On September 7, 1928, at about 1600 hours, while on patrol on the Tuxedo-Greenwood Lake Turnpike, Trooper Carl T. Wilder, then 25 years old, stopped a suspicious vehicle - possibly bootleggers, who were known to be operating in the area. Trooper Wilder had one of the occupants exit the vehicle and became engaged in an altercation, when another person came up behind Wilder and shot him once in the back just above the hip. As Trooper Wilder fell, he ripped the necktie off of the person he was struggling with. The Trooper was taken to the Tuxedo Hospital where he never regained consciousness and succumbed to his wounds at 1715 hours. His killer(s) were never apprehended.
A few years earlier, Wilder had been a member of the USMA’s West Point Band. After leaving the Army, he served for a short term with the Village of Suffern Police Department. He was appointed to the New York State Police in April 1927 and assigned to Troop K. Trooper Wilder married Inez Allen of Monroe on January 6, 1928. Inez, a nurse at the Goshen Hospital, died on April 27,1928, after less than four months of marriage. Trooper Wilder's death thus followed his wife's by slightly more than four months. Both are buried in Monroe.
Wilder was one of the first members of the newly formed New York State Police to die in the line of duty, and almost 1,000 State Troopers attended his funeral in Monroe. The West Point Band also came, out of respect for their former comrade. The funeral procession was led by Trooper Wilder’s riderless horse, Kingston.