I met my dream man at yoga class...but his wife 'BEHEADED' him when she found out

It was late summer 2024 when handsome former Green Beret Clint Bonnell started taking classes at Kelli Edwards’ yoga studio in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

They 'clicked' right away, quickly realizing how much they had in common.

Both were in their 50s. Both were coming out of long-term relationships. 

And both had undergone major changes in their lives - Edwards having quit her corporate career to become a yoga teacher several years ago, and Bonnell recently retiring from a 20-year military career to become a physician’s assistant.

A close friendship soon blossomed and sparks began to fly. 

‘I was coming out of a long-term relationship and he was coming out of a marriage,’ Edwards tells DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview.

‘We were friends at first - but then we just had a really strong connection.’

It wasn’t long before this friendship deepened into a passionate romance. 

‘It became romantic after a while as we just really liked each other and just clicked - it was like two puzzle pieces coming together,’ Edwards says.

‘It was a new relationship but it was very powerful and strong where you just meet someone and have that unison.

‘People in our presence said it was electric - and it was.’

But neither of them could have imagined that this 'electric' relationship would come crashing down in an appalling act of brutality and violence. 

On January 27 - months into their love affair and just hours after meeting with a divorce attorney - Bonnell vanished without a trace.

Four weeks later, his headless torso was found floating in a pond three miles from his home.

And the murder suspect is Bonnell's wife Shana Cloud, 50. 

According to investigators, the licensed nurse shot her 50-year-old husband multiple times, then chopped up his body and threw his dismembered remains in the water.

Only his torso has been found. The whereabouts of the rest of his body - including his head - is currently unknown.

Now, Bonnell’s distraught yoga teacher girlfriend is speaking out to share new details about his doomed marriage to Cloud and her own short-lived relationship with the former Green Beret - and revealing the ominous warning signs in the days leading up to his death.

Edwards says that Bonnell had been honest from the get-go that he was still married.

‘I knew he was married and that he was going through the process of a divorce - it was my choice to be friends with him and have a relationship with him,’ Edwards says.

He and Cloud had been together for around 16 years and he was a doting stepfather to her 19-year-old daughter.

The couple were both still living under the same roof in their $500,000, two-bed, two-bath rustic cabin set on a remote 15-acre property along Butler Nursery Road.

But, from what Bonnell told her, the couple’s marriage had actually been over for many years.

They had tried marriage counseling but it wasn’t enough - and the couple had for years spoken about getting a divorce and the process of dividing up their assets, she says.

By the fall of 2024, Cloud was rarely staying at the family home, she adds.

‘The divorce wasn’t a new idea,’ Edwards says, adding ‘but I think there must have been some denial and delusion.’

As Bonnell and Edwards’ relationship grew more serious, he told his wife in November that he had met someone else and that he ‘wanted to finalize their long-term discussions’ about divorcing, Edwards says.

‘She knew there was someone significant in his life. She did not know who I was until after Clint was gone,’ she says. ‘But she was trying really hard to find out.’

She adds: ‘You don’t think that that someone is going to harm you.’

But in the two months between that moment and Bonnell’s disappearance, Cloud’s behavior started to raise alarm bells, Edwards reveals.

While she could not provide details about what was going on - citing the active police investigation - Edwards says cryptically that ‘there was a lot in the last two months before his passing.’

There were also some mystery occurrences in the few days prior to his disappearance, which Cloud did not want to allude to. 

So much so that Bonnell actually brought forward a meeting with a divorce attorney by a day ‘because of the nature of the energy he was around,’ Edwards reveals.

But, despite the apparent warning signs, Bonnell didn’t fear Cloud would harm him, Edwards says.

The 50-year-old always saw the good in people, she says - something that may have cost him in the end.

‘I don't think he was fearful of anybody - he was a Green Beret,’ she says.

‘He saw the glass half-full all the time. He saw the best in everybody which is a great attribute.

‘But unfortunately he didn't see some things.’

On January 27, Bonnell met with the divorce lawyer.

Following the meeting, he visited Edwards at her yoga studio and told her about the meeting - before going home to the property he shared with Cloud.

That night, Bonnell texted Edwards telling her he had told Cloud about the meeting with the divorce lawyer.

He then sent a final text message to his girlfriend at 7.53pm saying he was going to bed and that he loved her.

That was the last time anyone ever heard from him.

At 8.15am the next morning, Bonnell’s cell phone stopped sharing location data, court records show.

Edwards sent a message to his phone around 20 minutes later - but it failed to deliver.

Edwards says it ‘was very unusual’ for Bonnell not to respond to her and to have his phone off and so she instantly had a gut feeling that something was wrong.

‘I was concerned based on the few days that led up to that Monday,’ she says.

‘I felt something that morning was off… I knew a lot of stuff had happened that Monday.’

But she also knew that Bonnell had a long day of lessons that Tuesday at Methodist University where he was studying.

So she tried not to worry and got on with her own busy day running her yoga studio. After all, they had plans that night so she would see him in a few hours.

‘That day was a long day and I waited and waited and waited,’ she says.

‘Then that evening, he never showed up.’

Bonnell had also never made it to his classes that day.

An employee at the school first reported him missing to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office that afternoon. Hours later, Edwards also reported him missing.

Cloud, meanwhile, did not.

According to search warrants executed at Bonnell’s vast property, Cloud told investigators that he had never come home the night before.

However, according to the court documents, this contradicted cell phone evidence in the case and the fact his vehicle was in the driveway.

Investigators also allegedly found Bonnell’s wallet, laptop and a backpack with a bullet hole in it and bullet fragments inside.

Finally, Cloud admitted that she had confronted her husband earlier that day at the Fit4Life Health Club about a note from his girlfriend - but continued to deny any involvement in his disappearance.

Edwards knows the note at issue.

She exclusively tells DailyMail.com it was not some sort of love letter but a simple, inspirational quote that had meant a lot to her.

‘Life begins at the end of your comfort zone,’ reads the famous Neale Donald Walsch's quote.

‘When I was transitioning out of my corporate career years ago, a friend gave me a card with it on - and I kept it for a long time to give to other people transitioning from one life to another,’ she explains.

‘He was leaving the military after 20 years to be a PA.’

Edwards adds: ‘It wasn't a love note. It was a quote from a poem.

Several searches were executed at the Bonnell home - and Cloud’s cell phone and car were seized.

But it would be several grueling weeks before his whereabouts would finally come to light.

‘It was horrible,’ Edwards says. ‘I showed up the best I could to be a mom and a business owner and a yoga teacher.

‘I can’t explain it. There’s just no words for not knowing where someone you care about is at. Not knowing if they’re alive or dead or injured or kidnapped.’

Then came a discovery that confirmed the worst fears of all who loved Bonnell.

On February 25, a man spotted human remains floating in a pond on Gainey Road - around three miles from his home.

Authorities responded to the scene and recovered a human torso.

More than a month would pass before - on March 28 - it was confirmed as belonging to Bonnell, using DNA on file in his military records.

A preliminary autopsy found that he had been shot twice in the back.

‘There are no words,’ Edwards says.

‘Killing someone is never acceptable but to dismember someone is so disrespectful.’

She adds: ‘I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.’

Cloud was charged with first-degree murder and concealment of death.

At her first court hearing Monday, she was denied bond.

Cloud now faces the death penalty if convicted.

For Edwards, it’s been ‘a really rocky eight week rollercoaster.’

Now, she is left thinking about Bonnell’s future plans that he will now never see through.

The 50-year-old was looking forward to his new career as a physician’s assistant.

He was also considering moving closer to his family in Austin, Texas.

And, they were both enjoying their relationship going from strength to strength.

‘He looked different. He had found a lot of happiness,’ she says.

‘He saw the best in everybody… he would walk into a room and talk to people. He was a butterfly.’

She adds: ‘He had a lot of life ahead of him so it’s so heartbreaking as I can’t understand how this could happen.’