The body of a woman with roots in Iowa has been found and North Carolina authorities have charged her estranged husband with her murder. Twenty-four-year-old Holley Lynn James Wimunc, an Army nurse at Fort Bragg whose family still lives in Dubuque, was reported missing last Thursday.
Her apartment in Fayetteville, North Carolina, was burned last Thursday. Her estranged husband, 23-year-old John Wimunc, is a Marine corporal stationed at Camp Lejeune. He was held on arson charges this weekend and charged with her murder on Monday.
The woman’s remains were found late Sunday in a shallow grave near Camp Lejeune. Authorities say a brush fire was set to try to cover up the crime. Holley Wimunc had filed for divorce and in May she obtained a restraining order after telling police her husband held a loaded gun to her head and choked her.
Her father, Jesse James, is dean of admissions at the University of Dubuque. The James family issued a statement, expressing "profound sadness" at the young woman’s "shocking" death.
Wimunc was a nurse in the maternity unit at an Army Medical Center. She leaves behind a son and daughter. She attended Dubquue Hempstead High School and earned a nursing degree from St. Ambrose University in Davenport.