By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-04-02 23:32:23 | Updated at 2025-04-03 19:38:24
20 hours ago
The girlfriend of the slain Green Beret whose mutilated body was found earlier this year said she is still reeling after recently learning that his estranged wife was arrested and charged for his murder.
Kelli Edwards — who was dating father-of-one Clinton “Clint” Bonnell, 50 — said she was shocked to learn that police had charged Shana Cloud, 50, for his murder after the soldier allegedly pushed for the couple to finally get divorced.
“This is a Green Beret who was a patriot to the Corps, who served for our country, who helped his fellow teammates with all their injuries, who deployed on teams, who went all around the world and he comes home and retires in three weeks and this is what happens?! This is not okay,” Edwards told ABC News on Wednesday.
Edwards said she met Bonnell, of North Carolina, a couple of years after he began living separately from his wife and speaking with divorce attorneys.
The mourning girlfriend said she could tell how much strain his complicated marriage was causing him. He was committed to their new relationship but was also trying to be there for his daughter, whom he shared with Cloud, she said.
“He didn’t really talk much about his wife in the beginning. I just knew more about his daughter, how much he loved his daughter and all the things that you know she’d brought to his life,” Edwards said.
She last spoke to her boyfriend via text on Jan. 27, with the Green Beret vanishing the following day.
Bonnell retired in December after 20 years in the military and was studying to become a physician assistant. He was reported missing on Jan. 28 when an employee at Methodist University in Fayetteville requested a welfare check when he failed to show up to class, police said.
Deputies located Bonnell’s car, book bag and other personal belongings at his house, where Cloud told authorities she last saw her husband the day before.
Nearly a month later, on Feb. 25, police were alerted to a body missing arms and legs floating in a pond on Gainey Road, just three miles from his home, according to deputies.
A DNA analysis completed last Friday confirmed the remains were Bonnell’s, with prosecutors alleging that Cloud was seen on video near the location where the body was found, WTVD reported.
Cloud was arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree murder and felony concealing an unnatural death.
“Mr. Bonnell told his girlfriend that he had let the defendant know about the divorce and his plans the night before,” Cumberland County District Attorney William West said. “We believe he was killed the following morning.”
Prosecutors say Bonnell was shot multiple times, with bullet holes in his book bag and laptop uncovered in the couple’s home.
“We as a community have been devastated,” Edwards told ABC after learning the details. “How do you comprehend something like this? There’s really no comprehension.”
She said that she wanted people to remember the good Bonnell had done and the impact he left on the people he met before his tragic death.
“He was a very, just a jovial, happy human and he was really looking forward to his next part of his life, closing a chapter, coming out of the Army after 20 years, being in PA school — he was looking forward to the next chapter,” Edwards added.
Cloud is being held without bond at the Cumberland County Detention Center. She has denied the allegations through her attorney.
The Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment further on the case “out of respect” for Bonnell.
