Love Me or Else
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The investigation into the disappearance of Edward Fonder III remains open and unsolved. Mary Jane Fonder is considered the prime suspect in the case, and the only suspect that has been publicly identified by authorities. However, as the police cannot divert resources from active cases with suspects not already incarcerated, the pace of the investigation has been slow.
Mary Jane Fonder remains incarcerated, serving a life sentence at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy, Pennsylvania.
Rhonda Smith, 42, who was shot to death inside her Pennsylvania church on January 23, 2008. (Courtesy: the Smith family)
Rhonda Smith during a Christmas celebration at her parents’ house in Lower Saucon Township, Northampton County, Pennsylvania. (Courtesy: the Smith family)
Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Springfield Township, a rural area of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
The Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church office where Rhonda Smith was working when she was shot.
Pastor Gregory Shreaves had only been with Trinity Evangelical for three years before Rhonda Smith was murdered. (Courtesy: WFMZ-TV)
Dorothy and Jim Smith mourning the death of their daughter, Rhonda. (Courtesy: WFMZ-TV)
Jim Smith speaking to reporters about the death of his daughter, Rhonda. (Courtesy: WFMZ-TV)
Trooper Gregory Stumpo was the main investigator on the Rhonda Smith murder, his first homicide investigation. (Courtesy: Pennsylvania State Police)
Corporal Bob Egan, a 24-year police veteran, was called in to assist Trooper Gregory Stumpo with the case.
Mary Jane Fonder, 65, a long-time church congregant, was eventually arrested for Rhonda Smith’s murder. (Courtesy: WFMZ-TV)
Mary Jane Fonder as a young woman. (Courtesy: Rosalie Schnell)
Mary Jane Fonder playing with her dog at her childhood summer home in Springfield Township. (Courtesy: Rosalie Schnell)
Eight-year-old Garrett Sylsberry found the gun at this spot along Lake Nockamixon while fishing with his father, Doug.
Bucks County First Assistant District Attorney David Zellis personally handled the Fonder case.
Mary Jane Fonder hired defense attorney Michael Applebaum to handle her case.
Mary Jane Fonder’s murder trial was held in courtroom #1 of the Bucks County Courthouse.
Mary Jane Fonder being escorted to her murder trial at the Bucks County Courthouse. (Courtesy: WFMZ-TV)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are indebted to a great many people who have helped make our first book venture a rewarding and successful one.
First, we would like to thank everyone who took the time to be interviewed for this book, particularly Jim and Dorothy Smith for sharing memories of their beloved daughter Rhonda with us.
We are grateful to all of the editors and staff of The Express-Times, especially Eileen Holliday, Nick Falsone and Rudy Miller for assigning us to the stories, and Tom Quigley for his assistance with and interest in our project.
We very humbly thank writers Lou Michel, Michael Beebe and Chris Bohjalian for their advice on how to get started on the long road to getting published.
We are extremely grateful to our agent, Jake Elwell; to Yaniv Soha, Charles Spicer, April Osborn, David Stanford Burr and Jessica Preeg from St. Martin’s Paperbacks; and to attorney Ellis Levine for his legal review. You all took what was a completely foreign process to us and made it a very simple and enjoyable one.
Thanks also go out to Jaccii Farris and Brad Rinehart at WFMZ-TV for their assistance in providing us with photos for this book.
Big thanks to Sarah Wojcik, Donald Carpenter, Rick Olanoff, John Gebhardt and Art McEvoy for reading through the various stages of our manuscript. And a special thank you to Sandy Weber, who knew for years and years that this book was coming.
Lastly, we would like to thank everyone in our families for all their support and enthusiasm along the way.
The information presented in this book is based on a review of hundreds of court and police documents, as well as interviews with most of the key individuals involved, including Jim and Dorothy Smith, Gregory Stumpo, Robert Egan, David Zellis, Greg Shreaves, Judy Zellner, Sue Brunner, Kimberly Triol, Rosalie Schnell, Gregg Dietz, Paul Rose, Michael Applebaum, Thomas Joachim and Mary Jane Fonder, who spoke to the authors during a three-hour prison interview. In cases where individuals were not available for interviews, information was provided by court testimony or other legal documents.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
COLIN McEVOY and LYNN OLANOFF are reporters for the newspaper The Express-Times and the Web site lehigh valleylive.com, which are based in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. They covered the Rhonda Smith murder case extensively and it was during a jailhouse interview with them that Mary Jane Fonder first acknowledged that she believed she had committed the crime. Colin and Lynn have been married since 2008. Lynn is a graduate of Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and Colin graduated from East Stroudsburg University in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. They currently reside in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
LOVE ME OR ELSE
Copyright © 2012 by Colin McEvoy and Lynn Olanoff.
All rights reserved.
For information address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
www.stmartins.com
eISBN: 9781466801417
St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / March 2012
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.