Police in Bucks find body of Army captain sought in four deaths

Having killed four people in two states, wounded two police officers, and prompted a daylong manhunt amid the havoc of a hurricane, an Army captain from Virginia was found dead in a patch of Bucks County woods Sunday afternoon, apparently from shooting himself.

Authorities said they did not know what caused Leonard Egland, 37, of Fort Lee, Va., to kill his wife, mother-in-law, and two others before turning a handgun on himself.

His body was found at 3:40 p.m. in a wooded area near Almshouse and York Roads in Warwick Township. It was less than 100 yards from where police said Egland had fired at police almost 12 hours earlier, but the site had gone undetected for most of a tension-filled day.

The body's discovery ended a multistate drama that began in Virginia, played out in the winds and rain of Hurricane Irene, and ended with a coroner's van carting off a veteran soldier with a criminal-justice degree.

Egland had served multiple tours of duty in war zones overseas, Bucks County District Attorney David Heckler said, including Afghanistan. He is believed to have returned recently from his latest deployment.

Egland is suspected of killing his wife, Carrie - an Army veteran herself - Saturday at her home in Chesterfield County, Va. Also killed was a male acquaintance of hers and the man's 8-year-old son, whom police have yet to identify.

Police believe Egland then drove with his young daughter, Lauryn, to Buckingham Township. There, authorities say, he broke into the home of his mother-in-law about 9 p.m. Saturday and shot her to death as she sat in her easy chair.

The victim, 66-year-old Barbara Ruehl of Church School Road, was killed after the glass of her front door was broken and the door's dead bolt unlatched, Heckler said.

Within two hours of Ruehl's slaying, Leonard Egland and his daughter went to St. Luke's Hospital in Quakertown. Heckler said Egland left his daughter there with what amounted to a suicide note.

"Presumably he had grabbed his daughter from his wife when he killed her," Heckler said. At the hospital, "he asks to have her looked at, leaves a note, and starts walking out."

The girl is said to have told hospital workers that "Grandmom went to heaven."

A hospital employee tried to prevent Egland from leaving, Heckler said, but backed off when Egland drew a handgun.

The hospital worker called police, who followed Egland's black Dodge pickup truck toward Doylestown on Route 313. About midnight, Egland stopped and exchanged gunfire with officers who were chasing him. One bullet wounded Doylestown Officer Ed Hilton in a hand, Heckler said, and a state trooper was hit by flying glass when a bullet shattered his cruiser's windshield.

More than three hours later, police found Egland's truck outside a pizzeria near the southwest corner of Almshouse and York.

As officers crept toward the vehicle in the rainy predawn darkness, police said, Egland hid behind a Dumpster on the northwest corner. He fired one errant shot before fleeing, followed by a somewhat muffled second shot shortly afterward.

Police believed Egland had run off, and warned residents to lock their doors and stay inside. Suspected sightings of Egland throughout the day alternately intrigued and terrorized people living nearby, many without power from Hurricane Irene.

Police also feared that Egland might target other area members of his wife's extended family, and took steps to guard them.

After a day of searching, police doubled back and found the body.

Hilton, the wounded officer, was recovering at home Sunday afternoon, Mayor Libby White said.

"We're very relieved about that," she said.

Egland, a Los Angeles native, joined the military in 1993, according to a 2008 story in a publication of St. Leo University. Carrie Egland enlisted in 1995, and the couple married in 1997 after meeting at a base in California, the article said.

The couple moved to Fort Lee in 2002, and began working on college degrees through a fort-based extension of St. Leo's. which is based in Florida.

Leonard Egland completed a degree in criminal justice in December 2007, the article said. Carrie Egland left the Army after serving 10 years and was working as a logistics analyst for a defense contractor in Richmond.

"As the proud parents of 2-year-old Lauryn, both Leonard and Carrie want to model for their daughter the importance they place on education and on what Leonard calls 'exceeding the norm,' " the 2008 article said.

Doylestown resident Bill Bishop, a lifelong friend of Ruehl and her late husband, said Sunday he had met Leonard Egland several times at social gatherings. He and Carrie Egland seemed to be an attractive and happy couple, Bishop recalled.

"He came up here to visit, and they would have picnics there at the house, because it was a big celebration when he could get off duty and she was off duty," Bishop said. Egland "was always very well-mannered, very handsome. He had that military bearing, and so did Carrie. She was extremely beautiful, and so was their child.

"Everything seemed fine," Bishop said. "Looks are deceiving."