Iraq War veteran denied burial in national cemetery after murder-suicide

(York) — A request from the family of an Iraq War veteran accused of shooting his ex-girlfriend and then killing himself outside a bar in the Dillsburg area for him to be buried in a national cemetery has been denied.

“It’s a very tiny, tiny, tiny occurrence that, unfortunately, it does happen now and again,” said Michael Nacincik, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ National Cemetery Administration. “We have to follow the law, and that’s what we did in this case.”

On July 2, Arthur Guise, 31, of Dillsburg, walked into Flapjack’s Restaurant and Pub, and, without saying a word, shot and killed Sharon Williams, 33, of Mount Holly Springs, before killing himself, the York County Coroner’s Office has said. Both died at the bar, which is off Route 15 in Carroll Township.

Under federal law, Nacincik said, veterans who commit a capital crime are barred from being buried in a national cemetery. Though he did not have exact numbers for denials, Nacincik said the administration handles the burials of 125,000 veterans per year.

Lenard Guise, the father of Arthur Guise, 31, who was in the U.S. Army Reserve and served two tours of duty in Iraq, said his son requested that he be buried at places including Indiantown Gap National Cemetery. Now, Lenard Guise said, new arrangements have been made.

“We applied, and they turned us down,” Lenard Guise said. “It’s just that.”

The investigation

About one month after the murder-suicide, police say the motive for the crime remains unclear.

“Nothing really jumps out at me,” said Sgt. David Smith of the Carroll Township Police Department, the lead investigator in the case. “We’re just trying to figure out what the triggering thing was.”

Though it’s unclear why Arthur Guise killed Williams, Smith said he believes there was “some jealousy.” That night, a man Smith described as an “acquaintance” of his ex-girlfriend was with her at the bar.

Before the crime, Smith said that Arthur Guise had made “contact” with Williams as well.

During the past weekend, police finished up interviewing all of the “numerous” witnesses in the case, Smith said. Police have also determined that Arthur Guise was the only one involved in the killing, and there’s no time frame for when the investigation might be completed.

On the day after the killing, police executed a search warrant at Arthur Guise’s home, on Ore Bank Road near Logan Road in Carroll Township.

They recovered items including two magazines of .40-caliber ammunition, as well as an LG cellphone and a Sony Vio laptop. That’s standard procedure in these kinds of cases, Smith said, as everyone texts and uses social media websites.

Contact Dylan Segelbaum at 771-2102.

Also of interest

gPub reopens after murder-suicide ‘to support each other’ in Carroll Township

Patrons stunned by murder-suicide near Dillsburg

Murder-suicide at Dillsburg-area bar still a mystery to police

Family of Dillsburg murder victim seeking financial help

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This article comes to us through a partnership between York Daily Record and WITF.