Body of Official Targeted by Probe Believed Found

A body believed to be that of a Foreign Service officer who vanished in late August after he became the subject of a probe into mishandled Navy missile secrets has been found in Shenandoah National Park, authorities said Sunday.

James S. Schneider, 27, a former Navy lieutenant, apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, park officials said. The body was found Saturday by a hiker 3 1/2 miles from where Schneider’s rented sedan was found abandoned in a parking lot nearly eight weeks ago, the officials said.

Formal identification will be made by the Virginia medical examiner’s office. But officials said that a handgun belonging to Schneider and a handwritten suicide note were found with the body. Park officials declined to say what the suicide note said.

Schneider was a surface warfare officer on the guided missile cruiser Chancellorsville for three years. He was honorably discharged in June 1995 and sought a job at the CIA, sources said. He failed a routine polygraph test when he was asked whether he had any contact with or ever discussed classified data with foreign nationals while in the Navy, sources said.

A subsequent investigation focused on Schneider’s time aboard the Chancellorsville.

“His family believes something minor happened during his service career and he overreacted,” said Doug Kelley, the Schneider family’s attorney. “He was clearly not in trouble in any criminal sense.”