get kicked out of the program after one or two absences. It’s my understanding that his advisers were made aware of this and when they repeatedly called his phone and could not get through to him is whenever they called for a welfare check.”

On January 29, Firkins received a message from Cloud asking whether she had spoken to or seen her brother since last night, which raised her alarm.

The police finally found his dismembered body on February 25, 2025, in a water body around three miles from his house. Cloud's court trial and her eventual sentence will finally close the case.

Also Read: Dateline: Murder in Kitchen One - Who was Dan Brophy, and what happened to him?

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